I would LOVE that. Separation between church and state would make things so easy, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO... these right wing religious fundies have to make it hard on everyone. I love the idea of having fringe groups who are never considered get a chance to make everyone else sit through their ramblings on their faith. Let…

Couldn't one also flip the law— if a religious statement has to be given equal weight to a secular one, can't students then say "Well my secular statement must now be given equal weight to the religious rant that other student just went on?" and start just, like, reading Dawkins out loud for fifteen minutes or…

Being non-religious is not the same as being capitalist! They are in entirely difference categories.

I had the exact same thought - I think specifically if Muslims run with it, it'll scare everyone, because, you know, intolerance.

I knew a girl whose high school mandated a dress code with a bunch of ridiculous rules, including "if your pants have belt loops, you must wear a belt." So she went home, made belt loops all over a pair of khakis, and went to school wearing 4 belts wrapped up and down her legs.

How do you "exaggerate" marriage? Mandatory marriage? Super marriage?

...at a low estimate, 80% of the US is Christian and under 2% is atheist. Care to try that one again?

You just repeated what the original comment said?

We teach tons of fiction in schools, even public ones. I'm looking up at the wall and my degree in English lit from the nation's top public university. And that's exactly how the Bible should be taught in public school - like Shakespeare or Mark Twain or Willa Cather or any other great novelist you can think of.

If I were a high school student in TN right now, I'd be doing some serious research on how best to use this law for trolling/repealing purposes. High school students: use your powers of mischief and undercutting authority for good!

The problem here is that some things are acceptable to say to other people and some are not. "I am Catholic and do not agree with gay marriage" is a statement that, while it makes me grit my teeth, would be appropriate for a middle school paper about personal beliefs. A picture portraying gay people burning in hell…

I don't understand why we are teaching children that they have the right to share their private views, religious or otherwise, at any time and in any venue. School is a place to learn, and one of the things to learn is when to say what you think and when not to. I am pretty sure that the fundamentalist Christians…

As a UU myself, I say all the religious minorities (Buddhist, Pagan, Jews, Muslims, UUs, United Church of Christ, etc) take this bill (if it becomes law) and RUN WITH IT!! The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly!

So basically a student could refuse to answer, or answer biblically a test on scientific subjects, and a teacher couldn't mark them incorrect? Puh-lease.

I do believe the student who expresses their opinion should be made aware of what is and is not civil discourse. This is a skill we ought to be teaching. Yes, there is discretion of the LEA, but let's be honest here, do you think these legislators would have passed the law in question if they thought that Christian…

I have radically pacifist religious beliefs. Now, personally, I recognize it isn't black and white and so understand why, say, soldiers go to war, or people kill in self-defense. But many in my denomination take "turn the other cheek" at its most radical meaning and don't believe there's any justification for war or…

They are so oppressed they need to oppress others to stop their oppression.

Is this currently illegal other places, or is this just the right protecting something that is not threatened? I ask as someone who was forced to sit through numerous essays/presentations on topics with a definite Christian bias (gay people are wrong because bible)

Yeezus! No one has it harder than Christians amirite?

Every group has its crazies. I enjoyed the part where she said "imagine how great you would have been if they hadn't abused you". I have a blank spot in my memory and can only recall shrieking.