Posted on 04/07/2010 8:24:28 AM PDT by rhema
Like Jefferson and Madison, I strongly believe in separation of church and state. And if a principal were to mandate school-directed prayer in classrooms, then that would be a violation of that separation. However, if at commencement, a valedictorian speaks of what God and Christ have meant to her life, that is her First Amendment right to free speech! The Roberts Supreme Court does not appear to agree.
Last November, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Brittany McComb who — as a 2006 valedictorian at Foothill High School in Nevada — had her microphone cut off by school officials when she started to speak about how God and Christ had taught her to experience something greater than herself, inspiring her to rise above her early high school failures.
Brittany had been forewarned. Her high school required a prior draft copy of commencement speeches, and censored all references in hers to her religious faith. She went ahead anyway because, as a student of the First Amendment, she knew she was speaking as an individual — and not on behalf of the state as represented by officials of her public high school.
With the help of the Rutherford Institute, headed by John Whitehead — a premier protector of all rights in the Bill of Rights — Brittany appealed the literal cutting off of her First Amendment rights ("Brittany McComb v. Gretchen Crehan").
The "liberal" 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the school's censorship because she was "proselytizing." But Brittany was speaking for, and about, herself. She was not trying to convert anyone.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge.
In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either.
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.
Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.
These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
I want to make clear that I meant the people being whiney were the ones protesting the prayer at the graduation, not the student or students who were offering the prayer.
Agreed entirely. I am just focusing on this case in particular.
The government-run schools prohibit expressing one’s faith and mandates secular humanist propaganda.
They also set aside Town lots for religious purposes.
And.....thousands of Town meetings were held in church. It was either the church or the saloon...
I was just shouting at the assembled multitude ;-)
Yes, of course.
Here is where Hentoff displays a complete lack of understanding of this part of the First Amendment: “Like Jefferson and Madison, I strongly believe in separation of church and state. And if a principal were to mandate school-directed prayer in classrooms, then that would be a violation of that separation.”
Neither Madison nor Hamilton held such a view, nor was such a view part of the Constitution. At the time of ratification, many states had established churches, and the entire point of the Federal Constitution’s “Establishment Clause” was to keep the federal government out of the religious affairs and settlements of the states. If the First Amendment had been understood in the anachronistic way that Hentoff takes for granted, the Constitution would NEVER have been ratified. BTW, when Jefferson was in charge of the D.C. schools, he used the Bible and Watts’ Hymnal as textbooks.
good post
They're already offended. Try to put up a cross in California, even on private property - you might even get death threats.
First of all, it is courteous to take the CAPS LOCK off when you type. Secondly, as a conservative, I am insulted by your assertion that I have a favorite welfare entitlement - I do not. American conservatives oppose mandatory public anything, including education. Apparently you have some superior philosophy which allows you to look down your nose at conservatism; perhaps you should enlighten us as to what that might be.
First, I meant to leave the caps on. If you don’t like it DON’T READ IT.
Second, perhaps you haven’t noticed that your views about conservatism aren’t widely shared by people who call themselves conservatives. Even here on FR there are many who defend various mandatory elements of the welfare state. In particular, with respect to education, there are many on FR who rail against single-payer health care and yet are ready to defend our single payer model of government education.
I don’t disagree with your principle of opposing mandatory government anything, as you put it, but you might reconsider whether that principle is as widely shared by self-identified conservatives as you think.
Yes, and shame on the U. S. Supreme Court.
Read and pingout tomorrow.
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