(Written for Prof. Glen’s Advanced Composition [ENGL302] class at George Mason University.)
Introduction
Christianity as a religion has been a huge part of the human existence to varying degrees over the past two thousand years. While many still consider the religion to be a fundamental part of their life, the raw numbers have declared that church attendance has plummeted in the latter half of the past decade.
(Written for a Public Law & Judicial Process [GOVT301] class at George Mason University.)
There are few issues as uselessly contentious as the issue of silence. What I mean, of course, is legislation which requires that school children observe a “minute of silence” during school hours. The issue in question is whether or not statutes which require minutes of silence violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which guarantees that the people are free from government establishment of religion and government limitation of the practice of their own religion.
(Written and presented for a Public Law & Judicial Process [GOVT301] class at George Mason University.)
(open with ~ 20-30 seconds of silence)
My opponents would have you believe that I just trampled your Constitutional rights. They would tell you that my giving you a little quiet time—quiet time which you (point) might have used to write poetry, you (point) might have used to think about your boy/girlfriend, and you (point) might have used to pray—constitutes government establishment of religion.
I believe there are two major types of wrongs that people commit in this world. There are passive wrongs, and there are active wrongs. While that separation makes great material for philosophical debate, the fact remains that both types are exactly what they say they are—wrongs.
Billy Joel once wrote a refrain, “Shades of grey wherever I go / The more I find out the less that I know / Black and white is how it should be / But shades of grey are the colors I see.”
Many of us, at least on some level, choose to see the world in black and white. I’m not talking on a racial level—I’m saving that for a later rant—but rather on a metaphoric level. Many people choose to see their opinion on an issue as the right and only valid argument, and everybody else is just pissing in the wind.
Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.
