About Religious Clubs on Campus
I wish to commend the Torrance Board of Education for its decision not to allow religious groups to meet on public school grounds during the lunch hour (South Bay section, Jan. 11).
Because our Western materialistic mentality denies spiritual reality, we know little about it, and are therefore easily seduced by its more destructive forms--such as the psychic/supernatural movies, from “The Exorcist” to “Gremlins”; occult practices, from astrology to satanism, and coercive cults from the Moonies to Hare Krishna.
The onset of adolescence, with all its confusing fears and longings, makes youth especially vulnerable not just to these counterfeit spiritualities, but also to the more rigid, legalistic Christian groups which focus largely on fear, guilt and excluding others who are not like them.
I therefore do not want these kinds of groups available to our youth during their school day, and I am quite willing to prohibit my own historically rooted, “mainline” Christian groups as well in order to ensure that.
I am praying that our school board will continue to protect our children by holding the line against such pressure.
REV. GORDON DALBEY Seaside Community Church Torrance
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