...except for the glamorization of Islam, of course.
Beginning in the mid-1960's, God was squeezed out of the public schools, and the impact on the schools — and on American culture — has
been obvious. Now it is practically illegal to discuss Christianity in a public school, just as it is in communist countries. But
apparently it's okay to spend all day studying Islam, witchcraft or humanism.
The people who have driven the Bible out of the public schools are hoping you don't know much about U.S. history. And that assumption is
probably right. Public schools started out in this country with only one standard textbook, and guess what book that was.
The Bible. In 1830, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, published a letter in support of using the
Bible as a school textbook.* In 1980 U.S. schools reported the
lowest S.A.T. scores ever, after 18 straight years of decline following the 1962 ban on school prayer. That same year,
the Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments can not be posted in classrooms, "for a child might read them, reflect upon them
and then obey them" (Stone vs.
Graham).*
Religion Is Not Welcome: How a Prayer Wrecked a Graduation. School prayer and
religion in public schools remains a hot button issue that has resulting in numerous court cases. Many schools throughout the
country are trying to delicately deal with religion during upcoming graduation activities.
Teens Decide to Fight
Back Against Anti-Christian Bullies. Late last year, a public school teacher in northern Idaho told students to write an essay titled, "I Believe."
But there was one caveat — the students were not allowed to write anything about God in their papers. That act of religious censorship prompted a
group of Christian students to start asking questions — and those questions led to the creation of a video that addresses Christian bullying in public
schools.
High School Track Team
Disqualified When Runner Gestures Thanks to God. The Columbus High School Mighty Cardinals had won the 4x100-meter
relay — by seven yards, no less — and had a shot at the state championship. That was until Junior sprinter
Derrick Hayes pointed to the sky. Hayes's father, K.C., said that his son made a gesture of thanks to God, but raising a hand to
the sky is considered excessive celebration according to the state scholastic rules. And with that, the team was disqualified.
Teacher fired for showing his Bible. A substitute teacher who lost his job for showing his Bible to a student
has filed a complaint against the Phillipsburg School District. Walt Tutka claims religious discrimination and retaliation as the reasons for his dismissal from
the district in January, according to his complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Gay and Godless on the Public-School
Stage. Liberals who demand church-state separation would pitch a fit if a public school decided to perform a play that
reverently told stories of the Old Testament, whether it was the story of creation, the story of Noah, or Moses or Joseph and his
brothers. But somehow, if a public school decides to put on a play mocking God and the Old Testament, that is not a church-state
violation. The separation police don't want religious (or atheist) minorities to face religious indoctrination in a public
school. But anti-religious indoctrination mocking the Judeo-Christian majority is a glorious festival of free speech.
The sanctioned abuse of the
faith. The mockery of Christianity, and not just the ridicule of individual Christians, has even won the sanction of the
courts. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will sanction everything weird and contentious, ruled in 2011 that "hostility
to religion" is OK, after a 16-year-old Mormon boy sued his teacher for ridiculing him for his beliefs, saying there was no more evidence
of the works of God than "there is a giant spaghetti monster living behind the moon." The class was expected to reward him with a
hearty laugh.
School Bans the Word 'Easter'.
Boys and girls at an Alabama elementary school will still get to hunt for eggs — but they can't call them 'Easter Eggs' have
the principal banished the word for the sake of religious diversity. "We had in the past a parent to question us about some of the
things we do here at school," said Heritage Elementary School principal Lydia Davenport. "So we're just trying to make sure we respect
and honor everybody's differences."
Pope Francis:
Schooling Without 'Religious Values' Can 'Lead to Cases Like Nazism'. In a 2011 book, Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio,
the new Pope Francis, stated that parents have a right to raise their children in accordance with their religious beliefs and that
sometimes when the government intervenes to deprive young people of that religious element, it can produce terrible consequences,
including "cases like Nazism" whereby many students were indoctrinated with views alien to those espoused their parents.
Professor Makes Students
"Stomp on Jesus". A Florida Atlantic University student said he was punished after he refused a professor's directive
to stomp on a piece of paper with the word "Jesus" written on it. The university, meanwhile, is defending the assignment as a lesson
in debate. "I'm not going to be sitting in a class having my religious rights desecrated," student Ryan Rotela told television station
WPEC. "I truly see this as I'm being punished."
'Jesus
Stomping' Professor is Democrat Party Vice-Chairman in Palm Beach County, FL. Just in time for Holy Week are many reports
about this controversial incident involving a local college professor at Florida Atlantic University in Davie, Florida making his students
literally stomp on paper after they were instructed to write the name Jesus on it. However national media, while reporting on this
incident, neglected to include the fact that the professor is also vice-chairman of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party as reported
today by a popular and influential local business/political web site called Biz Pac Review.
Media fail: Stomp
Jesus FAU professor is a Dem. Party official. Florida Atlantic University professor Deandre Poole instructed his intercultural
communications class earlier this month to write the name "Jesus" on a piece of paper, then drop it on the floor and stomp on it.
One student, a devout Mormon, was so so disturbed by the exercise that he complained to school officials, saying Poole had offended his
religious convictions. The school responded by suspending the student from the class.
University Apologizes for "Stomping on
Jesus" Assignment. Florida Atlantic University has issued an apology for a classroom assignment that involving students
writing the name "Jesus" on a sheet of paper and then stomping on the paper. The university also said the lesson will never again
be used.
The Editor says...
Let's try the same assignment with "Mohammed" or "Martin Luther King" or even "Obama" on the paper and see what happens.
Scott to FAU:
Explain this Jesus-stomping incident to me, please. It started with a professor of intercultural communications (no,
seriously) at state-run Florida Atlantic University requiring students to write the name Jesus in large block letters on a piece of
paper, and then stomp on it. One student — one? — refused to comply and told the professor that he
would file a complaint over the assignment, which offended his religious beliefs. The school promptly punished the student,
who might still have been suspended had the case not attracted a large amount of media and legal attention, and hopefully a large number
of jaws hitting the pavement.
Florida
Atlantic issues new groveling apology over Jesus-stomping. The Florida Atlantic University student who allegedly ran
afoul of school administrators when he expressed discomfort with a professor's assignment to stomp on a piece of paper bearing the
word "Jesus," has won in an absolute rout. As late as Monday [3/25/2013], Fox News Radio was reporting that the student, devout
Mormon Ryan Rotela, faced a litany of academic charges involving "acts of verbal, written or physical abuse" and could no longer attend
class.
Why Public Schools Should Teach the
Bible: [Scroll down] The Bible has affected the world for centuries in innumerable ways, including art, literature,
philosophy, government, philanthropy, education, social justice and humanitarianism. One would think that a text of such
significance would be taught regularly in schools. Not so. That is because of the "stumbling block" (the Bible
again) that is posed by the powers that be in America. It's time to change that, for the sake of the nation's children. It's
time to encourage, perhaps even mandate, the teaching of the Bible in public schools as a primary document of Western civilization.
Teacher Fired for Giving Student Bible.
A longtime substitute teacher in Phillipsburg, NJ, has been fired after he shared a Bible verse with a student — and upon request
gave the child a Bible.
Washington
University holds porn star panel in main university chapel. At Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri,
students are perpetually lamenting the fact that their excellent Midwestern school isn't mentioned more often with Ivy-caliber
powerhouses. Well, this story probably isn't going to help.
No
exams on Wiccan, Pagan holidays at University of Missouri?. The university's latest "Guide to Religions: Major
Holidays and Suggested Accommodations" — designed to help faculty know when and when not to schedule exams and other student
activities — lists eight Wiccan and Pagan holidays and events right alongside more mainstream occasions. It's all part of
the school's effort to include everyone's beliefs, although some critics say listing every holiday associated with fringe belief
systems is a bit much.
Teacher Forced to Remove Reagan Quote, Bible Verses.
A New York public school teacher who advised a school Bible Study club has filed a civil rights lawsuit against her school district after she was
forced to remove all religious content from her classroom — including a quote from former President Ronald Reagan. Joelle
Silver, a veteran teacher in the Cheektowaga Central School District in western New York, said she received a "counseling letter" signed by her
superintendent that ordered her to remove all religious-themed items from her classroom or else she could be fired.
Teacher Reprimanded
for Giving Bible to Student. Walter Tutka is in big trouble. The substitute teacher, who has served for years in the Phillipsburg,
New Jersey, school district, is facing suspension after school officials learned that he gave a Bible to a student during a lunch hour on October 12.
