Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That’s no offense; it’s a freedom thing..
The law is specific, the law is precise..
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God’s name is prohibited by the state.

We’re allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks…
We can carry smut, but not the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the ‘unwed daddy,’ our Senior King.
It’s ‘inappropriate’ to teach right from wrong,
We’re taught that such ‘judgments’ do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It’s scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school’s a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen

We repetitively hear from many in our society today that our schools need to be neutral in regard to religion and that prayer cannot be a part of the public schools.  The ACLU has made it their mission to secularize America and remove any influence of Christianity from the public.  What these folks need to understand is that if that influence is removed, then the morality that is going to be followed is that which is going to be seen as originating from man.  There is no foundational reason for people to follow the guidelines of others if they are based upon mere human directives of how we should conduct ourselves with regard to respect and love for each other.

Very recently, a school in Naples, Florida, has been in turmoil after it was learned that students were participating in “kick a Jew day”.  Ten students were punished for one day with in-school suspension (which is certainly not going to send a strong message against this), the school has reminded everyone of the “code of student conduct” and now the school district has decided that they will “focus the first 20 minutes of each day on character traits, beginning with respect and kindness. Homeroom teachers will speak with the students about these traits and will focus on bullying prevention…” 

That sounds a whole lot like what used to be done in the public schools when prayer was a part of the daily routine.  The difference here is that there still will be no prayer.  Trying to teach morality without an authority recognized to be the originator of it will ultimately not work.  All that this will do is reinforce the rules that other humans have decided should be followed.  The students will have no reason to follow them because they are not being taught that there is a God to whom they will answer, that government is instituted by God, and respect for authority start with an understanding of God.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7).  Unfortunately, until there is an understanding that God must be recognized again in the public schools, we will continue to see more and more results of what schools without God have become.

There were seven fights today at Shue-Medill Middle School on Kirkwood Highway. The Christina School District is responsible for that location…

Due to privacy restrictions details are sketchy, but this is what we do know…

Seven Fights in one school of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders… Why? Report cards went out last Friday. The physical parental responses to some of them, no doubt pushed these kids over the edge.

One took place in a math class. The math teacher (female) at great harm to herself, stepped in, broke it up, ending it by dragging the 7th grade perpetrator, a known bully, in a headlock down the hall… Hopefully after turning the corner, out of sight, she body-slammed his head three or four times into the one of the concrete walls..

But the most disgraceful, took place in the cafeteria, at a special event honoring those students who made the honor roll this past marking period… Into the event walks a previously suspended student, who previously had to be pulled off a school bus for threatening to kill the bus driver… Yes, seventh grade… Honor roll? Not even close…

She walks up to a seventh grade female student, and says… (of course) “You’re sitting in my seat.” Now this entire event could have been prevented had the girl gotten up from sitting with her friends who she had handpicked to have around her, and moved to another spot. Instead, she politely said… “Sorry, no thanks. I’m sitting here..” The bully says: “I going to fucking strangle you. I’m going to beat the shit out of you!” Without warning, she slams her little seventh grade face into the table, grabs her long auburn hair, pulls her backwards off the bench on to the floor and begins stomping the body. She stomps the body from one end to the other, ending at the face… The screams of the victim are horrendous. Innocent mouths are frozen open while the violence takes place. No adult yet moves to interfere. Knowing that she has more time, the bully jumps up, bends her knees, and drops her entire body weight onto the, by now, whimpering body laying listless on the floor. With fists one fourth the size of her victim’s small head, she begins pounding all her force into the facial regions… By now there is no resistance.. The beating continues unabated for quite a few minutes. After eternity, with only icy silence responding to each bone breaking blow, the bully grabs the hair and begins dragging the body down the floor between the tables… Showing off her trophy…. The victim was reported to have blood flowing out of both her eyes.

It happened this afternoon…

The previous incident involving this bully, involved this same girl beating up three Hispanic children on a schoolbus, causing the bus to stop, a school crises official to arrive, and only because of an outside concerned parents call, were the police called… The police quickly resolved the issue, putting the girl in handcuffs and taking her away.

So why was she allowed back in school?

So why was no adult monitoring the honor student event?

So why did seven fights take place in one day at Shue- Medill Middle School: a school of only sixth, seventh, and eighth graders?

There is only one omnipresent reason….

Yes, yes… I know there will be some out there who say it’s the schools fault… After all, they are the most easily sued to reclaim damages…. But anyone working, visiting, or who happens to assist as a family member in that school, cannot without putting superglue on their tongue, forever adhering it to the inside of their cheek, say that school officials are at fault… Today was an aberration; one day out of almost fifty school days so far. Forty nine of those days they got things right….. We have to remember that fact as our blood boils over…. Forty nine days they got things right…

Yes, yes… I know there will be those, especially who deal with school kids on a daily basis, who say it’s the parents fault… They have a lot going for their argument. You can’t teach a hungry kid. You can’t teach an emotionally disturbed kid. You can’t teach a drug addicted kid. You can’t teach a kid who never receives love from a parent… You just can’t do it in a classroom setting…

In going down the road of public education, we decided that our society as a whole benefited better from giving everyone opportunity to better themselves, instead of limiting that opportunity to just a few children with wealthy parents.. If you look at the large picture, that was probably the proper avenue to take. Of course when you buy apples by the bag instead of the hand picking ones off the display, you will most likely encounter a couple of rotten ones… And what do you do with a rotten apple? Put it back in the sun to ripen?

Ah, yes, yes, there will be those who will blame the system. They say it’s our school system, our Department of Education, or lack of it that drove us down this path… Segregation and its subsequent desegregation policies ruined New Castle County schools above the canal. That is fact. Those of us growing up through neighborhood schools, can certainly sense the futility a very young child must feel to be abandoned on a bus and shipped fifteen miles away, far from the reach of anyone whom he could call for help if subject to something say like ….. the threats of a bully. Also cutting back the amount of money spent on education so the state could buy up Garrison Lake Golf course or the MBNA buildings in downtown Wilmington a few years back, certainly didn’t help… Who knows? One extra dollar at the proper time could have changed that one bully’s perspective at an earlier point in life, making them choose to venture down a different path…. but then again, perhaps it couldn’t: one never knows for sure……However anyone with common sense knows that a system that dumbs down education to it’s lowest level in order to maximize the numbers of those that “get it”, unfortunately has some dumb people roaming its halls. Shouldn’t we be focused on educating our brightest to compete in a global economy, instead of holding them to the standards we adopted to get the most people through our doors with a diploma? There is a lot of credence to saying it’s the system’s fault…

So of the three, whose fault is it?

It is to some extent, yours. But most of all, it is mine…

I never realized it until today… For until everybody cares, the same stuff will go on… Everyone involved in today’s educational environment, is just simply trying to survive. Sticking their head out, is dangerous to their careers. And you and I put them out there with no support, no backing, and most of all when they flounder, we yell at them, especially if it is not their fault!… The most we ever do is mutter a “tsk tsk.”, call for a firing, yell silly slogans at a school board meeting, or post our outrage for public perusal… But none of us take any direct responsibility… Myself included… Today I’m sick I didn’t intervene a month ago. I had the means; but not the will. It seemed like overkill then.

