Abbotsford is in the news again for the local school policy of allowing the Gideons to distribute religious literature to some students.
Every year, the schools send home a 鈥渃onsent card鈥� for students to fill out (or toss into the recycling) and those who return it get an 鈥淎nswer Book鈥� with the New Testament and a few parts of the Old Testament.
Now the B.C. Humanist Association and some parents are asking that the practice be stopped, and a predictable fight in online comments, newspaper letter columns, and writing campaigns will ensue.
Here鈥檚 how the fight will go, roughly.
Stage 1: The Humanist Association will (correctly, as far as I鈥檓 concerned) note that the school district shouldn鈥檛 be acting as a distributor for material promoting one religion, or really promoting any religion. They will point out that many Christian parents would be outraged if the schools handed Grade 5 students copies of the Koran or Buddhist sutras or the Talmud.
Stage 2: Pushback. The Gideons will no doubt launch a fairly polite challenge to the idea of stopping the book-distribution program.
Internet commenters will be less polite.
This phase usually involves a number of assertions that are plainly false. First, you鈥檒l see the claim that Canada is a 鈥淐hristian nation鈥� because God is mentioned in passing in some of our founding documents.
While there is no explicit separation of church and state in Canada, freedom of religion is right there in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It鈥檚 right near the top, maybe because it鈥檚 pretty important.
As we all have freedom of religion, having the government promote one religion over another, or religion in general, could be seen as infringing on those rights.
But this will not matter to those pushing back, who will loudly declare that Christianity is under siege, blah blah War on Christmas blah blah evil atheist conspiracy.
Stage 3: School board decision. The board will have to either ditch the program 鈥� which puts them in the awkward position of using district resources to promote the work of an outside religious group 鈥� or they will keep it.
It鈥檚 at this stage that there will likely be some kind of public meeting. People will cry, and say 鈥淭hink of the children!鈥�
If the board keeps the program, we will likely move on to鈥�
Stage 4: Court challenge. I hope it doesn鈥檛 come to this, since it will be a waste of everyone鈥檚 time and money.
I have no idea what a judge might decide, with one small exception. If the Gideons can鈥檛 use the school as distributors, case closed. If they can鈥� the judge is also likely to rule that any religious group can avail itself of the same opportunity.
So in the next year, we鈥檒l have not just Gideons, but maybe Catholics, Mormons, various flavours of Evangelicals, and Jehovah鈥檚 Witnesses all lining up to distribute their material. In addition, you could see various Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, and Buddhist organizations.
And then it will get weird. You鈥檒l get Satanists, and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the Discordians, and every other parody religion out there. The Humanists will no doubt have some YA version of Richard Dawkins to hand out. The consent card will become a vast menu, and the distribution will overwhelm the poor school office staff members.
Really, probably better to just leave religion to families and churches, yes?