Huckabee To Fox: 'Should We
Be Surprised' About School Carnage When We've 'Removed God From Schools'? "It's an interesting thing," [Mike] Huckabee said. "We ask why there's
violence in our schools but we've systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?
Because we've made it a place where we do not want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability. That we're not just going to have
to be accountable to the police, if they catch us, but we stand one day before a holy God in judgment."
School Orders 6-year-old to
Remove 'God' From Poem. A North Carolina community is embroiled in controversy after a school ordered a six-year-old girl
to remove the word "God" from a poem that she was supposed to read during a Veteran's Day ceremony. The girl is a first-grader at
West Marion Elementary School. She was supposed to read a poem written to honor her two grandfathers who had served during the
Vietnam War.
School Removes God From
First-Grader's Poem. When the word "God" becomes inappropriate in public schools, America really has ceased to exist.
Consider the story of a first-grade girl in West Marion, North Carolina, who had the word "God" stripped from a poem she wrote and was
going to read at her school's Veterans Day assembly earlier this month. The poem honored her two grandfathers who served during
the Vietnam War.
Atheists cry foul over 'A Charlie
Brown Christmas'. Charlie Brown's Christmas is on the outs at an elementary school in Little Rock, Ark. — at least
among atheists who are calling foul over a planned student trip to see a stage production of the beloved Peanuts story. The trouble
began when students at Terry Elementary School brought home letters detailing the trip to see "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at a local church,
according to a report from Arkansas' KARK. A parent who had a problem with the play's content notified the local atheist group of the
field trip.
The Bible as a Textbook.
Every licensed and certified teacher in this country knows that America's first textbook was the Bible; yes, years before McGuffey's Reader was
even a thought, children in this country learned to read and write using the Bible. Yet there is far more to this story than the founders
declaring America as a Christian nation or even the Bible being the first textbook for students. We suggest what is between the covers
is so valuable to our youth particularly those who are in elementary school.
When God Left the Classroom. When we baby-boomers
were kids, we started each and every day of our elementary-school education with a nondenominational prayer. It felt so safe, so familiar, so
secure. It was simply a statement that Something in this world was bigger than we were and that Someone up there was watching over us.
Being nondenominational, no mention was made of what each child called a Father in heaven. To a little kid in elementary school, it didn't
matter. Each child knew what the Deity was called in his or her life, and this prayer was simply an extension of what kids were taught at
home. Then came a new wave in America. God became taboo; every group in this country not represented by a religious organization rebelled
and fought to keep God out of the public schools.
Is the Bible a Textbook? The Bible was the textbook of early
America, as it has been for Christians throughout the centuries. Today, however, it is fashionable and sophisticated to assert that the Bible
is not a textbook of biology, or of politics, or of economics, or of whatever discipline the sophisticate happens to be considering.
History of America's Education Part 3. It may surprise many to
know that the Bible was truly the first textbook. The New Haven Code of 1655 required that children be made "able duly to read the Scriptures...
and in some competent measure to understand the main grounds and principles of Christian Religion necessary to salvation."
The Bible in Schools. In a day and age when our society embraces
moral relativism and religious relativism, in a day and age when these demented philosophies have produced more major problems than we seem to be
able to grapple with, and in a day and age that refuses to turn to God in the midst of escalating licentiousness and decadence, the words of our
wise forefathers need so much to be considered and applied.
The Editor says...
I doubt if one public school student out of a hundred could define licentiousness, even though they see it every day.
Judge
expected to rule in Bible verse banner suit. A judge stopped an East Texas school district on Thursday [10/18/2012]
from barring cheerleaders from quoting Bible verses on banners at high school football games, saying the policy appears to violate
their free speech rights.
Bah, humbug! No Christmas play here.
Yes, in another one of those "only in Davis" moments, officials of the Davis Joint Unified School District have stepped in to cancel Emerson Junior High
School's production of a stage version of Charles Dickens' 1843 classic, "A Christmas Carol." The reason: that ugly word "Christmas."
Students in the play were informed of the decision at Monday's [10/8/2012] rehearsal.
The irreconcilable conflict.
[Scroll down] Consider first American values, as seen from an ACLU point of view. Our establishment holds that not only is
there to be a wall of separation between church and state, all symbols of religious belief are to be expunged from public institutions
and the public square. [...] From America's schools, religion has been relentlessly purged. No prayers, no Bibles, no Christian symbols,
no Ten Commandments. And into these godless madrassas of modernity has come compulsory sex education starting in the early grades,
with condoms handed out to the sexually active.
Atheist
Group Attacks Schools in Tennessee, Mississippi Over Prayer at Athletic Events. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which
has gained its reputation (and a tidy living for its employees) by suing school districts and municipalities over public prayer, has chosen schools
in Mississippi and Tennessee as its latest targets. According to the Mississippi Press website, the Wisconsin-based atheist group has threatened
all 151 Mississippi school superintendents with lawsuits if they allow prayer over public address systems during school football games.
Group Aims to Silence Prayer at Football
Games. Weekends in the Deep South are anchored by two long-cherished traditions — church on Sunday and football on Friday. And it's
no surprise that in many Southern cities and towns football and faith go hand-in-hand. That is certainly the case in Southaven, Miss. where football
season generates a revival-like fervor — where traditions are treasured. For decades, before the first pigskin was passed, before the glee
club sang of the "rocket's red glare," the crowd would be summoned to their feet. Hats were removed. Heads were bowed. And for just a
moment — a hush fell over the stadium as a student delivered an invocation.
Secular
Humanism: America's Establishment of Religion. Although the U.S. Constitution forbids the creation of a national
establishment of religion, the closest we have come to the creation of such an establishment is that of Secular Humanism, the
worldview philosophy that now governs the curriculum of our tax-funded public schools. Some humanists claim that secular
humanism is a religion; other humanists claim that it isn't. However, In March 1987, U.S. District Judge W. Brevard
Hand ruled that Secular Humanism was a religion. Indeed, Phyllis Schlafly, a graduate of Harvard Law School, wrote in 1980,
"Secular Humanism has become the established religion in the U.S. public school system."
Public schools: teaching reading,
writing, and... the Koran? You can't have a moment of silence in public school anymore because someone is offended. People
are pushing to have the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance stopped because it has "God" in it. Christmas trees are removed, Christmas
pageants are renamed "holiday pageants", and every shred of Christianity is being removed, bit by bit, by those who scream "separation of church
and state!" Yet in Minneapolis at Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school, children are being taught Islam and the Koran on
the public taxpayers dime, and no one questions it or says a word.
School
Removes 'God' From "We Are The World". A Virginia school district is facing a mountain of criticism
after a grade school music teacher edited references to God in an upcoming performance of the song "We Are The
World" so that non-Christians would not be offended.
The
American separation of church and state is a myth — just ask Barack Obama. In Massachusetts, an
elementary school found itself in trouble this week when it cut the word "God" out of a rendition of "God Bless the USA."
Singer Lee Greenwood, who first released the tune in 1984, was furious. He said, that "God" was "The most important word
in the whole piece of music," and pointed out that that it's regularly played at naturalization ceremonies. Yet officials
at the Stall Brook Elementary School obviously thought that there was no place even for the word "God" in a public (for Brits
read "state funded") school.
Lee
Greenwood: We can't take God out of the song. Lee Greenwood, the singer of "God Bless the U.S.A.,"
responded to the Massachusetts elementary school that removed the word "God" from his popular patriotic song, and
then amid controversy pulled the song altogether from the children's concert.
Bellingham
Elementary School Changes "God Bless the USA" to "We Love the USA". It's a popular song spanning several
decades, lined with patriotism. However, one Massachusetts school wanted to change the words to Lee Greenwood's
"God Bless the U.S.A." to remove the religious reference. Our FOX affiliate in Boston, WFXT-TV, is reporting that
officials at the Stall Brook Elementary School in Bellingham wanted to change some of the lyrics to Greenwood's song
during an upcoming school production.
School
Threatens to Remove Student From Honors Society Over Church Work. A Virginia high school is
threatening to remove a student from the National Honor Society because she completed her community service
work at a local church. The 17-year-old senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
filed a federal lawsuit claiming that she is a victim of religious discrimination.
Update: School
Reinstates Honor Student Punished Over Religious Service Work. A Virginia school district said
they would reverse a decision to remove a student from the National Honor Society just hours after the student
filed a federal lawsuit accusing the district of religious discrimination.
School Vs.
Church: Fairfax Backs Down. Religious freedom and an about face for Fairfax County schools.