Today’s event could have been prevented… In fact, with appropriate action, most of today’s school violence COULD be prevented… Not however by enforcing the law… but by handling such situation, outside the law… It’s time to rethink our values here.

99.99% of school bullying is caused by students who are abused by their parents… Yeah. 99.99% of you reading this had decent parents. You don’t know what it feels like at age 7 to take the full brunt of punches from your drunken father.. You don’t know what having to perform oral sex on a family member does to your value system. You don’t know now, do you? Fortunately I don’t either. But one can see that anyone coming from this environment has nothing to fear from walking into a crowded room and beating the shit out of a random target. One can see, that brutalizing a tiny little girl, can be seen as the preferable course of action, especially if it’s parental approval staves off one beating that week, when one gets home….

How can we blame a little kid who comes from such an environment? Even as enlightened as we think we are, as a society we are pretty stupid when it comes to such handling of real life situations…

Here is how our own national history shows us how it can be fixed….

A band of thirty, to a hundred concerned masked Shue-Medill parents, each carrying AK-47’s, handguns, shotguns, grenades, knives, or anything else protected under the second amendment, all show up armed to the teeth at the house of the parents of this bully… Using some old one by fours, sprinkled with kerosene, they construct a structure in the shape of an apple ( for teachers) and ignite it… Armed roadblocks are set up around the perimeter to keep local police informed so they stay away.

The spokesman then calls the parent out for a conversation… The parent always comes out, choosing whether to come before or after he is given the option of having his house set afire. The parent is allowed a short time to persuade the rabble that he will personally insure that his kid does not beat up another single person. The parent is given a short time to comprehend the consequences of what will happen to him or her if their child does not follow directions… The listening rabble then makes a collective decision that has a life-or-death consequence for that parent…

THAT is an “effective” solution.. THAT fixes the problem… THAT should have been done the first time this bully made her first mark. So who were those masked people who broke the law? Hmmmm. No one seems to know …….. Guess they can’t be prosecuted then….

Yes, there are other methods to be considered. Walking up behind the unsuspecting parent and slamming a baseball bat into the back of his medulla… Driving by their house and emptying thirty five rounds…. Pouring gasoline and setting a match to their car…. However, these are only effective if a direct correlation gets be made between the compensatory violence, and the action taken by that parent upon their child… But each of these alternatives, lacks the chill of realizing just how perverted our society sees that parent’s actions.. Each of these minor alternatives yields to a “tit for tat”, and instead stopping the violence they almost justify the escalation of it, simply because the parent himself (who has always thought he’s above the law anyway), now feels he has become the victim….

The idea is to stop parents from beating their children… To be clear, I’m not talking about spanking. I’m talking about leaving a child unconscious on the floor. Our government is stymied and under current law, cannot be effective at prevention.. It is effective prosecuting the death of the child.. As citizens, by taking direct action like the one mentioned above, by going beyond the incapacity of the law, we can get results …

Does it work?

The effectiveness of such actions can be seen anytime police investigate crimes between 4th and 30th Streets in Wilmington…The criminal element uses these tactics effectively to suppress tattling. No one ever sees anything up there… Must have more fog than London….

So if we impose a tremendous and costly price for beating or molesting a child, then begin to take effective steps to stop that action. And if that action stops, then those children do not have to take their suppressed rage on unsuspecting kids who always happen to be much smaller than themselves….

Are you mad? Then ask yourself what you have done lately? Nothing? How then can you blame others when you yourself have not raised a little finger?

Like me, you are the problem… Today we wake up. It’s time we do something.

Pray for us.

The substance of the factual allegations are generally contained in paragraph 22:

Throughout the School District, school officials have persistently and pervasively used their official positions to promote their religious beliefs.  Specifically, for at least the past five years, school officials have cultivated well-established policies, practices, and customs authorizing, sponsoring, or supporting (1) prayer at school events, led by invited clergy, school officials, parents or students; (2) school officials’ promotion of their personal religious views and proselytizing of students in class and during extracurricular activities; and (3) the distribution of Christian Bibles to students during instructional time in the classroom.

More concrete factual examples are scattered throughout the complaint.  For example, in paragraph 30:

For example, Defendant Ray [Tim Ray, Principal of Sycamore High School] has required students to produce a copy of a speech or prayer that the student intended to deliver at a school function so that Ray or his designee (in past years this designee was school guidance counselor Joy Daniel) could review it and and approve the speech or require edits prior to that event.

If true, this is pretty clear proof of the required state action — the problem here isn’t prayer in schools, it’s school supported (i.e. government supported) prayer.  By approving/editing the speeches beforehand, the administrators have stuck their hands into the mix and become involved in the prayer (not that turning a blind eye to what students will say at public events is a solution that would provide a shield to liability).

There are other, vaguer references as well (anytime you see the term “on information and belief,” it’s a heads-up that the attorneys are operating on rumors and/or anecdotes (things “everyone knows about”) or don’t want to put in the sources of the information into the complaint).  For example:

On information and belief, Sycamore High faculty invite students or outside leaders to lead prayers before or during various school events (e.g., football games) and other school activities (e.g., band, choir, and other clubs). (¶ 32)

The complaint also contains numerous allegations about the band leader at Sycamore High School, Jordan Tupper:

On information and belief, at every home football game in 2008 and 2009, the band instructor, Mr. Tupper, prior to the halftime performance, when the band would huddle, would announce “go ahead” or “now Reverend R [the nickname of a particular student] will lead a prayer.”  Mr. Tupper would then typically advise that if a student did not wish to participate, they could feel free to walk away from the prayer.  Mr. Tupper’s practice is generally to step away from the huddle (roughly seven feet) until the prayer is concluded.  On October 23, 2009, Mr. Tupper again directed SR to lead a prayer.  SR asked the students to take their “shakos” (band hats) off for the prayer.  When students complained because they were being forced to remove their hats, Mr. Tupper intervened and instructed the students that they did not need to remove their hats if it would interfere with their hair styles.  Immediately thereafter SR led them all in prayer. (¶¶ 35-36, 38)

If these accounts are true, then Mr. Tupper has crossed the line — employees of the government (including public school teachers) cannot lead or endorse the practice of religion like this.  Saying “feel free to step away” doesn’t do diddly squat, except possibly single out a person that already feels uncomfortable with what’s going on.  That’s the problem with CYA maneuvers like that — sometimes they just make things worse.  According to these allegations, Mr. Tupper was very much involved in the prayer, even though a student ostensibly was the one leading it.  Sorry folks, it doesn’t become OK this way.

This one’s particularly nice:

On or about December 2007, the Sycamore High School choir performed a concert where the students sang Christmas and other seasonal songs.  During the program, prior to the performance of the more religious songs, Maggie Mason announced to the crowd of faculty, parents, students and families something similar to “we all know the reason we are here tonight, even if we are not allowed to say it.” (¶ 40)

Smooth.

The second other major allegation concerns the Gideons handing out Bibles at school.  The allegations are summed up neatly in paragraph 43:

Beginning at least as early as 2001, there has been a pattern and practice of the endorsement of religion by the Cheatham County Public Schools in that, year after year, the District has allowed members of the Gideons International into the classrooms to proselytize and distribute Bibles to public school students.

