A new survey found that 63 percent of parents believe that they should have the “final say” when it comes to opting out of certain parts of public education, including topics they see as morally objectionable or inappropriate.
According to The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s 3rd annual Religious Freedom Index survey, most parents in the survey said they should be able to decide whether their children should be taught “morally objectionable or inappropriate content.”
Just 37 percent said that decision should be left to the public schools.
According to The Christian Post, the survey results come amid a recent slew of concerned parents reaching out to their local school board members to express their opposition to the teaching of certain topics, such as critical race theory, and the circulation of sexually explicit materials in schools.
The survey also asked questions about the coronavirus pandemic. A majority of respondents (52 percent) said that worship services should be considered essential during a pandemic, whereas 48 percent thought they should be considered non-essential.
However, majorities of Americans thought that other religious ceremonies (52 percent), community service (54 percent), and weddings (57 percent) taking place at houses of worship should be deemed non-essential.
Also asked in the survey was whether respondents agreed with the statement that “businesses should not force their employees to take a COVID-19 vaccine if doing so would violate the employee’s religious beliefs.”
According to the survey, 47 percent agreed, while 31 percent said they disagreed, and 22 percent said they neither disagreed nor agreed.
Further, nearly half said they believed that vaccine mandates should allow for “exceptions based on medical, personal or philosophical reasons” and “religious reasons.”
In other findings:
- Forty-four percent said professors at public universities should have the freedom to share their religious beliefs on controversial topics inside and outside the classroom.
- Ninety percent said there should be “freedom for people to choose a religion, if they wanted to.”
- Seventy-six percent said they supported the idea that people should have the ability to “run their business or private organizations according to their religious beliefs.”
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Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
