"NOBODY should try to teach you about the Lord but your family and the church you choose.”

Those words came from my Baptist mother more than 60 years ago. It helped form much of my basic beliefs and was the foundation upon which I wrote a December column concerning separation of church and state. She also taught me that your relationship with God was personal and actually pretty simple.

A bitter experience with the father of a schoolmate made me take an even stronger belief in Mother’s philosophy.

ON A downtown sidewalk one morning 50 years ago, a schoolmate’s father approached me and blocked my path as he raised his voice to say, “Willis Webb, you’re going to hell because you don’t belong to (his church)!” I tried to move around him and he moved over to block me.

“Please, Mr. X, don’t do this. Let’s just move on,” I pleaded as I moved to go around the other side of him. He repeated, “You’re going to hell because you belong to the wrong church!” With that, I took him by the shoulders and gently moved him to one side and went on my way as he continued yelling.

IN THE ensuing years, there have been a lot of changes in how people practice their faith.

One difference is in how many view death and funerals. Some denominations’ funeral sermons use the fear of death to try to convert any unbelievers at the service. Other denominations “celebrate the life” of the deceased, emphasizing that they have moved on to a better place and everyone should celebrate the deceased’s good life.

Cremation used to be a taboo subject in many denominations but now is common. The Catholic Church, until recently, forbade it. It can now be used but the ashes must be buried rather than strewn over an area.

MANY BELIEVE that the Bible is to be taken literally. Others say it was written by human beings and, thus, is subject to an individual’s interpretation of what God or Jesus said. Those who don’t take the Bible quite so literally, but rather point to the “spirit” of the word, use the example of the King James Version of the Bible as not being as literally believable due to the “king’s views about the place of women.”

Years ago, I knew a woman who was one of the most supremely intelligent human beings I have ever known. She made me aware of unpublished books of the Bible that were kept in the Vatican. She read both Latin and Greek and went to Rome to spend weeks reading the books.

THERE ARE continuous attempts to impose certain religious beliefs through governmental action, despite the very clear statement of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights about “establishment of religion.” And, let’s reiterate what I wrote in the December column — this nation was founded as and remains a predominantly Christian nation, because that is the free choice of the majority of Americans who practice a religion.

There has been a constant “beliefs” battle for the past 20 years or so in Texas with the State Board of Education being the battleground.

One group some label “social conservatives” has been pretty much in control in that time, and the battle has centered on textbooks. The focal point is creationism/intelligent design versus evolution. For the past 20 years, Texas public school science courses have had to teach the weaknesses of evolution. Now, the board majority has taken a new tack: they’ve decided students have to evaluate a variety of fossil types and assess arguments against common descent, the main principle of evolution, that all organisms have a common ancestor. Scientists generally have bridled at this, saying the board is trying to undermine “universal common descent” and it will make the state’s science standards the object of ridicule.

MOST PROBLEMS within the school system have their root in poor parenting. If you teach your children the right things at home, whether it’s about behavior or religion, they’ll be all right.

We should not be imposing any religious belief in public schools, which are after all a governmental operation.

Like my mother said, it’s all pretty simple. A minister for whom I had great respect underscored that simplicity. He said if you believe in God, either way it happened — creation or evolution — God did it. Teach what you want at home and in the church but public education should be secular.

Willis Webb is a retired community newspaper editor-publisher. He can be reached by email at wwebb@wildblue.net.