This one’s pretty easy: not OK.

The complaint further details certain teachers clearly endorsing their own religious beliefs in their classrooms:

Teacher Joseph Jones has a cross on prominent display next to his white board. (¶ 47)

Teacher Jennifer Binkley (not the same Binkley that just received a 12-year prison sentence) gave an assignment, allegedly unconnected to the curriculum, to write a journal entry detailing everything the student knew about the creation story. (¶ 48)

A student was told during the 2005-2006 school year that “an acceptable alternative theory to evolution is ‘intelligent design.’” (¶ 49)

My favorite:

On or about the week of September 28 – October 2, 2009, Mr. Doug Worsley, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History at Sycamore High School, distributed a handout during morning announcements for the students to read.  At the conclusion of the announcements, he read the handout in a very agitated and angry tone.  The handout decries the American Civil Liberties Union and any notion that Separation of Church and State exists in this country.  The handout lists, and Mr. Worsley emphasized 15 facts which support the theory that the U.S. was founded as a “Christian nation,” and that the intent of the Founders of the Constitution was to keep the U.S. a Christian nation.  On information and belief, this discussion, assignment, and lecture was not related to the general curriculum of the class nor was it relevant to the lessons that were taught in class that week. (¶ 50)

Alright — let’s make something clear.  It is not taboo to teach parts of the Bible or Christian tradition in public schools (or any other religion) as long as its connected to the curriculum and the teacher does not endorse the underlying teachings of the religious materials. Here’s an example: in my high school, we had an assignment to read the Gospel of Luke in conjunction with our reading of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  The purpose of the assignment was to understand the religious imagery and allusions in Kesey’s novel, particularly the scene where McMurphy takes the inmates out on the boat (paralleling the scene in which Jesus accompanies his disciples on the boat during the storm).  That’s OK.  The above, if true, is not.

The complaint concludes with a description of some suspect activities from the 2009 graduation ceremonies and activities (mostly public prayer related), as well as some facts relating to the ACLU’s attempt to get records, negotiate with the schools, etc and the failure of the School Board to act in the face of such information and allegations.  The complaint ends with the formal counts:

1. Establishment clause violations (the alleged conduct has the “primary purpose and effect of promoting and advancing religion”)
2. Article I, § 3 of the TN Constitution (i.e. that state tax funds, that should have been used for secular education, were spent on proselytizing and promoting religion, specifically violating the “no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.”

The Plaintiffs request injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs, a symbolic nominal award of $1, and an order enjoining any retaliatory action.

Summing it all up, it looks like Cheatham County Schools are probably in for some trouble.  Though the teachers seem to be aware that what they’re doing isn’t kosher (the band leader stepping away, the teacher saying “we know why we’re here even if we can’t say it”), they keep doing it.  I’ll be following the progress of the case here on the blog, so check back for updates in the coming weeks.

(Update) Note: The first case management conference is set for Monday, 12/28/09 at 11 a.m. in courtroom 764 before Magistrate Judge Juliet E. Griffin.

When I was young and politically naïve John Fitzgerald Kennedy won the presidential election and became this nation’s 35^th President. I can remember distinctly the excitement among the young people of the day even though I was not, at the time, old enough to vote. I fancied myself a Democrat because that was the party of the young and charismatic leader that symbolized a new hope and new direction for the future. In those days America and Americans had the can do attitude and anything was possible. It seemed as if the whole world loved America and the idea of the new Camelot. But then came that day in Dallas and the dreams came to an abrupt end.

As time passed, and the War in Viet Nam escalated, I still considered myself to be a democrat, even though I did not pay much attention to politics, and did not know why I was a democrat.  The anti-war culture developed and marijuana and LSD spread rapidly across the world of the young. Lyndon Baines Johnson failed to give us a winning strategy in Viet Nam that would end the war, and the war effort was stifled by the left leaning media, the drug culture, the anti-war opposition and the new progressive movement in the Democratic Party. It was the beginning of social decay and the beginning of my social awakening.

The Madelyn Murray case brought about the end of prayer in school and the National Organization of Women pushed for the right of a woman to have an abortion. Schools adopted the Theory of Evolution as the only rational solution for the explanation of life. Religion was no longer relevant in the halls of academia. Wannabe communists and radicals such as the Students for a Democratic Society, The Weather Underground, The Black Panther Party, The Symbionese Liberation Army and others were everywhere in the news.  I began to see the violence, hatred and intolerance of the left as they swore that they were for, “the people and the working class”, and my disenchantment with the Democratic Party which adopted many of these radical ideas, arguments and slogans, grew.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s the progressives, communists and socialists formed their coalitions with the old democrats and slowly worked their way into the party and a new respectability as they honed their arguments and solidified party affiliations.  The progressive machine was born.

My upbringing, the values I was taught early on, and my belief in the American way of life will not allow me to accept the rejection of God and religion, the devaluation of human life, the definition of traditional marriage or the leftist propaganda put out by the New Left, with its pseudo-science and share-the-wealth socialism.  I am not young anymore. I see the lies, the intolerance of any ideas that are not progressive and the hypocrisy born of political ambition, greed and the pursuit of power for power’s sake. It goes by different names and it is dangerous. Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Jarrett, Emanuel, Frank, Rangel, Grayson, Waters, Boxer, etc., they are radicals and the children of the radical movement. The Health Care Bill that just passed the House is just a method of control. It is just one more trillion dollar trick so that the progressives can claim they are on the side of, “the people and working class” when, in fact, it is a march down the road to share-the-wealth socialism and the end of American values as we know them.

My son exploring Iran's natural glory. This is learning.

Today my friend writes about the struggle in an Iranian school to get children to behave, sit still, memorize and stop “rebelling.”  In the context of a repressive society like Iran’s, it’s easy to ridicule this behavior as forced captivity.   But, before readers get self-righteous, look around your own world, and how the children near you are treated.  Are they allowed to be children, or are they being forced into subjugation in the name of learning and test taking?

I post this with respect for my friend for being an amazing mom who is willing to stick up for her children given incredible pressures.  These issues would cripple me if I were dealing with them, but not only does she deal with them, she has the presence of mind to reflect and write about them.

Wednesday Oct 21, 2009.  School Sucks!  For kids and moms!

I went to my 4th grader’s school meeting today. It is the big meeting of the year where the school officials introduce all the key people, go over last years highlights and discuss their goals for the new year.

The meeting started off with lots of Koran reading and religious singing of course. After that some kids came up and read poems about being kind to children, listening to them, not forcing them to do things inappropriate for their ages. Then the president of the school spoke. He heads the elementary, middle and high school. And during his discussion with us he frankly admitted that the youth of Iran are rebelling and acting out and not listening to their parents and are uncontrollable. And furthermore, he admitted that the department of education, and the country as a whole, has no clue as to what to do about it. He mentioned that 60 years ago Iran did not have runaway children – whereas they do now, in significant numbers. We have a major drug problem too. He could not understand how in such an educated society we could have so many problems with our youth. His biggest complaint (and I just about fell off my chair in hysterics) was that young kids go off to college – and choose their own marriage partners without their parents consent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess we know what is going on in his home, don’t we? My spouse and I just shook our heads and laughed (a sarcastic, low, unbelieving – with a shake of the head – laugh).

