01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 16, 2006

Happy Easter.

Forgive me, but today seems a fitting time to say something about religion and its place in schools, since the grownups on both sides of the most recent controversy -- about Intelligent Design -- have behaved badly. Sadly, those supposedly defending the spiritual managed to polarize and pervert religious principles past all recognition. So the kinder, gentler side of spirituality could use a little resurrecting today.

Advocates for Intelligent Design insist their theories rival those of Darwin, believing that the existence of an Intelligent Designer (aka a God) is the only explanation for currently inexplicable features of the universe. As if science were all done with trying. But science has a very hard time perceiving matters spiritual anyway, because that is not its language or purpose. Scientists cannot peel back facts, test hypotheses, collect data or evaluate evidence in a way that will find anything other than scientific facts. Still, religion's inappropriateness in the science lab doesn't mean that it should be completely banished, as though it were a toxin, from the public school's curricula. I continue to wonder how anyone can teach history or even literature prior to, say, 1950, without setting historical and cultural events and political decisions in the context of what people at the time believed. Even we, by the way, have beliefs, no matter who we are. Secularists and scientists have beliefs. Humans have the capacity to believe. Together, people cultivate principles of belief, rituals and ways of treating one another, which structure and hold their communities together.

When teachers have high expectations of children, when they really, truly believe in the ability of the kids to succeed, the kids rise to the occasion. This is a practical application of belief, which, by the way, has been documented scientifically. Surely we all know someone who has a wretched attitude and believes the worst will happen, and lo! The worst does happen to him or her improbably often. Their belief makes a difference in the quality of their lives.

Frankly, it would be a great favor to the kids to teach them more about belief -- no, not to proselytize, heaven forfend! -- but to teach that the human mind has certain powers over which they, the kids, can gain some measure of control. Religion is like software -- please forgive me, people of faith. It provides a structure, which, as you practice and get to know it, offers certain benefits. Such benefits might include helping you learn how to exercise moral muscle over your unhealthy impulses. Some faiths offer rituals, processes, prayers and wise ones to help you through times of especial stress. Some provide a like-minded community in which to bring up children who feel as though they belong to other people. Religion might not be the only way to achieve the above, but it is one way.

I'm aware that every good idea known to man has been badly perverted and misused by someone at some time. Horrible acts -- flying planes into skyscrapers -- have been done in the name of some God. But getting rid of religion will not get rid of horrible acts. Angry, crazy people will always find ways of organizing and motivating themselves to do destruction. This too would be a valuable lesson to teach kids. Kids believe trustingly, so they could definitely use a little perspective on their own beliefs.

So here's my Easter message to both the strident secularists and the Christian Right: practice tolerance.

Secularists: Yours is a belief system, just like any other. With science seemingly on your side, you're tempted to feel you can prove that God does not exist in objective reality. This makes you Right, which produces a self-righteous sensation that is the only emotional benefit I can perceive that is directly attributable to the secularism- realism software. If you insist, like Dickens' Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times, that the world consists of facts and only facts, facts, facts, that's fine, although to me it seems a little lacking in imagination and aesthetics. Still, I respect your conviction, as long as you respect that your beliefs exist in a context of other beliefs.

Christians of the "Right" persuasion: I know something about your tradition, so I am utterly mystified about the principles you believe you are operating from. Listen to yourselves. You sound like the Pharisees. For reasons I cannot fathom, you revert to a slavish attention to the rules and regulations that were precisely what Jesus cautioned against. He recommended using compassionate common sense, which is to say that even if it is the Sabbath, get the freaking cow out of the ditch. In the case of the ditched cow, care for the cow trumps the law. Law is good, valuable, rich stuff without which civilization is impossible. But when necessary, love trumps law. The Old Testament is full of rules and regulations that most modern, civilized people would never agree to, so we have to allow for some social evolution. And even if, say, homosexuality is a sin, what would be the loving response? Certainly not condemnation that sounds like hatred. No wonder so many people allow secularists to scrub religion from the teaching of history and literature. Your intolerance feels as though I'm being held to a whole bunch of rather nasty-spirited standards that I certainly did not sign up to meet.

Love does not necessarily lead to moral relativism. Good and bad are still very healthy concepts. The Golden Rule, about doing unto others as you would have others do unto you, is a great social-emotional principle to teach kids, fostering compassion as a foundation for right and wrong. But precisely because the Golden Rule smacks of Christianity, it has become unfit for the public-school classroom, where it would be ever so practical.

The Constitution's separation of church and state was not meant to establish secularism as the state religion, but to foster a freedom and variety of belief systems. The point was to avoid having one faith installed to the exclusion of the others. The point was not to shut up those with whom one disagrees.

In other words, practice tolerance. Practice understanding. Choose peace.

Julia Steiny is a former member of the Providence School Board; she consults and writes for a number of education, government and private enterprises. She welcomes your questions and comments on education. She can be reached by e-mail at juliasteiny@cox.net or c/o The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.