A high school honor student sued the school district after an advisor refused to credit her for volunteer hours
she served at her church. But now the schools have decided to give the unnamed girl the credits — and
reinstate her to the honor society.
UNC-Greensboro
Declares Christianity Not a Religion. A 2010 Supreme Court case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, is
beginning to wreak havoc with the accepted standard (and the First Amendment right to free assembly) that student
organizations can restrict membership and leadership roles to those who accept their basic beliefs. Just
a few weeks after the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill convened a task force to explore eliminating
the right to exclude non-believers, a second UNC school has started down that path.
Lawsuit:
University Ordered Christian Club to Allow Non-Christian Leaders. The University of North Carolina-Greensboro
has ordered a Christian club to allow non-Christians as leaders and members, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday
[2/29/2012]. "The university has given itself the authority to determine whether a group is religious or not," said
Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.
Ten
Commandments in school? Georgia House unanimously votes yes. The Associated Press reports that the bill,
sponsored by Republican state Rep. Tommy Benton, passed the state House unanimously Tuesday [2/28/2012] on a 161-0 vote, and
is well-positioned to pass the state Senate. Benton, a retired middle-school teacher, argues that the commandments are
of great educational and historical value, and a key influence on the American legal system. His bill notes that a "basic
knowledge of American constitutional history is important to the formation of civic virtue in our society."
Why is
school prayer only allowed during tragedies? Liberals have successfully banished God from the
classroom, replacing Him with the manmade god of secularism. Yet in times of great tragedy, school
leaders inevitably seek guidance and solace from the same God they've expelled.
Is Obama's America God's Country?
An early triumph of secularism came with the Scopes trial in 1923 in Dayton, Tenn. Clarence Darrow, defending a
teacher who had violated state law by introducing Darwin's theory of evolution into the classroom, mocked the Old
Testament teachings of the Evangelical Christians, to the merriment of the establishment. From that day on,
Darwinism was taught in our schools, first as theory, then as fact, then as higher truth. With the Darwinian
tenet — we evolved, we were not created — established truth in the public schools, secularism
set about driving its enemy, Christianity, out completely. Under the Warren Court in the 1950s and 1960s, it
succeeded. All Christian commandments, holidays, prayers, pageants and plays were gone.
ACLU,
atheist teen cheer decision to remove school prayer banner. The Rhode Island American Civil Liberties
Union and an atheist teen, who was offended by the display of a 49-year-old prayer banner at her high school, are
claiming victory after a school committee decided not to continue defending the banner. In a 5-2 vote, the
Cranston School Committee decided Thursday evening [2/16/2012] not to appeal last month's federal ruling on a Rhode
Island ACLU lawsuit filed on behalf of atheist Cranston High School West junior Jessica Ahlquist. The lawsuit
demanded the removal of that banner.
One more reason to resort to home schooling: Sheboygan
elementary school bars student from giving religious valentines. In preparation for Valentine's Day, second-grader
Dexter Thielhelm worked with his mom and siblings to create valentines of candy and a special message of love for his friends at
James Madison Elementary School. He filled empty water bottles with candy and included a rolled-up verse from the Bible with
the message, "Jesus loves you." The valentines never reached the hands of his friends, however, because school officials
collected them before they could be distributed.
Praying for
guidance. The state Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill that allows school boards to allow
students to give inspirational messages, which is to say pray, at student functions held in public schools.
The House is taking up a similar measure. The bill is carefully worded, and we believe it will be
found constitutional.
Judge orders removal of
school prayer mural. A federal judge has ordered the immediate removal of a Christian prayer mural
displayed in the auditorium of a Rhode Island high school, saying it violated a U.S. constitutional ban on
state-sponsored prayer in public schools. U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux rejected the school's claims
that the message in the mural — which opens with "Our Heavenly Father" and closes with "Amen" — was
purely secular.
We Know
More About Jesus's Birth Than Obama's. At least since Darwin, cynics like [Paul] Mirecki have
been working to subvert Christianity under the guise of religious studies. The notorious, 150-scholar
strong "Jesus Seminar" would seem to have no higher calling. As the record will show, however, the
subversives have not succeeded. The story of Jesus's birth, as well as his death, remains as rooted in
the historical record as it was before these researchers began their unholy labors.
TN School Tells Coaches Not to Bow Heads During
Prayer. Football coaches in Sumner County, Tennessee, are in trouble for bowing their heads
during a student-led prayer. ... Step by step democrats are erasing Chrisitianity from American culture.
ACLU
Suing School District for Ten Commandments Display. The ACLU is targeting a Virginia
school district for displaying the Ten Commandments in one of its high schools. "The American
Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed the lawsuit [September 13th] against Giles County School
Board in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on behalf of an unidentified Narrows High School student and
the student's parent," reported the Washington Post. "The lawsuit says the display
unconstitutionally promotes a specific religious faith and serves no secular purpose."
The Editor asks...
Which "specific religious faith" is promoted by the display of the Ten Commandments? It is common to both
Judaism and Christianity. The ACLU is painting with a very broad brush.
Telling the Time without Jesus.
"Australia's new school curriculum will swap all "BC" and "AD" textbook references with the more politically
correct "BCE" (Before Common Era) and "CE" (Common Era) terms, a decision that is prompting anger from many
Christians. ... The removal of the Christian Saviour from the classroom isn't just underway in Australia.
It has been in the works, worldwide, for decades.
Lawsuit
Filed Against Texas School District to Stop Prayer During Graduation. A federal lawsuit was
filed Friday [5/27/2011] by the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to prevent a Texas school
district from allowing prayer during graduation, according to FoxSanAntonio.com. ... The group wants the school
district to remove a student-led invocation and benediction, but the school district says that the remarks do
not violate any laws or school policy, according to the Express.
Court lifts ban on graduation
prayer. The ruling Friday [6/3/2011] reverses the decision of a lower court that sided with an
agnostic family who sued the school district.
Update: Another Vote On School
Prayer. For the fourth year in a row, Missouri lawmakers will make another attempt to pass
legislation to allow prayer in public schools and government buildings. The bill was passed in Senate
Committee unanimously. The House has already passed the legislation and some lawmakers are optimistic
the full Senate will follow suit.
Prayer
service at city school called improper. A Baltimore principal's decision to use prayer in
preparation for recent statewide tests is drawing criticism as improperly mixing religion and public
education. ... An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, called the event a clear
violation of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits organized prayer in public school settings.
The Editor says...
Show me the section of the U.S. Constitution that "prohibits organized prayer in public school
settings." There is nothing in the Constitution that says any such thing; in fact, the
First Amendment guarantees "the free exercise thereof."
UK
e-mails detail concern over scientist's faith. University of Kentucky scientists wondered to
each other in internal e-mails if an astronomer's Christian faith would interfere with a prestigious job as
the director of a new student observatory, according to court records in the man's discrimination case set
for trial in February.
HS test
'slams' Christianity, lauds Islam. State testmakers played favorites when quizzing high-schoolers
on world religions — giving Islam and Buddhism the kid-gloves treatment while socking it to Christianity,
critics say. Teachers complain that the reading selections from the Regents exam in global history and
geography given last week featured glowing passages pertaining to Muslim society but much more critical essay
excerpts on the subject of Christianity.
MCLU v. TiZA, cont'd. We've
written a lot about the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy K-8 public charter school in suburban St. Paul. It
appears to be is an Islamic school operating illegally at taxpayer expense. Among other things, the school's
principal is an imam and almost all of its students are Muslim. It is housed in a building that was owned
originally by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. The study of Arabic is required at the school.
The Arabic comes in handy for the Koranic studies that follow the regular school day. The ACLU Minnesota has
brought a lawsuit challenging the legality of the school's operation on public funds; the lawsuit is pending in
federal court in Minnesota.
Parents
outraged over finance class reading. The parents of a Bedford teen are calling for the ouster of school
officials who assigned their son a book that refers to Jesus Christ as a "wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist."
"We had almost PhD people letting this fumble through their fingers, and they all said it was grand," said Dennis Taylor, a
conservative Christian. "I think there should be a review of these individuals and perhaps some firing done."
'Diversity'
Perversity: NY Schools Teaching Whitewashed Islamic History. The egregious bias in this
exam, and its structured, requisite evaluation by teachers, is transparent and disturbing. Two examples
of complementary "Official Historical Documents" which students are required to read and discuss —
one pertaining to Islamic Spain, the other Reconquista Christian Spain — along with very specific
teacher evaluation guidelines they must satisfy for the best grade, epitomize the naked indoctrination being
promoted.