Here’s a typical synopsis of one day in the life of my 4th grader at school here (yesterday). Can you figure out where the roots of rebellion stems from in this society? My 9 year-old woke up at 6:30 am, ate his breakfast and got ready for school. The cab (there are no school busses here because they can’t afford them) picked him up at 7:40 am and he was in an assembly line at school by 7:50 am. There he stood in line until 8:15 am when they all marched into class. During those 25 minutes in line the kids went through 5 minutes of warm-up exercises. Then they had to repeat verses from the Koran and sing the Islamic Republic anthem and say their prayers. All the while school personnel were walking up and down the lines of 1st – 5th graders yelling at them for not reciting these things loud enough, for not reciting in unison, for fussing and fidgeting. So, with this uplifting start to their day, the kids then marched up to class.

I went to school during the third hour (of a 5-hour day) to teach him English (the English classes here are so basic that I have special permission to teach him English at his level). When I got there I was informed that the 4th graders were taking an 80 minute “Andishmand” exam and that he would not be available that day. I reminded the school official that I did not want my child sitting for exams geared at getting him into the Magnet school (teezhooshan) system here; that I just wanted him learning what a 4th grader should know (we have had many discussions about this with these same school officials over the years). He assured me that this wasn’t such an exam and that this would help teach him how to take tests. So, having had to give up my English time I returned home. (When my son returned home with the exam booklet, printed prominently on the cover was, “Andishmand – Teezhooshan Exam” – what a lying son-of-a-#$%#^!)

Later that morning, my son’s teacher gave them a pop science quiz. It seems sometimes that that is all they do here – administer quizzes, tests and exams. The actually teaching seems to take place at home in the stressful environment between mothers and children. (As an aside, my son has done his school work here with a lot of difficulty until this year. This year he actually does his work without any prodding from me and even does extra – I couldn’t be more pleased.) Anyway, my son got a 13 out of 20 on his quiz. Well, it seems she lit into him and yelled at him and told him he’d better get a better grade next time because she is used to hitting kids if they don’t do well. (Hitting kids has been illegal in this country since the late Shah’s time – but this teacher has been teaching for over 20 years now!) Needless to say, my son came home crying and refusing to go to school anymore. And frankly, after knowing that he was yelled at all morning, had to sit an 80 minute teezhooshan exam, then take a pop quiz, and then get threatened over it (and not be allowed to run in the yard at recess on top of it all) I was only too glad to let him stay home today.

The ironic part of all this is that today’s lesson in 4th grade was all about Children’s Rights. In their book it says that the Prophet Mohammad told people to love children and to treat them with kindness and to keep the promises they made to children. Their lesson also stated that children have the following rights: to learn about other cultures and to live in peace and friendship with the other children of the world; and, to express their thoughts to others freely through speech or writing and to listen to other peoples’ opinions as long as they respected other people’s rights. No one has the right to force children to do anything not appropriate for their age; and, conditions must be provided so that children can learn about and understand the world around them and help to protect it (environmentally). These come from the U.N. Charter for Children’s Rights. Well, the first thing my son commented on (rightly) was that his teacher did not show him kindness when she threatened him and that she was forcing him to do way more than is appropriate for his age (she gave GOBS of homework that night – even I got tired). In school they learn NOTHING about other cultures or beliefs or countries!

I left a message for the principal that I want to speak with him. This is what I have had to deal with since we came here 5 years ago – and this is one of the good, progressive schools in the city! On top of all this, the kids are FORCED to namaz (pray) from the 1stgrade. They also have to attend ALL religious ceremonies usually during their recess times or during art or P.E. class. Now, I am not one of the mom’s who thinks yelling at kids is good or that having an abusive teacher is good. I also don’t believe that religion should be forced. I also don’t make my kids over study to the point where I have to drug them to sit still in order to study. But I am not most moms here. When a teacher tells the moms that she yells or that she gives an unbearable amount of homework (or when my son’s teacher told the moms that 4th grade is the worst grade in school) – a lot of moms nod approvingly and support the teacher.

So with all this pressure from the families (that starts from birth) and from the schools throughout the kids lives, and then the society with it forced religious veneer – is it any wonder that some kids run away; that some kids turn to drugs; that some kids outright rebel? I actually give kids here a lot of credit for finding some way to escape the repression that constantly drowns them. (And I am not even talking about this summer’s events).

Someone started a poll on Facebook raising once again the subject of school prayer. My response was a resounding no.

Some might argue that not allowing school prayer is infringing on some student’s right to practice their faith. An argument not completely without merit. If say a student believes in a religion that calls for prayer at specified times of the day, then I would have no problem whatsoever and would even encourage a school to accommodate that practice.

What I have a problem with is when a school by means of policy dictates a time for prayer or even quiet reflection which is nothing more than euphemism for prayer. Schools are a place for education, not for the practice of religion. If parents feel their children need to begin a school day with prayer then they have the right to do that, at home and not in school.

Here in America, where church attendance is declining and “fruit inspection” tells us that the lifestyles of many who claim Christ is lacking in evidence of a Christian way of living, many have decided that giving up their liberty for the promise of comfort and convenience is the way to go.  Over the last 40 years, we’ve seen the public schools turn into places where it’s getting harder and harder to acknowledge our Creator in any manner; there’s actually antagonism in many places.  One has to be careful in witnessing because of workplace rules which discourage this.  Our nation is now considering protecting homosexual behavior with federal law and will punish Christians who actually believe what the Bible says.  The drift away from God in America is astounding. 

The drift toward the “government god” is also astounding.  Instead of accepting the liberty that comes from knowing God and allowing Him to change the heart so that what was a struggle to live becomes a natural way of life, many don’t want anyone telling them that they need to change.  Everyone has to change to become a Christian.  So instead of allowing themselves to have a clean heart and clean mind that God has changed, many have decided to keep what they were born with and not seek God. 

We see more and more laws being made in our country and there are more now than ever, but there are more problems now than ever with prisons bursting at the seams.  These laws that are intended to bring law and order just won’t work by themselves.  There has to be a change of heart so that people will want to live a lawful life on their own and not have the government god to look down upon them and force them to live according to how the government god says.  A free people with liberty can only stay free if they will govern themselves and stay away from unruly behavior without having to be forced.  A society that doesn’t regulate itself on an individual basis where there is personal responsibility will find itself in anarchy and then someone will come along promising to be able to fix everything.  Then the government god will have a face while all the worshippers wait for him to send them whatever they think they need.  A little more freedom lost doesn’t seem like much and people give up their liberty even more.  Finally, the government god wants it all and those who have been silent find themselves already caged and shackled. 

Think about it and be revived to truly live the life that Christ died for you to be enabled to live.  Pray for your neighbors.  Speak the truth in love and boldly proclaim the only true liberty that is found in Christ.  Then our society will slowly reject the government god for the only God.

(The article below appeared in The Charlotte Observer and The Center for Progressive Christianity’s newsletter.)

