On Tuesday, the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against the Wilson County School Board. The suit claims last September at Lakeview Elementary School in Mount Juliet, the Wilson County School Board censored posters for a student led prayer event called "See you at the Pole." (See yesterday's article in the Tennessean.)
The offensive language that had to be censored? "In God We Trust" and God Bless the U.S.A." In God We Trust is on the United States currency. What's next? Will they ban the use of money in the school cafeteria or vending machines?
I don't believe that this is what the founding fathers had in mind when they said "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." Thomas Jefferson believed in the separation of church and state to the extent that the United States legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." I believe he is stating that the U.S. as a government should neither establish its own state religion nor infringe on the rights of Americans to worship and participate in their own religions as they see fit.
This country is founded on Christian principles, values and beliefs. God is mentioned in every document written by our founding fathers. They understood that we are endowed with unalienable rights that cannot be taken away or curbed by the government. I think people forget that a lot. I bet that public schools in the Revolutionary War period had time for prayer.
Lakeview Elementary was neither promoting nor establishing a religion. By censoring the posters, it was prohibiting the "free exercise" of the students. I would like to think that if there was another organization that wanted to do something similar to what the Christian students were doing, the school would have allowed it.
It seems that Christians are disenfranchised more every day. It’s become ok to “pick” on the Christians. The values once held dear by Americans, Christians and non-Christians alike, are slowly being eroded. The government has decided they know what’s best for us instead of what is best for ourselves and our children. Ronald Reagan once said “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
It looks like we are on our way there.
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There is of course a solution: get the government out of the schools.
ReplyDelete"If it is believed that elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund or any other general authority of the government than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience. Try the principle one step further, and commit to the governor and council the management of all our farms, our mills and merchants' stores."
Thomas Jefferson
There is a solution to this problem: get the government out of the schools.
ReplyDelete"If it is believed that elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund or any other general authority of the government than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience. Try the principle one step further, and commit to the governor and council the management of all our farms, our mills and merchants' stores."
Thomas Jefferson