More Religion in Schools: the Bad, the Bad, and the Ugly

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/15/huckabee-lack-of-religion-in-classroom-leads-to-violence-in-schools/?hpt=po_c2

I know that this doesn't have a connection to what we've been discussing in our class but I really wanted to make a comment on it. In light of the recent school shooting in Newtown CT, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has come out and said that new gun regulation laws won't  change anything and points the finger  instead at the lack of religion in schools. I want to make it clear that the point of this post is not insult anyone's faith or hurt anyone's feelings. With that in mind I encourage anyone who is sensitive about others talking about their/or any one else's religion to pay no mind to this post. I personally don't see how teaching or just inserting more religion would've prevented this or similar tragedies. I honestly believe that their are some parts of the bible and Jesus's teachings that are well meaning and preach humility, and kindness to all people. On the other hand there are plenty of parts that preach that killing homosexuals is a good thing, slavery is acceptable and that women should be treated like semi-conscious property. If we forced religion down our children's throats then we'll be just shaming them into hating themselves and their bodies since their so sinful. We could also easily be setting some of them on the path to extremism (Jim Jones anyone?), but alas I digress as this discussion is about the validity of Mr.Huckabee's statement not credibility of religion. It is very easy to prove his statement wrong since their is no evidence that says teaching religion in schools reduces violence and even if their was some people would sadly still commit atrocities like this one. Among today's modern industrialized countries America ranks among the most religious, and yet we have some of the highest murder rates in the world. Teaching kids to worship Jesus would have about the same affect on these facts as teaching them to worship Allah, Zeus, Apollo, or Iron Man.