Thank God we have a godless Constitution

The claim that America began as a Christian nation rewrites history.

Modern-day conservatives say our nation began as a Christian nation but, through liberal courts and judges, has become secularized. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In their book “The Godless Constitution,” Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore assert that the framers of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments were aware of Europe’s history of ecclesiastical tyranny and violence, and they intended to create a godless constitution and a secular government.

What is true is that many, but not all, of our founding fathers were deeply religious people. It also is true that the Declaration of Independence invokes the Creator in laying out the human rights that propelled the colonists to revolt against England. The Articles of Confederation of 1776, America’s first framework for government, does give credit to “the Great Governor of the World.” It is accurate that most of the earliest state constitutions contained an explicit acknowledgement of God, and 11 of those 13 state constitutions had a religious test for an individual to pass to become an elected official.

Government defined in secular terms

All of which makes the achievement of a secular government by the framers of the Constitution so remarkable. When they wrote our Constitution, they made no mention of God, Jesus or Christianity. The Constitution’s sole reference to religion was one that restricted religion. Article 6 declares “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” A person’s religious convictions, or his lack of religious convictions, were irrelevant in judging the value of his political opinion or in assessing his qualifications to hold political office.So successful were the drafters of the Constitution in defining government in secular terms that one of the most powerful criticisms of the Constitution in the ratification process was that it was indifferent to God. During the ratification conventions in the states, outraged Protestants advocating a Christian commonwealth proposed specific changes in the Constitution — all of which, fortunately, were rejected.

The movement to make the United States a Christian nation has never died and has had some success. In 1863 God entered in, of all places, the U.S. currency. “In God We Trust” was printed on our money. The move to a Christian commonwealth had another success in 1912 with mail service no longer providing seven-day service. And in 1954 God made it into the Pledge of Allegiance. The author of the pledge, Francis Bellamy, a socialist, had left God out.

Recently, individuals wanting the U.S. to be a Christian nation are trying to get God back in school, as if God could be taken out of schools. What has been restricted is forced prayer. School children and employees can voluntarily pray any time they want to pray.

The modern proponents of a Christian commonwealth also are trying to get the Ten Commandments posted in public places.

Study free-thinker Thomas Jefferson

Being a Baptist — a denomination that historically stressed freedom of religion, included freedom from religion — I wish I could force others not to pray or read the Ten Commandments, but to learn about Thomas Jefferson.

When Jefferson ran for president he was accused of being an infidel by religious conservatives, but he was a free-thinking Christian. Jefferson wrote: “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” Unfortunately, preachers, according to Jefferson, had missed this important development. Jefferson believed all denominations should be like the Quakers, who don’t have clergy. Jefferson said clergy — he called them the irritable tribe of priests — had perverted Christianity into “an engine for enslaving mankind, a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves.”

In addition, Jefferson noted “all priests dread the advance of science. They preach bigotry and fanaticism at the expense of human reason. A band of dupes and impostors, they sponsor ignorance, absurdity, untruth, charlatanism, and falsification.” Jefferson, aware of the violent nature of Christians, wrote: “Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned.”

Religious nation, but not government

The framers of our nation’s Constitution shared a conviction that religious beliefs should not divide or destroy a nation. They did not want America to be godless, only its Constitution and government. The framers knew there were many versions of Christianity, that Christians could be un-Christian to other Christians and to non-Christians, and that “in your face” religion was not healthy for the country.

They were aware religious correctness and people who were sure of God’s will could be very dangerous. And for their wisdom and foresight we should all be thankful.

It’s been a busy three weeks for Greg Ervin as principal of Gate City (Va.) High School. He’s been fielding phone calls almost every day from parents or the press about a church-state storm that unexpectedly boiled up after a student said a simple, heartfelt prayer at a football game.

“Somewhere lost in all this was the fact that a kid died,” Ervin said this week. “No one ever intended to sensationalize this. It was a simple act of kindness and respect.”

The story started on the night of Sept. 11, when the Sullivan South High School football team played at Gate City. Not only was it the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, but the folks from Sullivan were still grieving the death of Jake Logue, one of their players who suddenly collapsed and died during a game in Knoxville on Aug. 21.

Before the game began at Gate City, a brief ceremony remembered the 9/11 victims and Logue, including a moment of silence. A student who was allowed to speak said a prayer, concluding “in Jesus’ name.”

At least one parent in the stands took offense and contacted the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. A few days later, Ervin received a letter from the organization, advising him that a “sectarian prayer delivered over the public address system” before a football game violated a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Such prayers, the letter noted, carry “the impermissible endorsement of the school and coerce participation” in a religious exercise.

The ACLU had been told that Gate City regularly opened its games with prayers – but that is not the case.

Photo: Kingsport (Tenn.) Times-News Web site

Ervin shared the letter’s contents with teachers and the Scott County school board and then responded to the ACLU, describing what happened and correcting the wrong information.

In its reply to Ervin, the ACLU pronounced itself satisfied: Case closed.

The story could have ended there, if a little more patience and a little less readiness to be angry had ruled the day.

“We don’t go looking around for incidents,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis in a phone interview this week, “but when someone calls and says this is what they witnessed, we respond. We usually resolve these matters quietly. We write a letter, and the official writes back to explain or clarify. That’s OK. That’s our standard procedure.”

The ACLU did not make its first letter public, but apparently someone in Scott County was upset enough to notify the press about it. Reporters soon arrived, and as word about the ACLU’s concern spread, anger flared. People wrote furious letters to local newspapers and posted unfounded accusations on Web sites.

Photo: Ned Jilton II, Kingsport Times-News.

Some Gate City students printed about 1,000 T-shirts to hand out at their Oct. 2 football game, taking a swipe at the ACLU. “I still pray…” the shirt fronts read, and on the back: “In Jesus’ name.” When the Virginia ACLU heard about that protest, it publicly affirmed the students’ rights to distribute the shirts, saying they were only exercising their constitutional right to free speech and religious expression.

While the ACLU has a long record of controversial crusades and debatable pronouncements, Willis insists it is not “anti-religion.” Any list of religion-related cases that the ACLU has handled, he said, will include as many defending the free exercise of religion as those challenging unconstitutional “establishment” of religion.

Last week in Nashville, for example, the ACLU of Tennessee completed a successful negotiation on behalf of Christian students from Belmont, Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech universities who were barred from holding worship services for homeless people in a city park. The Metro Board of Parks and Recreation had “unfairly blocked religious groups’ regular use of park space,” according the ACLU, and helped to revise the policy.

“We’re not the prayer police,” Willis said this week. “The original plan at Gate City (on Sept. 11) was for a moment of silence, and there’s no problem with that. We’re down to a really minor (legal) issue that happened one time. The principal was put on the spot. … This was something spontaneous. What was he supposed to do?”

What Principal Ervin wants to do now is move past the controversy and just “remember the spirit” when two communities shared a moment of sadness and sympathy and “a student reached out and spoke as best she knew how.”

Johnson City (Tenn.) Press, 17 Oct 2009.

