A true Christian keeps the teachings of Jesus in his or her spirit as the guiding force in their lives. A lot of people who go to church are the haters in our society.
- Anne Weedman
I’m beginning to feel like something of a broken record, but when you have to praise the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) or the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) for standing up for our Constitutional rights, something is most definitely rotten in Denmark.
Or in this case, Bossier Parish, Louisiana.
Public schools in the Bible Belt forcing Christianity upon students is nothing new. Flouting the separation of Church and State seems at times to be something of a cottage industry south of the Mason-Dixon Line (and often in other parts of the country). Even so, few public schools have been as aggressive or regimented about proselytizing students as Airline High School, where even the principal and the school board have no problem with pushing religion on students. As you might imagine, they’re playing the “Liberals and Atheists are forcing God out of our schools!!” card.
The problem with that line of reasoning is that God DOESN’T belong in our public schools, which are supposed to be educational institutions, not taxpayer-subsidized subsidiaries of Christian churches. And what of those within Airline’s student body who aren’t Christian? Why are they subjected to Christian proselytization when they’re there to learn? There’s this little thing called the separation of Church and State which one doesn’t get to ignore simply because one finds it inconvenient.
Pastor Mike Welch of Bistineau Baptist Church and Airline principal Jason Rowland are angrily retrenching after the ACLU served them notice on Sep. 24, ordering the school to stop aggressively proselytizing students.
At Airline High, students are regularly force-fed Christian ideology. They’re taught Creationism as science and in health classes, teachers drill students in Bible verses. Girls’ gym classes warn against the evils of contraception and a Christian speaker and self-proclaimed “born-again Virgin” was brought in from the local “crisis pregnancy center” to lecture female students about the dangers of sex out of wedlock.
Students and their families have complained that wall-to-wall Christian dogma should not be the cost they pay for receiving a public education. The ACLU sent a letter to the Bossier Parish school board warning that the school’s religious indoctrination plan is in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which forbids the establishment of an official religion by government officials.
The complaining parents are correct. Tax dollars shouldn’t be going to indoctrinate children in Christian ideology (that’s what churches or parochial schools are for). Public tax dollars devoted to schools are to be used for education, not the advancements of the interest of the majority religion.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with students, staff, or faculty being committed Christians. The ACLU did not- and will not- raise that as an issue. One’s religious beliefs are personal, private, and a matter of conscience…but that’s not the approach faculty and staff at Airline High School have chosen.
The truly sad thing is that the school board is on the side of the principal and those who are aggressively attempting to proselytize and indoctrinate children in Christian dogma. Principal Rowland is widely praised as a “prayer warrior,” and of course the “bad guys” are evil, godless Liberals…not those who would trample the Constitution in order to advance the interests of their faith.
Rowland and Pastor Welch responded by digging in even further. Yard signs have sprouted up around town declaring Rowland a “Prayer Warrior.” Welch shot an angry YouTube video in front of the school declaring “Christians, we’ve taken enough stuff lying down.”
Uh…no, no you haven’t. 80% of Americans self-identify as Christian. You cannot credibly claim to be oppressed when 4 out of 5 Americans share your beliefs. You also have no right to be pushing Christianity on students in a public school. Again, that’s what churches and parochial schools are for.
“I refuse,” he said, “I flat refuse, in America, to be forced into hiding as a Christian!”
Stop. Just stop with the faux martyrdom schtick already. Not being allowed to do whatever you want to do whenever and wherever you choose to do it isn’t “being forced into hiding as a Christian.” Being a Christian doesn’t mean you don’t have to follow laws and respect rules. It doesn’t mean being to ignore the separation of Church and State because it happens not to dovetail with your personal Evangelical agenda.
Stop your whining and start following the law…or quit and go work at a church or parochial school. Your choice.
The school board has sided with Rowland and Welch, saying, “(O)ur history and tradition respect the freedom of religion not the freedom from religion.”
“Freedom of religion” doesn’t mean impinging on the freedom of students who may or may not be Christian. It doesn’t mean proselytizing to a captive audience. Airline High School is an educational institution, NOT Vacation Bible School. Besides, “freedom of religion” absolutely should be taken to also mean “freedom from religion.” Some of us believe Christianity to be a fantastical, unsupportable belief system whose primary purpose is often enforcing conformity and blind, unquestioning obedience.
If you frame your “history and tradition” as forcing Christian ideology upon students in a taxpayer-funded public school, you have neither history nor tradition. What you have is a systme in which public money is employed to support the tyranny of the majority.
An anti-ACLU prayer rally convened on the front lawn of Airline High a week after the ACLU sent its letter. In attendance was Republican candidate for governor Sen. David Vitter, who griped to reporters about “the left who wants to push religion out of the public square.”
The Senator is pandering, which is to be expected in a state where Christianity is taken very seriously by much of the population (Gov. Bobby Jindal, never one to be out-pandered, referred to the ACLU letter as part of the “War on Christianity”). Beyond that, his argument is bullshit. While he rails against “the left who wants to push religion out of the public square,” he fails to recognize the primacy of the separation of Church and State. A U.S. Senator, of all people, should be familiar with the 1st Amendment’s Establishment Clause. He did, after all, take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution (not just the parts he agrees with and/or finds convenient). He should also be able to recognize that whining about those who want to “push religion out of the public square might very well have some unintended consequences.
What Sen. Vitter and others fail to realize is that because of the Establishment Clause, one religion being granted access to public schools means ALL religions must be allowed access if requested. I suspect the fine folks at Airline High School, along with their supporters, being the fine, devoted Christians they are, would be INCENSED if Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Pastafarians, or others requested equal access, which they’d have every right to do under the Establishment Clause. If one religion is allowed in, ALL must be granted entry.
Remember, it’s not “freedom of Christianity” these good folks are whining about, it’s “freedom of religion”…and that “freedom,” at least in their minds, is limited to Christianity because…well, because all other religions worship false idols, don’tchaknow?
This is what happens when you begin to mix Church and State. It can get ugly, messy, and unruly in a helluva hurry. Before you know it, the Satanic Temple is citing “freedom of religion” to ask in…and I’m not certainly I possess a vocabulary adequate to the task of describing what would be the resulting righteous Christian outrage.
Be careful what you ask for, y’all…’cuz you just might get it.
In the meantime, how about y’all stick to edumication? That is what your taxpayer funded salaries are supposed to be funding, no? If you want to pray in public, speak in tongues, handle snakes, or engage in faith healing during your off hours, then good on your. When you’re on the public dime, though, proselytizing is off limits.
Any questions?
