Two outstanding things I saw in a recent issue of World Magazine, which are worth a look. They require a free registration to view, and if you aren't already signed up, you ought to be.

First was an excellent column by Russell Board, a missionary to Japan, called "Everything in its place: The triumph of secularism is its ability to tell society what goes where." In it, Board gives one of the most beautifully concise appraisals of secularism and its largely successful effort to marginalize Christianity that I've seen. Observes Board:

The secularist neither affirms nor denies the existence of God. He simply dismisses the issue by insisting that it doesn't matter. It is only a religious dispute after all; it doesn't affect real life. Stock prices and soccer practices are more important, more real to him, than sacred precepts or speculative philosophy.

Today's ACLU types insist that the Founding Fathers intended a purely secular government. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but the secularist agenda has now pervaded all of our institutions.

The secularist takes church-state separation as a prescription for all of life. He places religion in an isolated compartment, quarantined away from the school, the workplace, and the halls of government....To the secularist, freedom of religion means the liberty to put whatever you want in the box labeled "religion." Just be sure to keep your boxes in order. No religious stuff in the boxes labeled "government," "science," or "public education." Got it? A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Indeed.

The other piece in the same issue is an instructive look at the tolerance mavens who comprise the National Education Association (NEA). The story centers on the NEA's recent annual convention, and relates the treatment of David O'Neal, a California convention delegate.

Poor Mr. Neal made the mistake of simply proposing a motion that the delegates affirm (as the entire U.S. Congress has done) that the words "under God" remain in the Pledge of Allegiance. One delegate after another then took the podium amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth to denounce such a motion.

The assembly's jumbotrons showed a delegate intoning, "Might does not make right. The majority cannot bludgeon the minority!" even as the NEA's majority bludgeoned Mr. O'Neal...

..."Fellow delegates!" a male teacher huffed in opposition to affirming God in the pledge, "what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right!"

After a while of this, O'Neal withdrew his motion, though that didn't calm the ire of his fellow teachers:

Soon several delegates circled the defeated Mr. O'Neal amid the convention aisles. "You are trying to force God on me and I don't appreciate it!" one man in a Hawaiian shirt and baggy shorts yelled, pointing his finger in Mr. O'Neal's face. An older man with gray hair pulled back in a ponytail nodded in agreement.

Guess what, folks? If you have kids in the public schools, these are their teachers. Good luck.