The schools of Indiana are getting a little more open about their religious views. They are now banning students from accessing websites that go against the Christian religion. Not all, this limit seems to exclude Judaism and Islam. So basically as long it's the god of Abraham then it's acceptable. However, if you happen to search for other material such as atheism or Wicca, then as a student in a public school, you are screwed.
According to the list of blocked content, the sites include...
"Sites that promote and provide information on religions such as Wicca, Witchcraft or Satanism. Occult Practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or other forms of mysticism are represented here. Includes sites that endorse or offer methods, means of instruction, or either resources to affect or influence real events through the use of spells, incantations, curses, and magic powers. This category includes sites which discuss or deal with paranormal or unexplained events."
They add...
"sites that advocate, depict hostility or aggression toward, or denigrate an individual or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, or other involuntary characteristics."
But then they add...
"cater to one's one's sexual orientation or gender identity including, but not limited to, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender sites"
These are the list of things that simply should not be thought about. These are the menaces to society that destroys the fabric of our civilization.
They block this content why? What is the harm here? They already block social networking and gaming sites, they already limit anything the kids can do but research, As this is listed in the "exceptions" list.
So what content are they really blocking? Sin. That is what it comes down to. If you happen to be a Gay Wiccan who talks about unexplained events or alternative theories then I sincerely hope that children in indianapollis are not your intended audience.
The rest of their article on blocked content really make sense from a school, however this is a bit much. This is clearly a case of religious discrimination. They even on their own memo mention these rules as "Alternative Spirituality/belief" Quite blatantly saying that Christianity is the primary everything else is the Alternative.
The idea is to get students to reach out into the world and explore while researching the topics they were assigned. They are expected to add depth and add informative statements on the topics they are researching.
This strikes to the very heart of control of the flow of information. You can rule out the schools ever talking about alternative religions, you can rule out any research on sexual information or sex Ed.
I don't mind if a school system says no on religion, I don't think it should be there, but to specifically block only certain types of religion. This is not a good idea. It is a bad idea simply because I cannot see how prayer to the almighty does not fall into...
" sites that endorse or offer methods, means of instruction, or other resources to affect or influence real events through the use of spells, incantations, curses, and magic powers."
When you can't get the general population to buy into your fairy tales, you attack the next generation. When they start hearing about other ways, plug their ears. When they start thinking and saying what they think you gag them, and then tell them to pray that god will help them.
So when Indianapolis raises the next generation of gay hating, self loathing
Christian kids, and they grow up to resent you when the realize that they are gay and that its normal and that they don't believe in magical zombies. Don't be surprised that this idea did more harm than good.
for the list of blocked content,(caution: slow loading PDF)
http://ffrf.org/uploads/news/ipspolicy.p...For links to other articles I have written
http://rlwoodsiii.blogspot.com/