Islamist Propaganda
in the K-12 Classrom. A highly disturbing phenomenon is rising in our public school system today
with hardly a peep of protest from parents and from our society at large: students are being force-fed a
curious and bizarre narrative that presents Islam in a glowing — and historically mangled —
light, while Western civilization and the Judeo-Christian tradition are demonized and smeared.
Christian
student sues ASU. An Augusta State University graduate student is facing dismissal from
the university's counseling program unless she silences her convictions on homosexuality and gender
identity, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Jennifer Keeton, 24, plans to press forward
with her lawsuit against the university if she is not allowed to retain her biblical viewpoints and remain
a graduate student at ASU, according to the complaint filed by the Alliance Defense Fund.
Choose: Christ or your Masters
Degree. I recently read a thought provoking article about the issue of growing religious
persecution of Christians on an American University Campus that likely happens on other campuses.
Should this graduate student at Augusta State University have to believe a prescribed political ideology
disguised as a code of ethics in order to receive a counseling degree? Or should that student have
the right to her freedom of speech and religion, and an equal opportunity in society?
Bashing
Christians at the University of Florida. Fraternities that host beer bashes are more than
welcome at the University of Florida. A Christian fraternity is not welcome. But that's about to
change. The U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the university to recognize Beta Upsilon Chi. The
Christian fraternity had been banned from the Greek system because they require members to be Christians.
That's religious discrimination, according to the University of Florida.
Illinois University Professor Fired for Being
Catholic. [Scroll down] And so it is that a Catholic professor at the University of Illinois
has recently had his employment terminated. What for? The university hired him to teach two
courses, Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought, during the course of which he had the
effrontery to educate his students in the natural law philosophy which informs the Catholic Church's teaching
that homosexual acts are sinful. That's philosophy, not theology.
Illiberal Education.
Kenneth Howell was booted from his job at the University of Illinois for teaching Catholicism. His job at
the University of Illinois, as it happens, was teaching Catholicism. After more than two months of controversy
over a firing that should have never have happened, he has been offered his job back. The turnaround
underscores the scandal that continues at core institutions of our Western culture. The incident exposes,
once again, the lie that is the popular conception of "tolerance," so conventionally in vogue and by no
coincidence a tenet of left-wing ideology.
Update: University Reinstates Professor Terminated for Teaching
Catholic Doctrine on Homosexuality. A professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
(UIUC), who was purportedly accused of "hate speech" and relieved of his teaching duties for teaching Catholic
doctrine on homosexuality in his introductory class on Catholicism, will be allowed to teach the class again
this fall.
School
District Sued for Banning Bibles on Religious Freedom Day. For years, the Collier County School
district allowed a local Christian organization, World Changers of Florida, to distribute free Bibles to interested
students during off-school hours on January 16 for Religious Freedom Day. Now the group is filing suit
after being told by the school board that it can no longer distribute the Bibles on campus because they do not
provide any educational benefit to the students.
Connecticut
School Removes Lord Reference in High School Diplomas. Seniors at a New Haven, Conn., high
school will not be graduating "in the year of our Lord" this year — or any future years, according
to the superintendent of schools. The school district has removed the traditional phrase from high
school diplomas after someone complained.
Michigan school practices 11 p.m.
to 4 a.m. A Michigan high school football team is holding preseason practices in the middle of
the night to help its Muslim players practice both faith and football. The predominantly Muslim squad from
Dearborn says the nocturnal regimen is a way for players to eat and drink while observing the holy month of
daytime fasting known as Ramadan that started last week.
The Editor says...
Keep in mind this is going on at a public school. Imagine the outcry if the schedule were
rearranged to accomodate a Christian (or Jewish) holiday season. The "theocracy" alarmists would be
out in full force, and within days, the Christians would be told that they simply can't be accomodated.
In Texas, football trumps almost everything, and the wishes of the minorities trump everything else.
In Michigan, apparently, Islam trumps almost everything, and football trumps the remainder.
God in Our
Classrooms. James Madison acknowledged God's favor in our founding in Federalist 37
referring to "a finger of that almighty hand, which has been so frequently and signally extended to our
relief in the critical stages of the revolution." I dare say that men like Madison and Cushing would not
recognize the America of today, filled with politicians afraid to confess their faith or educators fearful of
offending the sensibilities of their students with any mention of God.
Banning
prayer in schools hurts public morality. My first memory of the 23rd Psalm is not from hearing
it in a church, but in school. I distinctly remember hearing a Miss Pemberton in my kindergarten class.
The year must have been 1956, maybe 1957. ... What harm did the reading of all those passages of the 23rd Psalm
do to me? The answer is none at all.
Judge:
Church Graduations are Unconstitutional. It's unclear what was more offensive — the
cross or the stained glass. Regardless, a federal judge ruled two Connecticut high school cannot hold
their graduation ceremonies inside a church — because it would be an unconstitutional endorsement
of religion.
Court OKs barring
religious music at graduation. The justices denied a 12th-grade musician's appeal of a ruling
in September by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The appeals court said school
officials' decision to keep the graduation program secular was a reasonable effort to avoid a constitutional
controversy and did not violate students' rights.
Islamic Indoctrination vs.
Education: Under their curriculum on the Ancient World, the New York State public schools as well
as many other states around the country, require students to be taught about Islam, the spread of Islam, the
Golden Age of Islam and the conflict between Muslims and Christians as part of the Crusades. That topic
almost always turns political and accusatory when Muslims get very emotional about their history, jihad and
religion. Islam by nature is extremely political and promotes a very elaborate legal system that Muslims
must live under. To accommodate Islamic education with Western principals of freedom and the Bill of Rights
is an impossible task. The two ideologies are at opposite poles in terms of the role of government, human
rights, as well as women and minority rights.
Imagine No God in Our
Nation's Classrooms. All high school math teacher Bradley Johnson wanted to do was honor our nation's
history and religious heritage the same way he always had. For twenty five years, a red, white and blue-striped
banner adorned his classroom walls with national maxims such as "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God," "God Bless
America," and "God Shed his Grace On Thee." A second banner accompanied it, containing an excerpt from the
Declaration of Independence, "All Men are Created Equal and They Are Endowed by Their Creator." But displaying
a portion of the Declaration of Independence and other national mottos was just too offensive to the Poway Unified
School District in San Diego.
Indiana School Removes 'Allah' From
Holiday Show After Protests. An elementary school in Indiana reportedly removed a mention of
Allah in its holiday show after protests from a national conservative Christian group. Lantern Road
Elementary Principal Danielle Thompson told IndyStar.com that school officials in Fishers, Ind., attempted
to teach inclusiveness through the second-grade program that included portions on Christmas, Hanukkah,
Ramadan, Las Posadas and Kwanzaa.
The Editor says...
One thing is certain: The kids will grow up without any religious foundation if they
are taught that all religions are equally valid and interchangeable.
Mayor:
School boss should apologize to boy who drew cross. Taunton Mayor Charles Crowley called School
Superintendent Julie Hackett from his vacation today [12/15/2009] and asked her to apologize both privately and
publicly to the family of an 8-year-old special needs student sent home from school and ordered to undergo
psychological testing after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ nailed to the cross.
Kid Draws Jesus; Required To Undergo A Psychological Evaluation.
Shortly after attending the lovely Christmas display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro,
Massachusetts, an eight year old boy with special needs drew a picture of Jesus in class. The teacher
had asked students to draw something that reminded them of Christmas, so the boy drew a stick figure Jesus.
Because of that picture, the boy was sent home from school for drawing a "violent" picture and he was required
to undergo a psychological evaluation.
Court OKs barring religious
tunes at graduation. A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday [9/8/2009] upheld a school district's refusal
to let a band play a religious piece at a high school graduation, saying the superintendent had reasonably decided to avoid
a constitutional controversy by ordering a secular program.
What Johnny Needs to Learn
about Islam. In the past, American textbooks were prone to two great pitfalls: Either they dealt
with Islam superficially or they presented it in the manner preferred and promoted by well-funded defenders of Islamic
extremism. A hallmark of that latter view is an emphasis on the unity of Islam, which is portrayed as simple,
monolithic, and benign. The wide range of belief and practice between Sunni, Shia, and Sufi Islam, to name
only the best-known variations, is downplayed, and the problems of Islam, especially violent jihad, are simply
left out.