From Fort Oglethorpe, GA, we hear that the Catoosa County Schools have finally heard about the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United states, which prevents the government from establishing a religion. Yes, the Warriors of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School took the field on Friday night without any Bible verses written on the cheerleaders banners.

Players at the 900-student school began running through the biblical banners shortly after 9-11, however the district finally banned the banners after being advised by the school board’s attorney that the signs violated federal law.

“It seems like the majority of people in our community want this and they don’t have a problem with it, so I think they should be allowed to have the signs,” said eighteen-year-old Cassandra Cooksey, a recent graduate of the school.

As usual when I read statements like this, I wonder what kids are being taught in their Civics classes. Are they learning about how our Constitution was carefully crafted to protect the rights of the minority? Are they learning the difference between a mobocracy and a republic? Are they learning about the Bill of Rights and what each of those amendments mean?

Okay, for Cassandra and all of those others who do not see what is wrong with football players running through banners with Bible verses before a football game, would it be okay if a Moslem student wanted to put a verse from the Koran on one of those banners? Would it be okay if a Buddhist wanted to put a quote from Confucious or if a Hindu wanted to include a quote from one of the sacred Vedas?

What if there was a Jewish football player who didn’t WANT to run through a banner with a quote from the New Testament on it? Would the students be okay with that or would they make fun of him for being different? Would they be angry with him for not going along with their display of spirituality?

Maybe instead of Bible verses the kids should run through banners containing quotes from our Founding Fathers, or, better yet, banners on which the amendments to the Constitution are printed. Maybe then the kids would actually learn something about the foundations of our government, since they evidently didn’t learn about them in school.

Perfect:

Kirk Cameron’s video promoting his creationism-tainted version of Origin of Species is so full of easily disprovable lies (“Our kids can no longer pray in public,” “The Ten Commandments are no longer allowed to be displayed in public places” among many others) that I think he must be considering a run for office as a member of the GOP. He’s got the dishonesty part down pat. He’s got the lack of critical thinking skills down pat. And he’s got the lack of respect for our constitutionally mandated separation of church and state down pat as well.

Sad and scary.

NEW School prayer :

> > Now I sit me down in school
> > Where praying is against the rule
> > For this great nation under God
> > Finds mention of Him very odd.
> >
> > If Scripture now the class recites,
> > It violates the Bill of Rights..
> > And anytime my head I bow
> > Becomes a Federal matter now.
> >
> > Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
> > That’s no offense; it’s a freedom scene.
> > The law is specific, the law is precise..
> > Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
> >
> > For praying in a public hall
> > Might offend someone with no faith at all.
> > In silence alone we must meditate,
> > God’s name is prohibited by the state.
> >
> > We’re allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
> > And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks…
> > They’ve outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
> > To quote the Good Book makes me liable…
> >
> > We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
> > And the ‘unwed daddy,’ our Senior King.
> > It’s ‘inappropriate’ to teach right from wrong,
> > We’re taught that such ‘judgments’ do not belong.
> >
> > We can get our condoms and birth controls,
> > Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
> > But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
> > No word of God must reach this crowd.
> >
> > It’s scary here I must confess,
> > When chaos reigns the school’s a mess.
> > So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
> > Should I be shot; My soul please take!
> > Amen>

by Ruth Moon

Attendees at the annual Values Voter Summit held last weekend in Washington, D.C. protested “unrestrained liberalism in Washington,” including issues like health care and religious displays.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the straw poll vote for the GOP 2012 presidential candidate at the Values Voters Summit over the weekend.

Two Florida teachers were found not guilty of a contempt of court charge for praying at a school event.

Anti-abortion defenders are still up in arms about President Barack Obama’s proposed health care bill.

Rifqa Bary, a convert to Christianity from Islam, will appear in court as part of ongoing proceedings today.

The Department of Justice wants a Boston judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act.

A 17-year-old from Great Britain was refused U.S. citizenship because she refused Gardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine. Her waiver request, which she filed for religious reasons, was denied this week.

Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, evangelist Billy Graham’s grandson, will keep his post as pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Fla.) after a recent vote.

Sarah Palin didn’t do herself any favors with conservative Christian voters by not accepting their speaking invitation this weekend, judging by the results of a Republican presidential straw poll at a Washington confab for political activists.

It was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who creamed the competition in the highly unscientific contest, which was conducted at the two-day Values Voter Summit, sponsored by the Family Research Group.

Huckabee, who has been hosting a talk show on Fox News, garnered 28.4% of nearly 600 votes cast. With 12% of the vote, Palin was in a virtual tie for second with three others — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney,  Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence.

Was Huckabee’s victory a surprise? Not really, said Family Research Council head Tony Perkins. After all, unlike Palin, he showed up Friday and gave a warmly received speech. Plus, evangelicals who mistrusted his record as a fiscal conservative and felt he lacked foreign policy experience feel that he’s made strides in both areas, Perkins said.

Palin’s poor showing said Perkins, was probably due to “people questioning the decisions she’s made lately. And she wasn’t here. You’re not going to get support here just based on your reputation.”

Huckabee, who you will recall, pulled off a surprise victory in Iowa last year in the first contest of the primary season, was folksy and pointed in his remarks Friday: “Well, over the last few months the audacity of hope has become the audacity of hypocrisy. It is, at times, a country that is almost difficult to recognize. We have become the land of czars, clunker cars and Hollywood stars, but unfortunately it’s also become a place where we have lost any semblance of those promises of transparency and accountability.”

Romney, whose Mormon religion was the source of discomfort to some evangelicals in the Republican primary last year, was warmly received by the crowd. “I don’t think that’s an issue that keeps him from being considered,” Perkins said.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul, who raised prodigious amounts of money last year during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, all scored in the single digits.

As for the issues that were most important in determining which candidate to support, abortion ranked No.1 by 40% of those voting (virtually the same as last year’s straw poll). Protection of religious liberty came in second, with 18%, and same-sex marriage a distant third, with 7.3%. Other very low ranking issues included public display of the Ten Commandments, prayer in schools, embryonic stem cell research and enforcement of obscenity laws.

Robin Abcarian
Los Angeles Times

by R. Burge

Three posts today highlight different topics from the AFA.

The first highlights a report by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, which indicated that 77% of  high school students in Oklahoma could not name the first president of the United States.

The second article reported that two school administrators were cleared of all charges stemming from an incident where they prayed before a meal in front of school employees.

The last article, entitled Pelosi’s Crocodile Tears,  is concerned with recent statements by the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who said that she was becoming frightened at the heated rhetoric occurring over the issue of health care reform. Jeremy Wiggins, the author of the article, does not agree with Pelosi’s sentiments stating, “The more we keep with this whole criticism equals racism gig, the more damage it is doing to the overall health of the nation.”

I was so thankful to see this.

I was also thankful to read that these men didn’t stand alone, but had hundreds of supporters who showed up to lend their support.  Even if these men had been found guilty, it still strengthens the faithful to know they don’t stand alone.

by D. Bennett

The Liberty Counsel issued a special e-mail update to supporters Friday, decrying the agenda of the American Civil Liberties Union and calling the group “outrageous bullies.”

