Schools and Organized Religion

Forcing your religion on other people isn't productive

When I was a kid, our family moved to Canada from the United States.

I attended school in the United States, from nursery school to kindergarten. I still remember pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

When we moved to Canada, and I entered grade one, our morning opening ceremonies included singing Oh Canada and possibly God Save the Queen (not the Sex Pistols version). We said the Lord’s Prayer, and there was a daily bible reading. We’d sing a hymn or two, which I enjoyed since I love to sing. Sometimes, the Bible reading was longer than a quick peek at a proverb. Sometimes, it became a whole class, like the Garden of Eden or the Flight Into Egypt, etc. On those longer days, they’d pick students to read from the book out loud. I often volunteered as I liked to read and I liked to read out loud to the class. But I thought all of those bible stories were a bunch of fairy tales.

We also put on our Golden Rules Gloves every day. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I still think THAT particular idea is a great one for little kids.

When I was around grade three, I had determined on my own that organized religion was a scam. Well, I didn’t trust the Christian/Protestant/Catholic ways. There were several inciting incidents, most of which I can’t recall.

I hated Sunday school. My parents dutifully took me and my brother on Sundays. I hated the way they talked down to us and thought we were idiots. (I was a precocious kid who could read and write before I hit kindergarten, likely because my parents were teachers). The last straw was when we had to draw pictures of what the Easter Bunny would bring us for Easter. I asked what does the Easter bunny have to do with Jesus and Sunday school etc.? The teacher had no answer.

I told my parents that I wasn’t going to Sunday school anymore. I wanted to try the Big People Church. We did that a couple of times, and I determined that everyone was full of crap and liars. I told the parents I didn’t want anything to do with the church either.

They were RELIEVED! They hated the hypocrisy of the church and religion, too. My dad was a humanist; I think he embraced that a bit later in life. He went to meetings in his later years, and I believe wrote an article or two.

Dad’s suspicions of The Church stemmed from being forced to be separated from his parents and his siblings his entire life because of Franco and the Catholics. So he had good reason. He was sent on a boat from Spain to the States as a little kid for a “good life” with one brother while the rest of the family fled to France. He didn’t see them all again until I was five. And the little brother was lost to everyone in the foster home system into late adulthood until around five years before little brother died, in the 90s. I think from alcoholism. I never met him.

Dad also enjoyed occult ideas; we’d talk about such things in his very later years after mom had Alzheimer’s, and we had nearly daily conversations. He was fascinated by my tarot reading gigs, likely like me, not too sure about any of it, and said he’d come visit me after he’s dead if he can, though we had no idea he’d die so shockingly suddenly and soon. I truly believe he visits me. Some things happen…but that’s another story.

To this day, I have no idea what Mom’s true beliefs are. She grew up playing organ in the churches, even into University. I don’t know if she liked the part-time job, the music, or if she really believed church stuff. It was a performance, after all, and she was a concert pianist and piano teacher. She always did what dad did and liked what dad liked. She goes to church at the nursing home and sings the hymns, but I have no idea if it’s the music, the social aspect, or if she believes in god or what her deal is, and of course, she can’t tell me.

So, around grade three, I began my exploration of other religions.

I went to a friend’s Lutheran church Sunday school one Sunday and got into an argument with the teacher, of course. The teacher said god forgives everyone. I asked, “What if someone decides to go murder someone, and they murder someone? Would God let them into Heaven?”

“Of course.”

I was stunned. “But, it wasn’t an accident. He decided to kill someone on purpose, and that person is dead. But the murderer gets to go to Heaven?”

“Of course. God forgives everyone.”

“So, anyone can murder anyone, and they’ll still go to heaven?”

“Yes.”

So again, I was disillusioned by the bullshit of organized religion. I was too young to understand gaslighting and cults and all of that. I’d spend the rest of my life studying all the religions, trying a few, reading, watching TV, documentaries, films, taking many courses, and so on. I’m still learning and wondering. However, I do believe most organized religions are cults designed to suppress and oppress, especially women. Why else would women be forced to bear many children, not use birth control, and be second-class citizens? Women aren’t smart enough. And MAN as a species isn’t smart enough for if god spoke, or talked, or told you something cool, your head would explode, like the Tower card in the tarot deck.

So if god wants you to do this and that, why doesn’t he just say it? Will our heads explode?

And why do you want to do what some invisible thing wants you to do? How do you know HE isn’t the Evil One?

Why is everything a cryptic puzzle that always pits man against man (for example, different religions against each other)?

Why do humans believe in these ancient books as truths no matter the religion: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Ekankar, and so on? Men wrote these books. Regular flawed humans wrote those books. Every single one of them. These religious tomes were likely the Substacks of their day.