Appeals
Court: School district can ban Christmas carols. The federal appeals court in
Philadelphia has upheld a New Jersey school district's ban on religious songs during the Christman
holiday season. In their ruling, three judges of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals noted that
such songs were once common in public schools, but that times have changed.
The Editor says...
Perhaps the times have changed, but the First Amendment has not changed.
Cheerleaders'
religious signs draw fire. Community members are rallying around Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High
School cheerleaders after they were banned from displaying signs with Bible verses urging fans and players to
"commit to the Lord" and "take courage and do it." The banners — the paper ones that
football players crash through at the beginning of games — have been common sights in the
school's football stadium since 2003, local officials say.
Schoolhouse Shariah. California's
educrats have put out new rules for teaching Islamic studies to seventh-graders in public schools, and they are as biased as
ever. They'll also likely spread eastward. The lesson guidelines adopted by the bellwether state whitewash the
violence and oppression of women codified in Islamic law, or Shariah. And they're loaded with revisionist history
about the faith.
Religious
Liberty Stops at the Schoolhouse Door. In public school classrooms across the country, religious
liberty is under assault. Last month in Florida, two Christian student leaders at Pace High School were
barred from speaking at their graduation ceremony due to fears they might mention their faith in violation of a
court order stemming from an anti-religious lawsuit filed by the ACLU. ... In Pennsylvania, the 3rd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals has upheld an order banning Donna Kay Busch from reading passages from her son Wesley's favorite
book — the Bible — as part of his show-and-tell presentation. And in Texas, the
Chairman of the State School Board was recently ousted when the Senate decided that his kooky creationist
beliefs constituted a tangible threat to young minds everywhere.
Illinois Moment of Silence Ruled
Unconstitutional. A federal judge has ruled that a state law requiring a moment of silence in
public schools across Illinois is unconstitutional, saying it crosses the line separating church and state.
"The statute is a subtle effort to force students at impressionable ages to contemplate religion," U.S. District
Judge Robert W. Gettleman said in his ruling Wednesday. ... Adam Schwartz, senior staff counsel of the
American Civil Liberties Union, said the organization was pleased with the decision "to strike down a statewide
law that coerced children to pray as part of an organized activity in our public schools."
The Editor says...
Since when is silence considered a religion?
The
atheist indoctrination project: It seems atheists have developed a comprehensive strategy to win
the minds of the next generation. The strategy can be described simply: let the religious people
breed them, and we will educate them to despise their parents' beliefs. Many people think that the secularization
of the minds of our young people is the inevitable consequence of learning and maturing. In fact, it is
to a large degree orchestrated by teachers and professors to promote anti-religious agendas.
Liberal
Censorship and Its Roots: [Scroll down slowly] I believe this arrogant attitude can
largely be traced to the top-down indoctrination in our schools, cultural institutions and media that
liberalism is morally superior because it is tolerant, diverse, intellectual and enlightened. This
view holds that conservative expression doesn't deserve constitutional protection because it is inherently
evil. As one liberal academic administrator said in justifying his Draconian action in suppressing a
Christian viewpoint, "We cannot tolerate the intolerable."
Freedom
to be illiterate: The Song of Solomon and the Sermon on the Mount, which
have inspired creative genius for centuries, are denied to students in public high
schools because the faiths from which they spring continue to thrive.
Rutherford Institute Issues
Guidelines for Graduation Commencements. The Rutherford Institute has issued guidelines for
constitutionally permissible ways to incorporate prayer and religious expression into graduation ceremonies
without violating the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as certain practices that
should be avoided.
ACLU Cannot Force School Districts to
Censor Graduations. The graduating seniors at the six high schools in the Ouachita Parish School
District voted to have a fellow student give a message during this week's graduation ceremonies. Up in
arms over the possibility the students will include religious themes or prayer at graduation, the ACLU issued
a letter accusing the district of "trying to do an end-run around the Constitution with the so-called
student-led prayers." The ACLU wants the district to censor prayer and religious messages from
graduation, even if presented by students.
Forward
this Column or Get Stuck on Stupid. If your kid comes home from college one day and tells you that
your Christian faith is stupid, welcome to the world in which I live. The college environment does that
to our kids. It makes good Christian students stupid. By that I mean it turns them into liberals,
atheists, or both.
Coach loses job amid Muslim-Christian
concerns. A high school principal in Dearborn, Mich., has dismissed a longtime wrestling coach after
complaints from Muslim parents that the coach's former assistant — an evangelical Christian pastor —
was trying to convert Muslim students into Christians. … Imad Fadlallah, head of Fordson High School, decided this
month not to renew the contract of Marszalek, who has coached wrestling at Fordson for 35 years.
Christians
Under Attack by Government School Bureaucrats. Oak Lawn, Illinois, school kids are going to have
to do without Halloween, Christmas and Easter activities thanks to the sensitive bureaucrats who fear offending
Muslims. The schools' administrators claim they've received a number complaints that the activities are
offensive, particularly to Muslim students. … Observers say they expect that this latest announcement is
going to increase the tension that has been building since school officials agreed at the start of the school
year to adjust the students' lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate the Muslim students.
Mention God? Don't
you dare. Brittany McComb, valedictorian of Foothill High School in Clark County, Nevada,
stood up at her graduation and began to speak. A few paragraphs into her speech, school administrators
cut off McComb's microphone. She didn't tell a dirty joke. She didn't curse. She didn't
insult her classmates or her teachers. Brittany McComb committed the egregious sin of attempting to
thank God and Jesus.
Christ at
Commencement. The most active force in suppressing speech at high school
graduation ceremonies is the ACLU.
Virginia High School
Forbids Pictures of People Praying. A Yorktown, Virginia, public high school is facing
a federal lawsuit after stripping Christian-themed posters off a teacher's wall. The school plans
to argue that the posters are inappropriate because they portray presidents George Washington and
George W. Bush in prayer.
School
flap over 'prayer', PA system leads to lawsuit. The Alliance Defense Fund is
suing the Deer Valley Unified School District for not allowing a Christian student group to
use the school's PA system. Mountain Ridge High School's Common Cause Club wanted to
invited students to a prayer meeting after school.
Veteran teacher sues employer
over prohibition of 'Judeo-Christian' banners. A Christian teacher is suing a San Diego school
district he has taught in for three decades, accusing it of purging classrooms of the country's religious
heritage and history. The district ordered the teacher to remove banners from his classroom walls that
included mottos and slogans promoting what school officials consider a "Judeo-Christian" viewpoint.
Child's 'Jesus' drawing crux
of federal lawsuit. All Antonio Peck wanted to do was to show that his faith in Jesus played a
part in his concern for the environment. But the poster he drew caught the attention of school officials,
who decided that the "Jesus" half of the poster needed to be folded under before it went on display.
The Rights of Religious
Student Groups in Public Schools. As students across the country return to the classroom, they
will encounter a social climate that continues to become more tolerant toward various "alternative
lifestyles." At times, however, it seems that mainstream America has become more tolerant toward every
social group except Christians who are vocal about their faith. In a wide array of contexts, including
the public school system, the rights of Christians to verbalize their faith in the public arena have been
under attack.
The Legality of using the Bible in school
curriculum: When some people are trying to completely remove the Bible from schools, students'
rights are being violated. Textbook publishers are censoring history when they give us misrepresented
versions, empty of religion. Chief Justice Warren Berger said that the Constitution does not require
complete separation of church and state. It mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance of all
religions and forbids hostility toward any.
5-year old censored by NY school will get
his day in court. 5-year old Antonio Peck had no idea when he turned in his homework
assignment — a poster about protecting the environment — that it would land
him in federal court. … It featured, among other things, a cut out picture of
Jesus — something he reportedly thought applicable to the environment,
and the assignment.
Kindergarten
Teacher Censors Child. A kindergartener was rebuffed in front of the class as
the girl read from a Christian book. It was the child's turn to be "star of the
week." … About half way through this sharing time, the instructor interrupted
the child and told the girl she needed to read her other book because pupils weren't
allowed to read books about God in class.
Lawyer
wants Jesus off school wall. An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer has asked a West
Virginia high school to remove a picture of Jesus Christ that has hung at the school for
40 years.
Schools are
distorting Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday,
a time to reflect on the many blessings bestowed on this great nation while enjoying the
company of family and friends. It's hard to imagine that anyone could consider the
celebration controversial or feel the need to censor Thanksgiving discussions among
schoolchildren. But when it comes to political correctness, no holiday is safe.
Rant and
chant: No one at the public university objected to the class ending
with incense, candles, and prayers. After all, these weren't Christian prayers.