The e-mail came after contempt charges against two Florida school administrators were dropped (read the background here). Matthew Staver, founder and chairman of the LC, praised the court’s decision to drop the charges. He went on to say, however, that the ACLU would not back down based on this one decision.

“This story has shocked the entire Nation,” Staver wrote. “The future of American law and our precious freedom of religious expression still hang in the balance in this small Florida Panhandle community. The ACLU won’t rest until they’ve criminalized Christianity.”

Staver added, “The super-rich, ultraliberal ACLU bullies fully intend to add precedent upon precedent in highly targeted cases like Santa Rosa County until it is a CRIME to express one’s faith in a public setting ANYWHERE in the United States.”

From the Desk of:
Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

This is a long message, but I hope you will read it
to the end. I feel it is important that you do. — Mat

On Constitution Day, after an all-day hearing, Santa Rosa County,
Florida, Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman
were cleared of criminal contempt charges that arose from the
simple blessing of a meal!

A wave of relief swept over Frank and Robert. When they heard
the decision, tears of joy and cheers swept through the throngs
of people who had waited outside in the rain for over ten hours.

We are, of course, very pleased and grateful to our God that
these fine men – and Assistant Michelle Winkler in an earlier
case – no longer face fines, possible loss of retirement benefits
and jail time.

But, honestly, that’s about as far as the rejoicing can go.
The outrageous court order still hangs over the school
system. The ACLU is still soliciting “informants.”

And the employees and students of this iconic rural school
district remain intimidated and confused about their God-
given, inalienable rights as Americans.

I want to assure you – right here and now – that we are far from
done with the ACLU in Santa Rosa…or anywhere else they try to
pull this kind of outrageous legal manipulation!!

Our first order of business will be to get the despicable underlying
court order overturned. It’s like a snake in the grass ready to
strike again at the next innocent passerby. And like any other
poisonous snake in the grass, it needs its head blown off!

++Please listen to the recorded message I’ve prepared for you

After the long day of trial in Pensacola, it is late in the evening
and I am in the Charlotte airport waiting for a connection to Nashville,
where I will record a “Fox and Friends” segment about today’s events
at 4:30 a.m. From there I fly to Liberty University where I will
speak to 11,000 students about the Constitution.

Later, I will fly to Nashville to address the American Association
of Christian Counselor’s convention about legal developments
impacting their members’ ability to render Christ-centered advice
and counsel.

But right now, I AM SO GRATEFUL to you and our many other friends
around the Nation that have prayed and stood with us financially
in this battle, that I want to share some of my impressions with
you. Please go here to listen to my message:

http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=21604&CID=305&RID=20897390

Kevin, you might think this is peculiar…

..but as I look back on the day’s events, I must tell you that if
I didn’t know that I was actually experiencing them, I might have
thought that I was in another dimension watching an over-the-top
“B” movie about hypothetical future events.

The reality, however, was that the day’s strange occurrences
were actually happening!

++The entire day was completely surreal

First of all, the facts of the case were ludicrous from the beginning.
It is absolutely ridiculous that these distinguished public servants
even had to think twice about blessing a meal.

Then, how absurd it was that the ACLU was spending Constitution Day
trying to deny these life-long educators the most basic tenets of
our Nation’s founding document!

When I entered the courthouse, I passed by hundreds of our clients’
friends and neighbors carrying signs who had begun gathering at
dawn in a steady rain to show their support.

The Liberty Counsel legal team and our clients were met with
swelling rounds of applause as we entered and left the courthouse
at various times during the long day’s proceedings.

It was very touching and, well, humbling. Emotions ran high.

Chants of, “We came to pray for Lay! We came to pray for Lay,”
the Lord’s Prayer and familiar hymns were at times audible
inside the courtroom itself. The Pensacola News Journal
noted that the chants were heard many blocks away, and
also said…

++ By 9:00 am, when the hearing started, the scene took on the
characteristics of a revival

The Lord was on the scene! Inside, we were told that bus loads
of church members, Christian associations and everyday citizens
who wanted to show their support were arriving from throughout
the region and emptying into the congested parking areas. Many
stayed and prayed all day long!

How then was it possible, in this Nation that was literally
born in prayer, that we were listening to the ACLU’s harsh
recitation of CRIMINAL charges against two of the
community’s most beloved citizens for…praying?

There’s a lot more I want to share with you – please go here to
listen to my recorded message:

http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=21605&CID=305&RID=20897390

Kevin, I REALLY thought I was in the Twilight Zone when
I entered the courtroom and saw, prominently hanging on the wall,
one of the largest reproductions of the famous John Trumbull
painting “Signing of the Declaration” that I have ever seen.
It was large enough to hang in the State Capitol building!

Didn’t everyone in the courtroom know that the Founders spent
many, many hours in fervent prayer during the drafting of our
Declaration of Independence?

Again I thought, “Can this be happening in America?” Several
times during this most peculiar day I felt I was a player in
“the theater of the absurd.” I wondered how I would describe this
series of incongruities and contradictions to friends who
weren’t there. For instance:

After sharing a letter of encouragement to our clients
endorsed by over 60 Members of the United States
Congress…we were forced to pay rapt attention to the
distorted and embarrassingly off-base complaints of our
ACLU adversaries. It was just bizarre!

++We were all encouraged by the prayers and warm expressions
of support that flooded in from around the Nation

Perhaps Congressman Randy Forbes of Virginia, Chairman of the
Congressional Prayer Caucus, said it best in a News Release
from his office in Washington, D.C.:

“Today it is the school employees in Santa Rosa County.
Tomorrow it could be your kid’s high school coach, your
school’s athletic sponsors, or your spouse. If we do not
stand up today for our liberties and the right of all
Americans to pray according to their faith, our children
and grandchildren will have no foundation left on which to
pray…

++I wish it weren’t so, but there is still much left to do

We have come to a point of crisis in the history of justice in the
United States of America. The super-funded ACLU is completely out
of control and, encouraged by massive donations from the likes of
billionaire George Soros, is running amok.

The ACLU literally mugged this small Florida school system! What
outrageous bullies!

And as Congressman Forbes said, it could have just as easily been
your school district, your community, and your dedicated public
servants. This story has shocked the entire Nation.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough what a crucially important case
this continues to be. The future of American law and our precious
freedom of religious expression still hang in the balance in this
small Florida Panhandle community.

++The ACLU won’t rest until they’ve criminalized Christianity

Kevin, the super-rich, ultraliberal ACLU bullies fully
intend to add precedent upon precedent in highly targeted cases
like Santa Rosa County until it is a CRIME to express one’s faith
in a public setting ANYWHERE in the United States.

++The original court order cannot stand! The ACLU must not
be allowed to win!

We have spread the word of the ACLU’s outrageous attempt to
criminalize Christianity in America in every way we can. We
have appeared on the Fox News Channel, CNN, and scores of other
national broadcast outlets, and will continue doing so.

But today, even after our victory on Constitution Day, I need your
help in two very important ways:

ACTION ITEM ONE: Please continue to pray! As the Pensacola
newspaper said, this case is turning into a revival! And
the ACLU can’t make headway on their secular, statist
agenda when we faithfully pray!

