John Freshwater Should Be Fired

John Freshwater should remove the bible from his desk or he should be fired.

He claims removing the bible from his desk would "infringe upon his deeply held personal religious beliefs granted by god." However, to keep it there is an affront to clear thinking, rational persons everywhere.

Some reasons are:

1. It is an endorsement of a religion by a governmental entity which is a violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment of the U.S. constitution.

2. It is exclusionary and offensive to people of different faiths but especially people of no religious faith.

3. The bible has no place in a public school except maybe as a topic in a literature, social studies or comparative religions class.

4. By sitting on a teacher’s desk it is an inappropriate and tacit endorsement of a religion by not just a government agency but an authority figure.

5. It promotes a supernatural, magical worldview. It is a book of not much more than mythic storytelling with stories of:

a. Wizards and witches (Exodus 22:18 and Deuteronomy 18:11)
b. Demons and devils (Matthew 5:13)
c. Dragons (Deuteronomy 32:33, Jeremiah 51:37)
d. Unicorns (Isaiah 34:7, Psalms 22:21 and Numbers 23:22)
e. Half man, half goat "party animals" known as Satyrs (Isaiah 34:14)

If you've read the bible, ask yourself how you honestly square the above in your mind. Please don't dodge the question like you may want to do...verify their veracity, consider it and respond if you have an honest answer.

Imagine the outrage if Mr. Freshwater had a copy of any other "sacred" text on his desk and refused to remove it? Would more people support removing it if it were perhaps the q’ran, book of mormon, hindu rigveda or even dianetics? If the school board were to force him to include other “sacred texts” they would just be compounding the problem instead of fixing it. They should include other such meaningful texts as a collection of fairy tales from either the Brothers Grimm or Mother Goose.

Any teacher who cannot or will not understand the points above should not be teaching the public. A religious based school would be a great place for him to teach, but not a government funded institution. Freedom loving, free thinking people everywhere are counting on the administration of our public schools to do the right thing.