Religious Freedom Day is January 16th. Why is it that I have never heard of it. I mean I have heard of Black History Month, Arbor Day, Earth Day, etc., etc. Obviously I have never heard of it because it was not talked about in school or in libraries or in the news etc. Here is an interesting quote about it from California Catholic Daily.
"Public school teachers and administrators are confused and afraid when it comes to students’ freedom of religious expression,” says Eric Buehrer, president of Gateways to Better Education -- a national organization based in Lake Forest (Orange County) promoting greater awareness of Religious Freedom Day.
“This confusion results in public schools censoring students’ freedom of religious expression,” says Buehrer. “We get reports of teachers telling students they cannot talk about their faith; can’t talk about the birth of Jesus; can’t mention their faith in a homework assignment.”
Each year since 1993, the President has declared Jan. 16 to be Religious Freedom Day, and calls upon Americans to "observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes, schools, and places of worship." It is the anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom -- an important influence on the First Amendment.
In addition to Religious Freedom Day, both Presidents Clinton (in 1995 and 1998) and Bush (in 2003) had the U.S. Department of Education issue guidelines on students’ religious freedom. Each time, the secretaries of education sent the guidelines to more than 15,000 school district superintendents and asked them to distribute them to administrators, teachers, parents, and students. But, like Religious Freedom Day, that request has also been largely ignored.
“I know of no school district that distributed the guidelines like the Department of Education asked them to,” says Buehrer.
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