Stealing
Black History: Deleting God from the black experience in
America is cutting the heart out of a people's story.
Update: District
sued over "Day of the Dead": The United States
Justice Foundation argues in a lawsuit that McNear Elementary
and the Petaluma City School District are violating the Establishment
Clause of the First Amendment by promoting religion.
Lawsuit Challenges NJ Schools' Christmas Music
Ban. A New Jersey school system has been sued over its ban on traditional Christmas music. The
Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a parent and his two
children, challenging the Maplewood Public School District's prohibition of all religious music. The lawsuit
contends that the district's policy was implemented to prevent students and student groups from playing traditional
Christmas music at school events during the 2004 holiday season.
Liberals' efforts to purge "Christmas"
have backfired. This is nothing to do with Christianity. "A Christmas Carol" is a secular
work — there's no more God or Jesus in it than there is in "White Christmas." And, if works
of music that reference God are banned from schools, that cuts out a big chunk of the aural glories of this
world, including the best of Bach and Mozart. Forbidding children from being exposed to Handel and
Dickens is an act of vandalism and, in the end, will eliminate any rationale for a public education system.
ACLJ's Position on
Education: Perhaps more than in any other arena, Christians find that their
values and beliefs are under continual attack in the nation's public schools. Although
there are exceptions throughout the country, as a rule, the public educational establishment
increasingly embraces liberal ideology and secularism, sometimes to the point of hostility
against religion, particularly Christianity.
Can the Bible be
Used as Part of the Curriculum of the School? Yes! In Stone v.
Graham [449 U.S. 39 (1980)], the Supreme Court said, "the Bible may constitutionally
be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion,
or the like."
School Rebuked for Barring Anti-Sodomy
Clergy from Event. A Michigan high school is paying a high price for censoring a Catholic
student's views against homosexuality during the school's annual "Diversity Week" program. Last
December, Judge Gerald Rosen ruled that Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor violated the United States
Constitution's establishment clause by holding a one-sided forum on "Homosexuality and Religion" that only
included pro-homosexual clergy members. The school rejected student Betsy Hansen's request to
include a panel member who would express her Roman Catholic views against homosexuality.
School District Contends
State Law Requires It To Discriminate Against Religious Groups. California
state law requires that public school facilities be open to the public for
after-school use. Although the District complies with this law, it established a
discriminatory usage fee in which religious groups are charged but secular groups
are not. The District Policy forbids free use of school facilities for "services
and events conducted by religious groups."
District censures worker for
"prayer e-mail": An e-mail that passed along President Bush's proclamation of the National
Day of Prayer got a Dallas public school employee in trouble with her supervisors, according to a federal
lawsuit filed yesterday by the public interest firm American Center for Law and Justice.
"Easter" dropped from food
drive: A high school volunteer food drive that was forced to change its name wrapped up yesterday
[3/18/2002] before one student succeeded in his goal of resurrecting its proposed title:
"Easter Canned Drive."
Mom Sues
After Bible Reading Barred at Her Child's School. Last October,
Donna Busch was invited to visit her son Wesley's kindergarten class in Philadelphia
and to take part in "Me Week." As the featured student of the week, Wesley
was allowed to choose his favorite book and have his mother read an excerpt from it aloud
to the class at Culbertson Elementary. But when Wesley chose the Bible as his
preferred book, his mother was barred from reading a passage from Psalm 118
because of its religious content.
Recess
not time for Bible study, schools attorney says. Students may not read
their Bibles during recess, according to an attorney for the Knox County public school
system in Tennessee. So why then did this only become an issue when several students
asked to hold a recess-time Bible study?
School administrator
to student: "Leave your faith in the car". A federal civil rights lawsuit
charges that the Poway Unified School District violated the constitutional rights of a student
and censored his free speech. The school district threatened further punishment and
suspended the student for expressing his religious faith on a T-shirt during a school day
designated to promote homosexual behavior. A school administrator told the student
to "leave his faith in the car" when his faith might offend others.
Schools Scrap Religious
Holidays. After weeks of delay and debate, the Hillsborough County [Florida] School Board
approved a 2006-07 calendar minus holidays for Yom Kippur, Good Friday or the Muslim holiday
Eid Al-Fitr. … Only board member Jennifer Faliero voted against the new calendar, saying she
checked with other lawyers and believes Good Friday is a secular holiday: "It is now about the
Easter Bunny. … They have taken religion out of it completely."
Temple University
Faces Suit After Trying to Have Christian Student Committed. Back
in 1999 Temple University sponsored the controversial and blasphemous play
Corpus Christi, in which Christ is portrayed as a homosexual. Michael Marcavage,
then a Christian student at the Philadelphia school, complained to administrators. Temple
officials eventually tried to have Marcavage committed to a mental institution because of
his opposition to the play.
BC is not PC for
students. In what's perceived as a case of political
correctness trumping history and everyday usage, students in Australia are now
seeing the calendar term B.C. — which stands for "Before Christ" — being
replaced with BCE, meaning "Before Common Era." "This is political correctness gone
mad," Shadow Education Minister Jillian Skinner told the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
Editor's Note: Recently
my wife had the opportunity to serve as a math tutor for a high school student who
had never heard of the terms BC and AD. In his suburban public school
they use the terms BC and BCE instead.
Worst
commencement speakers of 2004: Graduation ceremonies themselves are being
used to pound home some final liberal body blows. At the 50 highest-ranked
undergraduate universities (according to U.S. News & World Report), liberals overwhelmingly
dominate the list of graduation speakers.
Big
Brother? Of Course!! We could debate whether or not the actual purpose
of public education is to produce a populace of virtual idiots, but regardless, that has been
the effect. The elimination of any reference to traditional standards of morality from
the curriculum is also sadly evident from the behavior of these wretches.
Supreme Court Rules Against State Money for
Theology Students: The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a major blow to Christian students who major
in theology at public universities. The justices say states may withhold scholarships from students who
are studying theology — even if they make that same money available to students who are studying
something else.
Student broadcaster suspended for
saying "God bless". A high school student dismissed from his school broadcast program for signing
off with "God bless" is rallying community members to his side. James Lord, a senior at Dupo High School
in Dupo, Ill., was suspended for one month from his daily news broadcast on the school's closed circuit television
after signing off his Dec. 17 broadcast, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.
Do
Public Schools Have a Prayer? Supreme Court rulings have sought to stifle
prayer at school-related activities, but students, parents, and school officials have
found ways to continue to pray.
Atheism lessons
planned for British schools: Children should learn about atheism in religious
education lessons as part of moves to make the subject more relevant to the modern world,
according to a report from a think-tank with close ties to New Labour.
Teacher told to drop Star of
David. A municipally employed teacher in Kristiansand [Norway] has been prevented from wearing a
Star of David around his neck. Kristiansand Adult Education Center, where the man works, ruled that the
Jewish symbol could be deemed a provocation towards the many Muslim students at the school, Norwegian
Broadcasting (NRK) reports.
Christians Fight California's
Muslim Indoctrination of Schoolchildren: Such schoolroom activities as praying to Allah and
simulating Islamic worship are not "devotional activities," District Judge Phyllis Hamilton decreed in a highly
publicized lawsuit brought by Christian pupils and parents at Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, California.
Education
or Indoctrination: Inquiring Minds Want to Know. Two thoughts come to mind as I reflect on
this story. The first deals with the notion of the "double standard"; the second, with "duplicity."
Our current climate of political correctness in this country has produced a dizzying double standard as it
relates to Christianity and its competing world views -- including Islam.
[Then you have to wonder what other laws don't apply there. And why not?]
School Holiday
Celebrations Information Letter: Although court decisions permit holiday observances,
it is my concern that certain national public interest groups have been pressuring local school
districts to censor religious expression during Christmas. This letter will attempt to
provide answers for those questions which are most commonly asked regarding the rights of
students and teachers to participate in these observances.
Traditions
Endangered! Every year there will be episodes of the political
correctors trying their best to stop student led prayers at high school football
games. No matter that these prayers are long in history and heritage, no matter
that the students and players wish to pray. The political correctors oppose
traditions like prayer at games because they oppose America and any tradition,
which honors our roots and culture.
Teens
sue school over Bible club: Two students who wanted to start a Bible
club sued Kentridge High School, contending that the school violated their freedom of
speech and equal-access rights. Attorney Kyle Netterfield of Ellis, Li & McKinstry in
Seattle filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle yesterday [4/3/2003].
