Allowing parents to opt kids out of lessons doesn't protect religious freedom. It destroys it.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/allowing-parents-to-opt-kids-out-of-lessons-doesn-t-protect-religious-freedom-it-destroys-it/ar-AA1JdVte?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=f3c41820ba2743f2cffa1c757281660d&ei=45

Story by Rev. Mark E. Fowler (24 July 2025)

Imagine a Protestant Christian parent removes their child from a school lesson covering the religious foundations of the transatlantic slave trade, claiming the content does not accurately portray their faith. My mind races, wondering what crucial, formative pieces of history that child could miss. How religious institutions participated in slavery? How slaveowners often cited the Bible to justify their actions? Or conversely, how theology helped shape resistance movements like abolition and Black liberation?

Without this knowledge, students could not fully understand the complex intersections of faith, race, and power that continue to shape our world today.

This is the dangerous reality to which the Mahmoud v. Taylor decision brings us closer, a reality that allows religious exemptions to undermine learning about critical subjects that create engaged and informed citizens.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court sided with a group of religious parents who claimed their First Amendment rights were violated when schools did not permit them to opt their children out of lessons featuring books with LGBTQ+ characters. The Court granted a preliminary injunction, allowing parents in Montgomery County to remove their children from lessons involving LGBTQ+ storybooks.

This case isn't just about the nine books in question. It's about whether public schools will remain places where all children learn to respectfully engage with difference.

Public schools are where children learn to socialize, learn about teamwork, and that not everyone looks or behaves the same way as they do.

Just because a kid is removed from a classroom for a particular subject, they will still discuss these things with their peers. Having missed out on the subject, they will not have a full understanding of what their peers are talking about. It isn't about whether the child agrees with the subject or not. It is providing them with the information they need to decide for themselves.

Children who proclaim that their parents know better than the teachers also learn a new skill called "self-defense". The ones that get picked on are the ones who, through no fault of their own, are perceived as different or weird.

Been there, did a lot of that.

To quote a character in a videogame:

"If only your disbelief could alter facts."

*sigh* This world, or at least the US, is going to end up more broken than it already is. Because everyone already will know what they think before they get the chance to know why.