Is it a violation of the separation of church & state to make students sing Christian songs in public school?

Question

Is it a violation of the separation of church and state to make students sing Christian songs in a public school choir?

Answer 1

Definately. Its just another attempt by the religious to get into public school any way they can.

Spirit Walker: They should leave the room? The songs shouldnt even be sung in the first place. Whyt should they leave the room? Maybe, if they want to sing christian songs, they should do it where it belongs, in the church. That way the schools can keep this crap away from my kids why I am not around to watch them.

Answer 2

If it's in a choir, and the students know in advance that they will be singing Christian songs and they don't object, then no. But if it is in class and the children in the class were made to sing Christian songs at Christmas (as I was as a child) then absolutely yes. I felt marginalized because when I spoke up and said that I was Jewish and didn't feel comfortable about doing this, they made me go to the principals' office for being disobedient. Have Christians ever thought about that? How it makes a child who is not Christian feel when they are treated like second-class citizens?

Answer 3

No because there is no such law. The separation of Church & state thing has been going on for years. There has been on official law set forth by either Congress or Senate to establish a Separation. There should be one but it should only pertain to churches and not individual beliefs or public sector.

To make them sing them in a public school choir is like making them sing secular songs. In that case they should disband the choir. To say that singing Christian songs in a choir in school would be violation of some kind of separation is simply stupid.

Answer 4

No, because atheism isn't really a religion. yes the supreme court has decided to call atheism a religion for legal purposes. I think that they would have been more accurate to say that atheism requires first ammendment protection because of its relationship to religion. The supreme court decided to define religion as any belief pertaining to a god, this includes no belief or a belief in no god. As for it being a violation of church and state, the reason why creationism is a violation of the first ammendment establishment clause is because teaching creationism specifically favors one religion over others. It specifically favors christianity. Intelligent Design favors more religions over others, including christianity but not necessarily limited to christianity. On the other hand evolution and natural selection doesn't favor any religion at all, even atheism. Atheism doesn't have any specific teachings, atheism doesn't teach evolution. Atheists may tend to gravitate toward evolution because of its explanatory power, and its mountains of supporting evidence and minimal untestable assumptions, but evolution is not an atheist teaching. There is also no reason why even if there were a god such an entity couldn't have used evolution to create the life on earth. So evolution disenfranchises no religion, really, it's supported by facts and logic, and it is not a central tenet specifically derived from any belief system at all. Thus it doesn't violate the establishment clause to teach that evolution is an undirected natural process in schools.

Answer 5

Well if your not Christian yes but why worry. Just leave the room if it offends you. I don't understand why the world wories about such things. I'd rather have my children Sing about God then some of the worlds junk that is out there. Most public schools do not allow Christianity. Iam so very proud of the School that my Neice and Nephew go to.They pray over the Loud speaker and they still pledge to the U.S. flag. Once a week they meet at the flag to pray for our nation and personal request. Yes I think your overreacting.cool your self.

Answer 6

Technically, yes. But separation of church and state just emans the schools can't enforce one particular religion above others.

When I was in elementary school, in wintertime the choir song Christmas songs, Hanukkah songs, Kwanzaa songs, and even a Wiccan Yule song (okay, so it was just The Thirteen Days of Solstice, ["and a gold bough in an oak tree!"] which my mom taught the choir and I did sign language for because my school didn't let me sing on account of being tragically tone-deaf.). This is because my elementary school was insane.

Answer 7

I would imagine it would depend on the situation. Many of the greatest and best arranged songs for Choir are religious songs.
Is it *a* song or are Christian songs the entire song list? Is the class mandatory or is it an elective?
Are students allowed to not sing if they choose not to sing the song due to religious or non religious convictions?
There are a lot of if's in the question.

Answer 8

I dunno. Is it a violation of separation of church and state to have art classes? If it weren't for the Church, human history would have been devoid of art for about 400 years, and we might not have had the industrial revolution. Where do you draw the line? Or is it blurry? In America, there is separation of church and state, and schools also can not hinder religious expressions, either, if they are student-initiated. In my own opinion, I think religious songs are fine as long as no proselytizing (spelling?) is attached to it. You can't see a good gospel choir, for example, and not be moved--something down in the human aesthetic of all of us is moved by that in some mysterious way--and schools ought to teach kids the power and effects of good arts and music and the ways it can awaken, enrich, and inspire the human aesthetic in all of us.

Answer 9

No.
I had to sing religous songs in Chior. Of course the town of Sheldon Iowa is brainwashed b/c of all those churchs. Plus the whiney principle changed the words from whiskey and rye to something else. Ugh I hated it there. Such a wussy town/school.
At the time I did get a kick out of saying pepsi and coke. Mmmmm Now I'm thirsty.

Answer 10

Yes. However, some of these songs are 'classics' and one cannot avoid the classics forever. In one of my english classes in high school, the teacher felt that covering creation myths was an important view into literary techniques, and yes, the first bits of Genesis were on the curriculum. But so were many other myths. So really, it wasn't done to preach, it was nothing more than awareness of the classics.