ACTION ITEM TWO: Tell your Christian friends about this
pivotal battle for the soul of our Nation, and ask them to
join you in prayer. Pass this message along!

We simply MUST win the remainder of this case – both for the good
people of Santa Rosa County and also for every other school district
in America – but it won’t be easy.

As you know, we’re up against the deep-pocketed ACLU that has
hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re certainly thanking God
that Principal Lay, Athletic Director Freeman, and Assistant
Winkler are “off the hook,” but the snare is still laid in
Santa Rosa County.

If you can make a special gift today to help Liberty Counsel
attorneys make an end of this ACLU offensive in Santa Rosa
County before it hits cities and towns like yours, please go here:

http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=21606&CID=305&RID=20897390

BUT WHATEVER YOU DO, PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR LIBERTY COUNSEL
AND THIS CASE! And please forward this message to as many of
your like-minded friends, church members, and associates as
possible to enlist their prayers!

Liberty Counsel attorneys are on the front line of this battle
and we simply can’t succeed without your help.

Thanks in advance and may God bless you and yours!

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

PS Thank you for taking the time to read this entire message! We
are praising God for our initial victory in the Santa Rosa County
case, but everyone knows that if we don’t get the underlying court
order thrown out, we’ll soon be back in court defending another
group of hapless school system employees who have been victimized.

If we let the ACLU succeed in criminalizing prayer before meals in
Santa Rosa County, Florida, we will witness an unprecedented
assault across the country in the days and weeks to come. And
let’s face it… with Barack Obama in charge of the Justice Department,
the ACLU is emboldened and we can expect to see more and more cases
like this one, especially if they start gaining momentum.

Your gift right now of $25, $50, $100 — or whatever the Lord
leads — will help Liberty Counsel continue to fight in Florida
and in communities like yours across the Nation. This war with
the ACLU is far from being over – even in Santa Rosa County.

Please go here to help, even if you’ve already invested in the
Liberty Counsel litigation fund:

http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=21607&CID=305&RID=20897390

Again, thank you for your friendship and support!

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Note: Please do not “reply” directly to this e-mail message. This e-mail
address is not designed to receive your personal messages. To contact
Liberty Counsel with comments, questions or to change your status,
see the link at the end of this e-mail.)

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+ + Comments? Questions?

http://www.libertyaction.org/r.asp?U=21608&CID=305&RID=20897390

Liberty Counsel, with offices in Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C.,
is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to
advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the
traditional family.
Liberty Counsel . PO Box 540774 . Orlando, FL 32854 . 800-671-1776

Here’s a good, short video that gives you all the basics about See You at the Pole (SYATP) you need to know:

Here’s a longer video about SYATP with Matt Redman’s song, “Shine”

I remember being a high school student shortly after SYATP started in the early-mid 90’s and praying at Oliver Ames High School with one or two other people, absolutely terrified.  It takes courage and guts to do this… but you won’t regret it!

The second video above shows schools with tons of kids… that probably won’t be your school.  You might be there with ten, five, or maybe even by yourself – but God will hear your prayers!  Pray for God to shine through you in your school.  Pray for your teachers, principal, and other school workers.  Pray for our President and other government officials.  Most importantly: PRAY!

Will we see you at the pole?

by Jessica Bryan

The FRC writes about the link between the “feminizing of fish” and birth control.  They say:

The tragedy is that the population control message is most often promoted by the global warming crowd and others who view people as negatively impacting the environment and consuming limited resources.  In reality, it’s their efforts to reduce the population (people) that are actually destroying the environment (fish).

The group posted highlights from their health care town hall webcast from last Thursday.  Also, they reported that, according to results from the National Survey of Children’s Health, the combination of monthly attendance at worship services and a two parent home leads to “fewer worries about children’s achievement.”

One email from the group discussed health care, ACORN, and DOMA.  Another is about the FRC’s 2009 Fiscal Year-End Fund Drive.   A third email talks about the health care bill that came out of the Senate Finance Committee today, discusses the issue of prayer in school, and describes the “race card” as “a classic move by the Left when they can’t win the policy debate; they try to marginalize their opponents by calling them racist”

“WHEREFORE, Defendants, SCHOOL BOARD FOR SANTA ROSA COUNTY, FLORIDA, JOHN ROGERS, in his official capacity as Superintendent of the School District of Santa Rosa County, Florida and H. FRANK LAY, in his official capacity as Principal of Pace High School, notifies the Court that they admit liability in this action, acknowledge that Plaintiffs are entitled to certain relief and hereby request an order setting a scheduling conference and staying all discovery.

The Defendants here have admitted liability and have requested the Court’s assistance in resolving the only remaining issue; Plaintiffs’ entitlement to relief.” ~ text from the “Defendants Notice of Admission of Liability” filed December 15, 2008 before the U.S. District Court, Northern Florida.

“To think that a person can be held in criminal contempt for asking someone to say a prayer, it really concerns me and many members of Congress.” ~ Representative Jeff Miller, Republican, Chumuckla, Florida, September 16, 2009

Is there anything more despicable than a politician using religion to pander to his constituents? The religionists I despise the most are the ones that use the fear and mystery of religion to empower themselves.

For example – Congressman Jeff Miller inserting himself and his 54 Congressional “Prayer Buddies” into the Frank Lay/Robert Freeman case. In a letter addressed to Lay and Freeman, the “Congressional Prayer Caucus” totally gets it wrong. From the letter dated 9/14/09:

“…to charge someone criminally for engaging in such an innocent practice would astonish the men who founded this country on religious liberty.”

And these guys represent us – represent me – gah!

The issue, Representative Miller, is not prayer! The issue is one man [Lay] violating an Admission of Liability that he [Lay] signed along with his supervisor and employer before a U.S. District Court. And, the same undersigned man [Lay] had a subordinate [Freeman] violate the above mentioned court ordered agreement between the Plaintiffs and the Defendants. That, Representative Miller, is the issue. It’s not prayer – it’s not a prayer – it’s a man [Lay] going back on his word and, on his own, violating a previously signed agreement – oh – and then going around town shooting his mouth off about it.  If Lay’s convictions were such, why did he sign in the first place?  Why isn’t he employed at a private religious school?

Yes, Congessman Miller, the Founders of this country would be astonished. Astonished that we have publically funded (government) education.  Astonished that non-religious folk are forced to subsidize unwarranted and unwanted preaching, proselytizing and promotion of religion within that publically funded school system.

Here in the rusting Bible Belt, no politician stays in office very long unless he thumps his Bible every once in a while. This is Jeff Miller’s opportunity to pound his Bible, stamp his feet and proclaim from the mountain tops that he loves Jesus. With Congressional approval ratings nearly in single digits, unemployment rising, costs going up, war dragging on and Congress spending us into oblivion – nothing works better at distracting the voters from the real issues than good ol’ Bible thumping.

Some of us see you for what you are, Congressman Miller – a religious “puffer fish.”

Tomorrow (9/17), Lay & Freeman go to court. They’re already heroes in the eyes of religionists, so the outcome of the case will only serve to justify Lay & Freeman’s convictions (and make a mockery of signing the Admission of Liability) or make of them martyrs (and true religious liberty suffers another set back).

Either way we lose.