Peer pressure

May 13, 2008 05:36 am

— In reference to the article "Judge: Gideon Bibles don't belong in school," it is interesting what Marjorie R. Esman executive director of the ACLU chapter, has to say. "A child shouldn't have to choose between her family's beliefs and the wishes of school administrators."
The ACLU takes up the complaint of just one student picking up a Gideon Bible under "peer" pressure. The student made her own decision! Where is the ACLU when students under "peer" pressure smoke their first cigarette, take their first drink of alchohol or take their first hit with street drugs? Not a word is spoken by the ACLU against the tobacco industry, alcohol breweries or the drug cartels.
But when one little book, the Bible, has the power to encourage that one student to say "no" to cigarettes, alcohol or drugs they cry "foul!"
It is also noteworthy to point out that, in virtually all public schools in the USA today, hundreds of students are forced by school administrators to accept, explain and promote the theory of evolution in contrast to the creationist point of view against their parents' wishes. Any debate or questions about these two views is looked upon with animosity. Each of these two explanations about how we came to be must be accepted by faith. We either place our faith in the theory of evolution or the God of creation. Students could use their brains to examine the evidence for both views and then form their own opinions if they were given information about both.
It seems to me that the students are not the only people affected by "peer" pressure!
Claude Mengel,
Mifflinburg