The
Constitutionality of Teaching Alternative Forms of Spiritual Practices in Public
Schools: The teaching of religion in public schools remains a controversy
which evolves in response to the ever-changing spiritual interests of society. As
these interests broaden, they continue to challenge traditional religious thought. In
recent years, heightened interests in spirituality have expanded the belief spectrum,
introducing modern doctrines such as the New Age movement. [PDF]
Celebrating
the Christmas Holiday in Public Schools: Unfortunately, Christmas has
also become a time of controversy in public schools as teachers, school administrators,
parents and students struggle to determine their legal rights and responsibilities concerning
the celebration of the holiday in the schools. [PDF]
Teachers
Decry Schools' Anti-Christmas Bigotry: Every year the attacks on Christmas
by intolerant leftists seem to be more ludicrous and start earlier. But at least some
teachers are denouncing the anti-Christian bias of New York City's failed government
school monopoly.
School
bans saying "Christmas": At a time when Americans of many faiths — and
even no faith — gear up to celebrate Christmas this year, a first-grade teacher in
Sacramento Co., Calif., says she's been ordered by her principal not to utter the
word "Christmas" at school.
Reaction: When
Christmas Becomes Illegal: Imagine that. Christmas banned
in a public school classroom. This interdiction is
actually quite predictable, because the word Christmas and the concept of a holiday
bearing the name of Christ contradict the situational ethics that pervade many public
school classrooms. If there is no true right and wrong, there must not be a notion of
a Savior or the need of a Savior.
Anti-discrimination
policy threatens 1st Amendment: In September, Rutgers banned a Christian group
from using campus facilities and stripped the group of university funding because it selects
leaders on the basis of religious belief. "Political and religious affiliation" is not
really the sticking point at Rutgers—. The real intention is to break or banish
religious groups with biblically based opposition to homosexuality.
Suit
Claims NYC Schools Discriminate Against Christians: The
nation's largest public school system, New York City, is being
sued for religious discrimination, for allegedly allowing the
display of Jewish and Islamic religious symbols in their buildings
while prohibiting Christian symbols.
Institute
Appeals to U.S. Supreme Court in Religious Candy Cane Case! In challenging
a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that upholds a discriminatory
elementary school policy, Institute attorneys argue that school officials violated
a student's First Amendment rights when they prohibited him from handing out pencils and
candy canes bearing Christian messages to his classmates during holiday parties,
while allowing his classmates to distribute non-religious items.
Candy-Bearing
Students Face Possible Suspension: A group of high school students in the
Boston area could find out today [01/02/2003] whether they will be suspended for passing
out candy canes with a religious message.
Update: Case
of Christian "Candy Cane" Kid Comes Up in Court: Attorneys for the
Rutherford Institute have asked a circuit court to preserve the constitutional rights
of an elementary school student in New Jersey who wanted to give religious gifts to
his classmates.
The
ancient roots of Thanksgiving: I'm appalled at the way
Americans have forgotten the meaning of Thanksgiving. Have
you checked out what your children are learning about this
holiday in both government and too many private schools?
Ethics
Report Card on Students Shows Definite Downward Trend: Michael
Josephson, president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, says
evidence from the survey indicates a willingness to cheat has become the
norm, and that the typical authority figures in students' lives — parents,
teachers, coaches, even religious educators — have been unable to stem the
tide. "The scary thing," he says, "is that so many kids are entering the
workforce to become corporate executives, politicians, airplane mechanics,
and nuclear inspectors with the dispositions and skills of cheaters and thieves."
Why Christians don't belong in government
schools – Part 1: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the
mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war." The
rantings of a right-wing fanatic? No, it's the conclusion of the National Commission on Excellence in
Education, convened 21 years ago by U.S. Education Secretary Terrence Bell.
Why Christians don't belong in
government schools – Part 2: These are not people who are deliberately trying to
destroy youth. They are, rather, people who fervently believe, with a religious zeal, in a radically
different worldview than the one in which you believe, in which most Americans believe.
Why Christians don't belong in
government schools – Part 3: Some Christians, aware that the modern public school has
become a God-free zone, comfort themselves with the notion that their Christian children are bearing witness to
their unsaved peers. This, increasingly, is being seen for what it is – a convenient excuse.
Is Liberty Hanging by a Thread?
Contrary to the intent of our founders, Bible reading, prayer, and the advocation of Christian values in our schools, have been
replaced by an anti-God religion known as Secular Humanism (promoted both by government-funded education, and
by federal court rulings).
Why
are Christians losing America? [Quoting John W. Chalfant] Once God
was shown the door, America went into chaos. Scholastic Aptitude Test scores
plummeted. Violent crime rocketed upward. The abortion mills did an unprecedented
business as they devised ever-more-sadistic ways to kill children before and
even during birth.
Church
sues school board over censorship: A church has filed suit against a
North Carolina school board and principal after a middle school refused to approve
a church-sponsored sign for its athletic field that included a Bible verse.
District bars gospel choir from 9-11
event: A school district barred a high school gospel choir from singing at a 9-11 memorial service
because the event was held at a church. Allowing the public school students to sing at Central Baptist
Church in Sanford, Fla., or any religious service, would have violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause,
according to the Seminole County School District.
The Campus Crusade Against Christ:
Over the years, I have heard students complain about professors calling Christianity a "violent religion" or telling
their students who believe the Bible that they have a "problem" because evolution is a "proven theory." Others
baldly label Biblical objections to homosexuality as a form of "bigotry" or a "phobia" implying a need for either
sensitivity training or psychotherapy.
Pledge furor is evidence of hostility
to religion: In schools the anti-religion campaign is often hysterical. When schoolchildren
are invited to write about any historical figure, this usually means they can pick Stalin or Jeffrey Dahmer, but
not Jesus or Luther, because religion is reflexively considered dangerous in schools and loathsome historical
villains aren't. Similarly a moment of silence in the schools is wildly controversial because some
children might use it to pray silently on public property. The overall message is that religion is
backward, dangerous and toxic.
Religious Expression
Censored at Columbine: A federal appeals court says Columbine High School officials
were right to bar Christian messages painted on tiles for the newly refurbished school.
Conservative
Group Laments School Prayer Ruling: It was forty years ago that the
U.S. Supreme Court banned voluntary school prayer, in what was billed as a "landmark" First Amendment case.
The Texas Justice Foundation says the 1962 Supreme Court ruling was "an exercise of raw judicial
tyranny without precedent, one that produced a 40-year decline in the quality and safety of American schools."
Temptation averted: no "Lord's
Prayer" at Woodbine. Woodbine [Iowa] High School was the center of attention Sunday [5/19/2002]
over whether "The Lord's Prayer" would find its way into its graduation ceremony. In the end, the song
didn't. School officials, graduates and the community abided by a federal judge's decision to ban the song
following a lawsuit by two sophomore choir members from an atheist family.
Religion It's Not: Education Reform and its
Enemies: Attorneys and their clients competed for victory in the high-stakes education reform
fight by pretending that the issue is religion. Just outside the courtroom, the real issue in the case
was clear. Zelman v. Simmons epitomizes the passionate tooth-and-nail struggle between parents
of children in failing schools and the education establishment.
Board allows religious Valentine's Day
cards: The board's actions are in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this year after school
officials refused to allow a Cushing Elementary School second-grader to distribute valentines with Christian
messages and made her take back religious tracts she passed out for Halloween. The school district and
its attorney defended the district's actions at the time, saying that allowing Morgan to distribute Halloween
tracts and valentines with such messages as "Jesus loves you" and "Freely rely on God" would violate the
separation of church and state.
Poster
With Picture of Jesus Lands Kindergartner in Court:
Antonio Peck was a kindergartener at Baldwinsville Elementary School in Syracuse, where
he was assigned to draw a poster relating to his class' study of environmental issues.
Antonio drew people picking up litter, children holding hands around the globe and a picture
of a white-robed man kneeling in one corner. According to Antonio's attorney,
Erick Stanley, Antonio meant the picture to be Jesus, but never wrote it anywhere on
the poster. When the poster was hung on a wall with posters from almost 80 other
students, teachers folded the poster to hide the figure of Jesus and covered part of
Antonio's name at the bottom.
Disestablish
the cult of liberalism: This week the Supreme Court upheld the right of
religious groups to participate in the beautiful mosaic of after-school activities. No
new territory was broken: The case was almost identical to another case in which the
Supreme Court reversed the exact same court years ago. This was massive
resistance. Justice Clarence Thomas remarked on the oddity of having to
reverse the same court twice, noting that while the appellate courts aren't required to cite
all the Supreme Court's precedents, they might want to cite the last time they were reversed
on the same facts.
