The War On Christmas Just Won’t End

[MMI]

ME: In the schools I went to, pupils would be excused acts of worship if their parents requested it.
THORNE: I"m curious: Why only if the parents requested it? What if the student didn't wish to participate? After all, acts of worship are not really part of a school curriculum, are they? If they were serving banana pudding in the school cafeteria, would they force a student to eat it if he didn't have a note from his mother?

In the UK, when I was at school, it was compulsory for schools to hold daily acts of worship. I don't know if that is still the case. Also, Religious Education was compulsory up to O Level. While we were being taught to think for ourselves, we were not expected to actually do so! Besides, if I could get out of anything at school simply by saying I didn't subscribe to whatever was going on, I wouldn't have had any education at all.

I also have memories of being made to stay at the table in the school canteen and not allowed to leave until I had eaten all of the disgusting mess they called a lunch. I don't know if a note would have excused me, my mother had no sympathy for my plight.

As for all the comments about atheists not wanting to destroy Christmas, but to celebrate the holiday season, fine: create your atheist feast day and celebrate that. Otherwise you're doing what you're accusing Christians of doing, hijacking a religious feat and imposing it on everyone. Or, to put it another way (or maybe to answer a different point) if you merge all religious festivals into a non-religious one, you are appealing only to the non-religious and you are destroying the religious elements, not widening them.

My next question is, why aren't folk-dancing groups, ballroom dancers and ballet schools made to have their shows together, and if a non-dancer wants to join in, he can deliver a diatribe against all forms of music and movement without feeling out-of-place and in the expectation that his words will be heard by the dancers with all the respect they deserve? At least he won't feel excluded. Perhaps he will hope to be thanked.