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Posted on 06/22/2006 3:46:06 PM PDT by NYer
LAS VEGAS, June 22, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The name of Christ is so offensive to modern secular ears that Clark County School District officials, who knew it was coming, cut off the microphone during a valedictorian address before they or anyone else could hear it.
Brittany McComb is a Christian and a top student graduating from Foothill High. She knew that her valedictorian address would probably be cut short, but was determined to go ahead and mention the one name that is for her above every other name.
"I went through four years of school at Foothill and they taught me logic and they taught me freedom of speech," McComb stated. "God's the biggest part of my life. Just like other valedictorians thank their parents, I wanted to thank my lord and saviour."
The 400 plus graduates and guests gathered at a Las Vegas casino for the ceremony booed and jeered after McComb’s speech was cut short.
McComb was required to vet her speech before the graduation ceremony with Foothill administrators. This, says the school, is standard practice before speeches are read. The school officials then removed all Biblical references and the single mention of the name of Jesus Christ.
McComb, who graduated with a 4.7 grade point average, was warned that if she deviated from the approved text, she could be cut off; but she saw it as a matter of freedom of speech.
“People aren't stupid and they know we have freedom of speech and the district wasn't advocating my ideas,” McComb said. “Those are my opinions.”
“It's what I believe.”
The school district’s legal counsel, Bill Hoffman, said that McComb's words counted as preaching. He told media, “We review the speeches and tell them they may not proselytize.”
McComb said she was not surprised by the censorship. “Even in the Bible it says that the name of Jesus will be hated.”
“But the thing is, it is freedom of speech, so I was upset,” McComb said on the “Jay Sekulow Live!” radio program on June 20. “I was really leery about having to defy authority.... It took me a while, but I answer to a higher authority and it's my freedom of speech, and I had to come to terms with that.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, becoming notorious for its secularist zealotry in cases of public expression of religious belief, praised the school’s decision saying, “It's important for people to understand that a student was given a school-sponsored forum by a school, and therefore, in essence, it was a school-sponsored speech.”
Not so, says a Constitutional lawyer and freedom of speech activist. Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Florida-based pro-family legal organization Liberty Counsel, said McComb should take the school district to court.
“I think this is one of the most outrageous examples of censorship at graduation that I've seen,” Staver said to Agape Press. “For school officials to literally be standing by the switch at the mixing board and cut the microphone on a student, simply because that student mentions God or Jesus, is just unbelievable.”
A writer in the Conservative Voice, Ben Shapiro, responded, “Let's assume the school district, by allowing McComb's speech, would have been promoting her message. Here's the question: So what?”
“There is no right to be free from public expression of religion,” Ben Shapiro wrote, “but there is a Constitutionally protected right to free exercise of religion … it is none of the school district's business whether she chooses to invoke God, Jesus or Zeus (though history indicates that the ACLU would fight for her right to invoke Zeus).”
The Constitution of the US, says Shapiro, prohibits the establishment of a state religion such as the Anglican Church in Britain, but was never intended to suppress the right to freedom of religious expression.
See MSNBC's interview with Brittany McComb:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13461308/
Now if she thanked Allah, then that would have been just fine with the loons in the ACLU.
I'm Jewish and I say BRAVO. She worked hard and if she wants to thank G-d in her way, then please, she's earned the right. I cannot imagine any parent begruding. She has faith, that and a 4.7 GPA are to be admired.
Hah, I'll bet she'd have been able to finish her speech if only she'd flashed gang signs or talked about the wonders of Islam.
Or if she waxed philosophical about Tupac...sheesh.
Brittany, wear a burkah next time. Then you'll be signing autographs.
As so many are so fond of saying, the right to free speech does not guarantee the right to be heard.
The thing is, there won't be a next time. This was her high school graduation and it was ruined by some blithering idiots with the help of the ACLU.
At my daughter's graduation here in Prince George's County, Maryland, the saluatorian mention God and the valvictorian gave her speech in the form of a letter to God, and closed it with thanks to her favorite 'man' for guiding her and helping make her what she is, Jesus.
The audience applauded. Something to say for a predominantly black group of parents in a heavily democrat county.
***As so many are so fond of saying, the right to free speech does not guarantee the right to be heard.***
True. What I love about this is that the school chose to block out one word. But the word that they chose to censor just happens to be the name of the Savior of millions of Americans, and near and dear to their hearts.
So their goal of preventing 400 people from hearing the name "Jesus" has exploded into the whole NATION hearing His name. That and further exposure of the ACLU as the traitors they are.
As despicable as the school board's actions are, she knew it was coming. The honourable thing to do would be to tell the school board to find another valedictorian.
I agree with you. Athletes say it all the time on TV, why can't students? BTW, 3 of my brothers and sisters have given valedictorian speeches for high school graduation in recent years and have mentioned frequent references to God and Church and have NOT been cut off.
The audience applauded. Something to say for a predominantly black group of parents in a heavily democrat county.
Deep down, there's a lot more to people than we think.
THIS IS THE BEST PART... folks supported her by their actions when she was cut off...GOD BLESS THEM ALL.
"As so many are so fond of saying, the right to free speech does not guarantee the right to be heard."
To invite someone to speak and then cut their mike because the school doesn't like what she said is nothing more than pure censorship. I would say she has the right to be heard if she was invited to SPEAK, which she was.
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??? 3.7 maybe? Straight A's will only get you 4.0. How do you get a 4.7 GPA?
Not surprising. I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods but the overwhelming majority of faces at my church (and most other evangelical churches) here in Toronto are black. The faith seems to be much stronger here among African and Caribean immigrants than among the native-born.
"So their goal of preventing 400 people from hearing the name "Jesus" has exploded into the whole NATION hearing His name. That and further exposure of the ACLU as the traitors they are."
Definitely, good things can come from small things. This experience actually turned out to be a positive one after all.
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