Without
a Prayer: Judge Nixes School's Graduation Tradition. The
program says prayer. A judge says no. And so, when Washington
Community High School hosts graduation Sunday, superintendent Lee Edwards will have
to explain how a 24-hour legal lightning bolt struck this Peoria, Ill., suburb, ending
the school's 80-year tradition of offering invocation and benediction prayers at graduation.
Christianity and Public Education: Do They Go
Together? Many educators assume that because our society has become so diverse in recent years,
it's inappropriate to give Christianity any greater attention than other religions in today's public school
curriculum. In their minds, it's insensitive to give more emphasis to Christianity than to, say, Islam
or Buddhism. It's like being a cultural bully.
All Extracurriculars Are Extraneous at This High
School. At the Mission Viejo High School in Southern California, you won't
see any clubs that aren't related to the school curriculum. The reason: The Saddle Valley
Unified School District doesn't want to have to let in a Christian club.
Fearful of Offending Wiccans,
School District Invokes Vanishing Act. A school district in the state of Washington has
banned all forms of Halloween activities, arguing they are a waste of time and disrespectful to
witches. The decision by Puyallup School District to ditch its annual Halloween celebration
has outraged scores of parents and students. District spokeswoman Karen Hansen says students
dressed up Halloween costumes might be "offensive" to members of the Wiccan religion.
Attorney Argues NY Schools
Discriminate Against Christian Students. A school district that limits the religious
expression of Christian students is allowing Muslim students to skip class to observe the month of
Ramadan. The New York City Department of Education has given Muslim students at Brooklyn
International High School permission to miss class four consecutive Fridays to observe the
religious holiday.
Christian Group Fights
Familiar Free Speech Battle With Maryland Schools. Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF)
is once again fighting the literature distribution policy in Montgomery County, Maryland,
schools. The Christian group has filed a second appeal with the Fourth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, challenging a district court ruling that bars the group from distributing
its flyers in the county's schools.
Rossford
High School cancels Christian rock band. School officials were considering
letting a Christian rock band play during an anti-drug assembly next week, but decided
yesterday [12/14/2004] to cancel the performance because of concerns over having religious
music played in a public school.
High School Nixes Plan to Censor Christian
Grad's Speech. A Pennsylvania high school has changed its decision to censor a graduating senior's
valedictory speech by insisting that he take out any references to God or Jesus. The law firm that intervened
on the Christian student's behalf is applauding the school for choosing to rethink its position.
Feds Fuel Anti-Christian Bigotry in
Schoolchildren. The practice of Hitler, Stalin and every other tyrant of encouraging children to
"inform" on their parents is quietly slipping into the United States.
The
Bases of Mathematics are Intelligently Designed. The bases of mathematics with which this article
is concerned are the natural things that mathematics is used to determine, such as power, acceleration, speed,
and distance traveled. Also is explained is how even the simplest mathematics such as in arithmetic,
like 2 + 2 = 4, and simple multiplication and division, merely reflect actual things in nature.
They are facts of nature. The article lists a number of the greatest mathematical geniuses in history,
including some modern ones, who have recognized intelligent design in nature and attributed it to God, although I
consider it merely evidence of intelligent design in nature. Mathematics and intelligent design is a combined
field of importance today.
The case of John Freshwater
This subsection is about an Ohio Middle School science teacher who is in trouble because he has a Bible on his
desk. The school wants him to remove it. The school's motivation is unknown, but it is probably
based on fear a lawsuit. I encourage you to read the Constitution, as amended, which clearly states
that we all have a right to freely exercise our religion.
Mt. Vernon teacher
could face penalties. A Mount Vernon City Schools teacher could be found guilty of insubordination if a Bible
is not removed from his desktop. John Freshwater, an eighth-grade science teacher, called the recent request by the
district an "infringement on my deeply held religious beliefs." Superintendent Steve Short said, to his knowledge,
the Bible still sits atop Freshwater's desk.
Ohio Students Bring Bibles to Class to Support
Teacher. A school superintendent says some students at the district's middle school brought Bibles to classes
to show support for a teacher who refuses to remove his Bible from the view of students. Mount Vernon Superintendent
Stephen Short says Friday's [4/18/2008] action hasn't caused any major disruption.
Teacher Must Remove Bible from Desk? Mount
Vernon Ohio Middle School science teacher John Freshwater will not remove the Bible from atop his desk. He'll take
opposing school superintendent and principal to court first.
Students rally in support of science
teacher. Hundreds of students, joined by some parents and community members, gathered at the Spirit Rock
outside of Mount Vernon High School in a show of support for middle school teacher John Freshwater. Freshwater
complied with requests from the school administration to take down a display of the Ten Commandments, but refuses to
remove a Bible from his desk at school.
ACLU supports MV school board decision.
Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher John Freshwater refused to move his Bible from his classroom desk after school
officials requested that he do so. At a rally on Public Square on Wednesday, he defended his right to display his
personal Bible as a constitutional right. If he's looking for the American Civil Liberties Union to defend him, he
could be disappointed.
Ohio teacher in trouble for keeping Bible
on desk. According to some, just keeping the Bible on the desk is itself enough to violate the Establishment
clause of the U.S. Constitution. The argument goes something like this: (1) If someone has a Bible on his desk,
then he is endorsing Christianity. (2) In his capacity as a teacher, Freshwater is a representative of the
state. (3) Therefore, if Freshwater has a Bible on his desk, that is the same as the state endorsing
Christianity.
Ohio
Teacher Refuses to Remove Bible From Classroom. An Ohio school teacher of over 20 years has come under
attack recently by school administrators because of a Bible that he has kept on his desk for his entire career. … Although
Freshwater agreed to remove the 10 Commandments, he stood firm on keeping his Bible which he said governed his entire set
of values and beliefs — values and beliefs that were protected by the constitution, he said.
The case of Marcus Borden
A high school coach has been forbidden to passively participate in student-led prayers, and has even been
told not to kneel or bow his head during those prayers. Keep your chin up, coach, or you'll
establish a national religion! This is just absurd.
School coach violated religion ban in prayer
ritual: US court. A football coach violated a ban on teaching religion in public schools when he joined
his players in kneeling and head-bowing rituals before games, a US appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision could
have national implications and may ultimately affect thousands of schools throughout the United States, many of which are
believed to employ coaches who engage in prayer with their teams.
The Editor says...
Hey, this is news: According to the writer of the article above, there is now "a ban on teaching
religion in public schools." When was that law enacted?
Court
says coach can't kneel, bow head as team prays. A New Jersey school board was within its rights to tell a
football coach he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team have a student-led pre-game prayer, a federal appeals
court ruled Tuesday.
Let Us
Pray — But Don't You Dare Bow Your Head. The absurdities of liberals will never cease to amaze me.
To their credit, they keep us on our toes, but I would much prefer they actually read a Constitution before wasting so
much time and resources on harebrained lawsuits like this one….
Whose First Amendment Is It, Anyway? [Scroll down] Respecting
the fact that they were praying, then, is somehow a disrespect of their religious rights? And what of the rights of
the coach? Does he have to check them at the locker room door? Note that we're not talking about him bringing a
Bible or leading the prayers; he's just in the room when the students pray and takes the same position as they do. The
judges opinions in this case are just as tortured as the logic used to misread the First Amendment.
Football
Coach's Prayer with Students Ruled Unconstitutional. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia
ruled unanimously Tuesday [4/15/2008] against coach Marcus Borden on the grounds that it was unconstitutional for him to
pray and "bow his head and take a knee" alongside his students, in what, the court argued, would be an endorsement of
religion by a school staff member.
The Editor says...
The judges are "interpreting" a law that doesn't even exist, when they say the coach does not have the
right to freely exercise his religion. The only long-term solution to the problem of activist judges
is impeachment. Federal judges do not serve for life, except on the Supreme Court. They
can be removed.
Football coach may take prayer
fight higher. East Brunswick High School football coach Marcus Borden, who said he is fighting for his peers
nationwide, is expected to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a review of Tuesday's federal appeals court ruling that
prohibits him from participating in team prayer.
E.B. schools wins appeal in Borden case.
The appeal came after a July 2006 ruling in U.S. District Court that said it is not an endorsement of religion for Borden to
bow his head or take a knee while his players pray before games or at team meals. … The Board of Education, however,
argued that Bordens' actions ignore students' rights to be free from religious coercion.
