Jeff, one of the best things about the way in which my life flirts with religion is how it has made me (maybe surprisingly) more open-minded. The church I play at is amazing at preaching acceptance. It encourages curiosity and even scepticism about manmade faith systems, but also that people should be free to personalize their spirituality, whatever the denomination may be. My church is unique in that way (sometimes I wonder if my minister even believes in God, ahaha). This is fairly common in the United Church (but not all). For example, my mom's church just particpated in a community event hosted by Ajax which featured Christianity, Judaism, and Islam at an informative who's who social. How awesome is that? I think a lot of this background information to help support what I'm going to say, in terms of what inspires my stance on these issues
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I do wonder whether all this makes me too idealistc. Given the ridiculous number of teachers, they can't all have perfectly open minds. Maybe the kind of acceptance I'm talking about is too complex or far-reaching, and maybe it is better to play it case by case. I once said that I could play devil's advocate with mislead anti-gays to some friends in Victoria, and they said no, they couldn't make any excuses for that (and I can understand that). But like you, I want to have a through-line philosophy that helps govern my decision about these issues, and respect and compassion towards others is mine. I think that religion, orientation, and everything can find a place in public schools if it does not harm students, and if students are taught to observe differences and let them be. After all, public life (as opposed to public school) is as diverse as it gets. We can't pretend certain cases don't exist. I have learned that religion to some people is crucial for their mental wellbeing, and if not that, a huge part of the richness of our
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