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I lost my first and only run for Student Body Governor in High School over a matter that (I believe) had no bearing on my ability to fill the office. I lost the office because of a stand I took on homosexuality and why I took the stand I did. You see, in my high school, the issue was coming to the front of discussion and people were taking stands during our opening of the school day.
Being one of the few people with a testimony for God, and one of few people willing to get up front and say what I thought, I was gradually brought into the discussion. It had gone back and forth between two girls, and I came in near the end of the discussion, but this post isn’t about what I think about homosexuality, it’s about what I learned at the end of my presentation.
I had prewritten a statement, so I could mark my words well. I knew what I was going to say was unpopular, and the day I delivered it was the National Day of Prayer. So, I ended what I had to say with an appeal that we observe a moment of silence for the National Day of Prayer. During that time some coughed (intentionally) but most stayed silent.
Afterwards I was talking with a high school friend and he said that he had coughed because what I was doing was unconstitutional– it violated the separation of church and state. I did not have the presence of mind at the time to ask him how a moment of silence could possibly be equated with Congress establishing a religion, but I did think enough to tell him to find for me the separation of church in state in either our national or state constitution. He went away and came back later to say he couldn’t find it.
You see, students in the public school not only face the removal of God from the school and the laws put in place, but they also face a whole series of things based on the impression that people have about what the rulings mean, and a whole bunch of hearsay. They are silenced by what people believe was said, not by what was said.
This is where this article from the USA Today comes into play. A child wanted to sing a song at a school that was religiously based. The school’s attorney told the parents she could not because it violated the Establishment clause of the Constitution. But where does the Free Exercise clause fit in? And that wasn’t the only instance. There was a valedictorian’s address that had the microphone cut off because of her references to “God,” “the Lord” and “Christ.” What we have is a government run amok.
What schools don’t realize is that the children have a right to speak, and if they don’t let them speak, they’re actually choosing a religion– atheism. They’re also helping to convince more families to choose other options– like homeschooling.
Sounds like you had your head about you in high school. I like these little glimpses into what made you who you are today… I remember getting into the “abortion” debate and having the most unlikely “rebel” guy in the class come to my defense, agreeing with my stand that abortion was murder. Thankfully, homosexuality wasn’t an issue at all in our small town school. It is now. I still remember when gay went from a “happy” word to a word fraught with innuendo.
I’m so blessed to be able to homeschool. This is a world gone crazy, and forget Adam and Eve, a lot of the world’s problems today magnified when God was expelled from school. Those with kids in public school, I appeal to you to hold the schools accountable. Don’t let things slide for fear of reprisal. There are Christian attorneys who love to step in and keep things fair constitutionally for your child. We have rights too. Listen to Christian radio for one thing, and you’ll hear many stories of parents standing up to the system and demanding fair treatment. And if it ever becomes feasible, try homeschooling. :O)
I believe it was my 11th grade social studies class where it really came ot a head that I had a more conservative slant than the rest of the kids. We lined up for this debate and it was on abortion as well, and I became famous for “if you do X you get Y” and all of the conversation that was framed in that way after it.
I was pretty well known in the school since I was in drama, and I was running the election voting. I knew the statistics, and I asked people why they chose to vote for someone they didn’t know. It was surprising. What was more interesting, though, was that there were multiple people that came up tha tnext year and said that I should have won– including the guy who did. I started out wanting to give people an option, and was later told I was the better one. Now, whether I was or not– that’s a question up for debate!
Certainly, public schools have a lot of indoctrination going on as far as the studies and what they teach. People are taught that the liberal viewpoint has to be correct and anything else is foolishness. It does make homeschooling more and more attractive.
“I did not have the presence of mind at the time to ask him how a moment of silence could possibly be equated with Congress establishing a religion…”
The problem here is with what the Supreme Court calls “Selective Incorporation” of the Bill of Rights. The 14th Amendment includes language that can be interpreted to mean that all laws have to apply to all people in the US equally. The Supreme Court has decided that “Fundamental” rights that appear in the first ten amendments can and should be incorporated or applied to the states. This is how we get the Federal government meddling in heretofore local matters.
Legislatures both state and federal continue to let the courts run wild with this rape of the language and violation of original intent becuase it lets them off the hook. They can always point to the courts as the “bad guy” while they are the ones abdicating their Article III responsibilities.
MinTheGap, I wish I could say I gave such testimonies when I was in High School. While my best friend in High School told me that I was the reason he turned back to Christ, I was truely lost at the time. The Holy Ghost was working on me, but I was not yet saved. I believed that homosexuality was okay, along with a whole slew of other sins. Ironically, as an unsaved individual I was so open-minded that I ended up defending Christians. I was the one who chimed in “I don’t understand why x is okay to do, if its not okay for Christians to talk about y”. On a challenge from a Christian I met, I read my bible and was convicted of my sin. At that point I gave my life to Christ. Its been amazing adventure ever since.
That’s a great testimony you have there, DLOGAN. I grew up in a Christian school before attending public high school. One of the things that my mother drilled into me was not to let what other people would say to me to effect me, so I actually did a lot of the opposite of people’s comments just because I believed they were all and always wrong! A sad tale, and yet it did keep me pure and on the right sides of a lot of things.
okay, sorry to do this but I have to disagree with you all. If you are going to say that it should be alright to talk about God in school, then you have to be prepared to allow others to express their faith as well. And MInTheGap, you mention that if children are not allowed to speak then they are choosing atheism as a religion. Understand this, people are allowed to choose atheism as a religion. They are allowed to choose to be whatever they want. They can choose to worship a rock if they want to. And these would be the people that you would have to let speak as well. You can’t decided that only “Christians” should be allowed to speak because they speak of God. Why aren’t the others mentioned: Jews, Islamics, Catholics, Wiccians, Satanists, Atheists, Druids, Buddhists,Mormons, etc.? Will they get a voice or are they to be silenced by the “Christians”?
AlphaGnosis– good thoughts, thanks for sharing.
You make a great point when you say that applying freedom of speech to schools would allow people to say things that I would disagree with– and I believe that that would be fine if a child in the same school could talk about God. I mean, if a valedictorian wants to get up in a speech and thank her god the rock for being a good paperweight or whatever, I’m fine with that.
Our country was founded with the concept of freedom of speech and thought, and that’s also a Christian ideal. Christians believe that people must choose God freely– and that’s why they *should* not deal in cohersion. If Christians truly believe they have the truth, they should not feel threatened in an environment where all can share. It’s when a place chooses to force everyone to hear on religion, then I have a problem.
People are certainly able to choose atheism, but atheism shouldn’t be the preferred religion of the school– especially when a majority of the country claims Christianity. The problem is that schools are telling parents that they are just teaching secular subjects, but in essence they are teaching a humanist worldview. This is a monopoly, and it’s wrong.
I totally agree. Freedom of speech needs to be available for everyone. I think that schools should cover all the bases, or none of them (which is impossible). I think that the morally reprehensible Satanist and Wiccan things can be mentioned, but I don’t see any reason why they need to be encouraged, just like I don’t think Chrisitanity needs to be encouraged in a public school. I think violence shoudl be denounced however, so Satanists might get a downer on that one!
Anyway, keeping my kids OUT of public school really solves alot of these problems for me. I have no expectation that the school system will get better, NONE.
Mrs. Meg Logan