Michigan high school finds itself in conflict between Christianity and Islam.

A veteran wrestling coach at Fordson High School lost his job amid concerns that his one-time assistant, who is a local minister and parent of a wrestler, attempts to convert local Muslim youths to Christianity.

The decision not to renew the contract of Jerry Marszalek, a coach for 35 years at Fordson, sparked a firestorm of controversy, with 200-300 parents packing a Board of Education meeting Tuesday night to support the decision of the school's principal, Imad Fadlallah. The board directed administrators to consider reviewing the source of complaints against Fadlallah.

Hancock insisted that he never attempted a conversion as part of his work with the wrestling team, or on school grounds. But when asked if he understood the concerns of Muslim parents, he said, "I consider it my work to pastor to anyone who is within my reach. So I can imagine they would be concerned. But is the Dearborn Public Schools going to be dictating what every pastor can or cannot do within his congregation?"

Marszalek says he was aware for 10 years that Hancock's activities "might be a problem," but the clergyman never discussed religion with the athletes or students in his presence.

"The principal has never, ever attended a practice or a wrestling meet," Marszalek said. "But he makes judgments on the team according to which Arabic parent complains about another parent, who is a Christian minister, and I get lumped in."

This my friends is why we have the separation between church and state.

Not to take the side of the Christians here but this man is really just following one of the central tenets of his faith. Christians believe that any soul that does not come to accept Jesus Christ as their savior is doomed to suffer eternal damnation. For the true believer that is like standing on the shore and watching people drowning in the ocean right in front of you. They desperately want to save them and often feel compelled to do so.

But...

People of other faiths have the right to worship however their religion dictates without any interference from well meaning outsiders. We could all imagine how apoplectic Christian parent would become if they heard that some Hindu was at their school trying to talk their little snowflakes into abandoning their religion and coming to temple with them. The shit would be flying all over that school!

Essentially all religions are interchangeable. They were simply the result of primitive people attempting to make sense of the world around them. It served the important purpose of connecting people to a shared belief, which allowed them to feel they had some understanding of their origins and their place in this world, even though obviously it was not factually based. I mean even if you have accepted the "truth" of a certain religion you have to acknowledge that the majority of people on this planet having chosen to believe in a fallacy. Atheists simply disbelieve one more religion then religious people do.

Fundamentally religion serves a very important function in the lives of many people and should be treated with respect regardless of your differing belief system or lack thereof. That is much easier for those of us who do not subscribe to any of them.