Posted on 01/05/2008 4:26:29 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan 3. -- Just before New Year's Eve, a Fort Worth mother was kicked off the public bus for reading the Bible aloud to her children on the way to church.
"What kind of person pulls over public transportation and kicks out a mother and her children for reading their Bible on the way to church?" said Kelly Shackelford, Chief Counsel for Liberty Legal Institute, the legal organization representing Christine Lutz. "Freedom of religion exists on public transportation just like anywhere else."
Christine Lutz was reading the Bible to her children while on the way to church when the bus driver told her to stop. Mrs. Lutz refused, and was forced to leave the bus. The family was escorted off the bus and into a supervisor's van, which took the family to church.
"This is outrageous religious hostility," said Shackelford. "It also shows how far some government officials have slipped in their understanding of our Constitution and the most basic freedoms we all share."
Christine Lutz is demanding an apology letter from Fort Worth's transit system. Liberty Legal Institute is also demanding that a letter be distributed to all drivers, informing them that individuals have the freedom to read the Bible while riding the public bus.
[sighs]
Maybe she was an illegal alien, and the driver was a FReeper. (That takes care of the knee-jerk reactions).
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The 1st Amendment guarantees the Freedom of Religion, so why the sigh?
Also posted here and two other times. Different sources though
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1946419/posts
The interior of a bus is not a “public square,” in the legal sense.
This is actually old news, guys. The bus driver asked the mother to quieten it down as her reading was too loud - a disturbance. The mother refused. She was then told to get off the bus. The incident had nothing to do with WHAT she was reading but HOW she was reading according to the transit system.
So, let’s not get our panties in a wad until we understand the whole story! I am very much inclined to give the poor bus drivers here in Ft. Worth the benefit of the doubt considering what they have to put up with on a daily basis.
The mother “doth protest too much” as has been said.
This item has been posted numerous times with weird regularity.
The question is simple: was she booted for reading the Bible or for annoying other passengers with the volume at which she was reading?
Unfortunately in the PC world we live in kicking both off would be the only way too avoid charges of racism.
Nothing to do with the PC world and everything to do with the 1st Amendment. In the eyes of the law, the Koran is as valid an expression of religious faith as the Bible.
The article doesn’t say how loud she was reading though it’s obvious she was loud enough to annoy the driver. More than one time the police have come to my house to tell me I was playing my guitar too loud. No bible readers ever jumped to my defense because of the 1st amendment.
By posting my #6? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
No bible readers ever jumped to my defense because of the 1st amendment.
It may depend on how well you play the guitar...
If it is loud then anyone should be kicked off. Including those talking on their cell phones or reading any book or just talking loud. I do not wish to be disturbed.
The bus company’s first duty is safety of passengers. A prime element in achieving safety is to keep the driver from being distracted. Unfortunately, people don’t get to decide what distracts them. If a driver feel that a conversation — or guitar, or radio, or bible reading — distracts him/her from the road, he/she has an ABSOLUTE DUTY to other passengers to prevent it.
It is troubling and disappointing to see this aspect of the event ignored.
Probably the kind of person whose job requires them to stay focused and free of distractions. I still think the material being read had something to do with this, though, and we haven't heard the end of this story.
And I seriously doubt ANY such distraction existed for this diver.
I would also advocate removing people who are talking loud on cell phones from public places. ;)
It really comes down to if she were doing it quietly or not. The information I have heard makes it sound like she was in the back of the bus and was disrupting the whole bus. But that is one side of the story.
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