Often these special books were written by people many years after the stories happened. Sometimes these books were rewritten by other people. They were all in languages that weren’t English yet English-speaking people are convinced every word and thought has been translated properly. People were often sickly “back in the day.” Dehydration, starvation, drunk, eating magic mushrooms, smoking weed, eating poppies, and so on. Maybe hallucinating from moldy food. Maybe the thing about not eating certain foods in certain religions was because the storyteller got food poisoning, so they deemed it part of the history.

Scientology, a modern religion, was created by a dude who wrote science fiction books. Now there’s a multi-billion-dollar industry based around it with rules, rules, rules, of course.

I was into Ekankar for a few years. Not heavily into it as in going to meetings and stuff, but curious about it and read tons about it. I interviewed a high up follower (who was a piano student of mom’s) for a World Religion project in high school. I still remember talking to this very hippie dude (it was the seventies!) in his apartment, the fan blowing on us on a hot hot evening. I recorded him and took notes. And he blew my mind.

He not only talked for a couple of hours about all the intricacies of the religion but also talked about how my dad likely got his music from another plane. I can’t remember the name of the special plane as I’ve learned about so many more religions and spiritual ideas since that night, but it always stuck with me what he said. When I learned about the occult/metaphysical ideas of the Kabbalah and Sephiroths in my esoteric studies around the tarot, I remembered again. And felt like I often did; ideas about spirituality and religions were intertwined in so many ways around the world.

There was something to it, so many of the stories have similar themes.

The bigger ideas, that is. Not the ideas about rules and rituals and all that decorative bullshit that keeps people gaslit and subservient to those privileged few who Know All. The privileged few who apparently have their god on speed dial to spread His Word to the hypnotized followers.

But back to Grade Three.

I was so disturbed by the hypocrisy of religion that I saw everywhere that I asked to be excused from all the religious stuff at school. I can’t remember how it all went down, whether I asked the teacher or the principal, and if my parents had to write a letter or what.

But every morning, once the religious part of the day started, I would leave the class and hang out in the hall, reading. I always had my nose in a book. And no one said a thing. No one ever made fun of me. No one ever joined me. No one gave me dirty looks. At least as far as I remember. And for the rest of my school career, I excused myself from the religious parts of the program.

I have no idea what happens in schools these days. I like to think that there’s no religion at all in the schools anymore, but I have no idea.

I see rumblings about what some people want to see happen.

Both in the United States and in Canada, there’s a push to highlight Christian prayers in school.

I think that forcing one religion into the school curriculum is a horrible idea. If you’re going to pray, every religion in the classroom should get a chance to pray in their own religion. That way, everyone learns about each other religions.

But in reality, religion has no place in school. If there are courses about religion, like the World Religions courses I took, that would be fabulous. People have the right to learn about other religions in the world if they want to, but they shouldn’t be forced to practice any. Religion is a personal thing and shouldn’t be forced upon anyone in any setting.

Talking about ideas of spirituality and existence, why we are here, and what we should do while we’re here is a great idea and could lead to robust conversation in any classroom.

I know we’re freshly off an election, but I’m already hearing distressing news about Christianity being forced into schools in the United States.

Worse, there are rumors that the incoming President wishes that all schools (at least in a certain state) use the Trump Bible as it fits all the criteria that are being arbitrarily enforced: King James and a leatherlike substance for a cover. And apparently, there’s a bunch of stuff about the history of the US and various ideas about the Constitution from the Trumpian point of view.

When I first read about the Trump bible being ordered for schools (today, I heard the number is 500 for now as they test-drive the idea), I actually thought that it was a joke or parody, and I hope it is. But I’m beginning to think that it’s not a joke at all.

When it comes to organized religions, people should be free to practice whatever they want and change their minds as much as they want. Exploring is part of human curiosity. And since there are no actual answers to the question “which religion is best for which person at which point in history?” everyone should feel free to explore and choose whichever one they want.

If this is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, then everyone should be free enough and brave enough to choose their own religion, if any, and not be forced to play performative roles in someone else’s. Most of all, be respectful of other religions and spiritual beliefs or their lack thereof.

At the end of the day, everyone will ultimately find their own path.

School should be a place of education. If you want to go to a specific religious school, there are already private schools, post-secondary schools, monasteries, and universities, and they existed long before Trump’s soon-to-be mandatory bible and forced religion.

The hypnotized rarely recognize corruption, even when it’s right in their faces. How else do the megachurches keep on churning and selling Tickets to Heaven?

Hopefully, one day, reason will prevail, and there will be a separation of church and state.

But in the meantime, it’s a race to collect souls. Souls that come with a cash app attached.

Get ‘em while they’re young. Gotta catch ‘em all.