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/
"Maybe the liberal troll didn't see it. Try again."
There is none, but that's the first time I've ever been told by a conservative "F-U" over a dumb one-liner. I've been called things, but nothing like I've been called by liberals. Those John Kerrey tapes are getting popular I guess.
Straining at gnats while swallowing camels. How does that fat hump taste?
Just roll over and accept the P.C. crap huh?? She did the right thing...this kind of thing needs to be opposed at every turn.
Do not assume she lied until you know everything that took place in the conversation. Her response could have been something like "uh huh, I hear, I see."
Still, what did would it hurt anyone? It's a graduation speech. How many people remember what is said at them anyways? It seems people are more anticipating the ending of the meeting anyways.
God bless her! What an awesome witness to our Lord and Savior.
She lied. End of story.
OK, one more time. She claims to be a good Christian but lied to the school officials.
She lied.
Do you have the correspondence between them? You are in danger of having lied yourself.
She should have mentioned she would say the reference, but this is something that didn't have to blow up. A solution could have been worked out. My brother mentioned God in his high school graduation speech and nobody batted an eye.
She admits to it in the original story. She said she agreed to give the edited version and then changed her mind and decided to give the original version.
I can only go by what she said. Oh, what am I saying. She is a lier. Maybe she lied to the press also.
Actually, I've spotted a sleeper on this thread, that has been trolling other threads too. He/she opposes freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to life.
Blessings, dear friend and thank you for the post!
Agreed. Based on this story, we really don't know exactly what was said or if or what she may have "agreed."
It's really despicable that the ACLU has this school so cowed that they give them the right to censor speeches.
She is the kind of person I love to see in high schools. Back home the kids from our congregation are often among the top students (3 of the top 4 this year). They serve as wonderful examples to other students and bring many to Christ.
The press misreports significant facts at an astonishing rate.
Take a lot of Advanced Placement courses. A lot of schools, even though on a 4-point scale, will count a 5 on an AP course as being above A and will average it accordingly
"Actually, I've spotted a sleeper on this thread, that has been trolling other threads too. He/she opposes freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to life."
Interesting. Freepmail me.
Puhlease! The word "Allah" is Arabic for God. One finds this word in all christian liturgical services where the language is Arabic.
A lot of kids here do very well on AP tests. They're a good thing to do.
A lier? Does she sleep a lot?
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