Public School Program and Salvation Army Don't Mix

School cancels Salvation Army fundraising trip

I think it was the right thing to do. A Christian charity organization shouldn't be trolling public schools for volunteers, promoting state-church entanglements. Niether should a public school be supporting a religious organization via the labor of students who are required to be there. If the children want to volunteer for the Salvation Army, they can certainly do so of their own volition, but it shouldn't be a school-sponsored event.

"What really bothers me is what canceling the field trip does to the kids," he (Salvation Army employee) said. "It says that having a religion is a bad thing, that believing is a bad thing, and that is not the message our country should be sending right now. It should instead be encouraging our kids to volunteer."

Okay, first off…having religion and believing in an imaginary friend in the sky is a bad thing. It promotes nothing but intellectual dwarfism. Second, our "country" should be sending no religious messages at all. And finally, what the hell does a message critical of religion have to do with volunteering for charity work? Not a damn thing. Which gets back to my point that religious belief stunts a persons intellectual capacity.

Chavez principal Howard Fried said there are other ways to instill a charitable spirit in students.

"My feeling is that we can certainly accomplish the same goals by having a service project within an organization that doesn't have a religious affiliation, and I'm hoping that sometime in the future they'll come up with an alternative," Fried said.

Yes, please.