Pork or nothing: how school dinners are dividing France

[MADem]

179. And they could accommodate the "minor religious difference" of public prayer before

the start of class, public prayer before the start of sports games, and a public prayer before the noon meal ... because ....'bigotry' against 'evangelicals' otherwise?

It's a slippery slope. The French have a WALL--not a gauzy curtain--between church and state. They won't accommodate ANYONE's religious differences, and the Islamic (to say nothing of Jewish and other faiths' as well) objections to this meat have everything to do with prohibitions that are spelled out in RELIGIOUS texts.

As far as the French are concerned, it is their culture and they aren't going to allow any religious considerations to impact their secular decisions. They are not like Americans in this regard. We accommodate religions, and we especially accommodate the less typical ones (likely out of fear of being accused of that very "bigotry" you fear).

At the same time, we don't accommodate the irritating child whose daddy tells him to wave his bible around at school....because "separation of church/state." We crack down on the "common" faiths, and exalt the exotic ones.

I like the way the French do it. BOOM--no religious accommodation. For anyone. Their attitude is pretty plain: You want to live here? Deal with it. Fit in. Don't expect us to cater to you--you need to join the club and act like the rest of the group. People who can't deal with that should probably not look to France as the place to put down roots--they'd do better in USA or Canada.