Separation of Church and State

Lawsuit Filed Against Texas School District to Stop Prayer During Graduation

A federal lawsuit was filed Friday 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 suit was filed on behalf of Christa and Danny Schultz, who have two children in the Medina Valley Independent School District, including one graduating on June 4, according to the San Antonio Express.

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.

“Public schools can’t require students to take part in religious worship as the price of attending their graduation. This is settled law, and the district needs to stop resisting it,” the Rev. Barry Lynn, the group’s executive director, told the paper.

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So, this story is rather misleading, as the right of the individual to pray is not being challenged. This has to do with public sponsored prayer – more than slightly different.

The same Supreme Law of the Land that affords the right of the individual to pray, also affords the right of the two people in this story from being subjected to religious ceremony against their will. This is precisely why we have a separation of the church and the state – the first nation in the history of humanity to explicitly do so.

One person had stated on FaceBook that two people were spoiling things for the majority. Well, it just so happens that our system of government is designed to do just that – thwart the will of the mob. We do NOT have a democracy. Many people tend to forget this nowadays.

Some have argued that it is part of our “tradition” to hold public state sponsored prayer, and to a certain extent, this is true. But, the argument from tradition falls more than woefully short, in that tradition in no way holds force of law. The Supreme Law of the Land is our Constitution, and not tradition. Why? because it was once traditional to hold slaves, for example.

Tradition does not provide the standard in which we can measure Justice under Law.

James Madison vehemently argued that the payment of chaplains in the military, and to hold prayer before congress, was unconstitutional. Over time we have moved away from many of the religious “traditions” that have been called into question. This causes many “traditionalists” to lament. They want the government, through force of law, to protect their Christian traditions.

The problem with this agenda is that it is anti-constitutional, anti-small government, and anti-republican. This is one reason why many “conservatives” who claim to be defenders of the constitution, and defenders of individual liberty, are really just the flip-side of the Obummer nation. Both want Big Brother power…

Again, it’s unconstitutional to hold official prayer. If people want to pray on their own, or get together as a group to do so, there is no restriction on that. But, to officially hold a time-out in a public institution to talk to an invisible man in the sky, is another story.

Here’s a popular “limited government” right winger, Bryan Fischer, who actually wants the government to outlaw bad words and blasphemy… Holy Mother of Freaking Christ!

Bryan Fischer Wants Blasphemy and Profanity Outlawed

Filed under: Religion In The News

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