Why I oppose religion in public schools

A couple of years ago when I was serving as second councilor in the Elder's Quorum we had a guest instructor who passed out a handout from an other faith.  As I glanced through this handout to see if it was appropriate for our quorum I noticed that it called for religion in schools.  I was caught off guard I hadn't heard a member make an argument for religion in schools before.  I told the instructor that this handout was not appropriate as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints did not have stance supporting religion in schools. He countered that "my daughter's college professor taught that there are 36 genders, that's a religion itself". There was the crux of the matter.

Medical professionals recognize over 30 intersex conditions(the exact number can vary depending on which ones you consider separate or related enough to be the same). This instructor found these scientific facts challenging to his faith and wants them suppressed.

Many Republican politicians have jumped on this bandwagon. They love the idea of challenging scientific facts, such as climate change and other ecological issues.  They have married these ideas together so that Republicans show up at school board meetings protesting against both evolution and climate change. Republicans in various states have begun creating school chaplain programs(the proposal died in Utah as we already have a well balanced approach to this issue), and now Florida has released their guidelines for their school chaplain program. Notice they must 'Possess a graduate degree in counseling or theology consisting of at least 36 semester hours", this is common for clergy of other faiths but not so common for clergy in the Church of Jesus Christ(It's becoming more common now the US Military allows chaplains from The Church Of Jesus Christ).  The guidelines also allow principles to deny applications based on what they consider to be the interests of the chaplaincy program.

The more the government is involved in religion, the more opportunities there are for discrimination. With in our life times local governments have used land use laws to discriminate against our faith. Many members of our faith have allied with Republicans to expand and promote discriminatory faith practices(such as the "Muslim ban"). Are we so far removed from our own history that we don't understand that those who use government to suppress other faiths today, will turn those same laws against us tomorrow.

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