One small battle in Christianity’s War on America

I have written elsewhere that the current ploy by the Republican Party, Christian Right, and Catholic Church (are they officially part of the Christian Right now?) claiming that Obama is attacking religious freedom is ludicrous.  They have clearly not read the Constitution.  Evidence of this can be seen in the fact that the courts often rule against the pulpit—Griswold v. Connecticut, Roe v. Wade, and a spattering of recent cases involving gay marriage to name a few.  Taken alone, this is not too bad.  They are allowed to have their own opinions.  A problem arises when they claim to be the victim, but in fact are the protagonists in the current “religious war” they are claiming exists.  It is none other than the Christianity inspired Right that is waging a religious war in the U.S.  The blatant hypocrisy from the Right is becoming nauseating.  The latest example from our “victims” can be seen in a bill currently up for debate in the Florida House—SB 0098.  This bill has already been approved by the Florida Senate.

For those of you not familiar with the bill, it would allow K-12 students to deliver inspirational messages (including but not limited to prayer) at any and all school functions.  It is necessary to point out that this bill would be optional—not all school districts would need to adopt it.  If you are not yet offended by this attack on religious freedom, perhaps the last portion of this proposal will serve to bring your anger to a slow boil.  In an attempt to get around the whole school sanctioned prayer deal, the bill explicitly states that school administrators and school districts are not allowed to review the messages prior to their being read—that way, it is not school sanctioned prayer, but just kids saying whatever they want to say.  Tricky huh?  Yet, it is us secularly minded folks who are waging a war on religion and trying to manipulate the Constitution?

Some key things to note, the word “prayer” is not mentioned anywhere in the bill.  According to members of both Florida houses of Congress, due to this fact, the law is not really subject to litigation.  In the words of State Rep. Charles Van Zant (R) this is a freedom of speech act and not a school prayer bill so there is no controversy to be found.  He goes further to say that the bill, already adopted in the FL Senate was reviewed by the Senate Attorneys and no future lawsuits could be brought forward—the bill is legally sound.  Apparently no one informed the ACLU who is already on the case.  Mr. Van Zant, just because you believe something is true; even if you believe it with all your heart; that does not in fact make it true.  Sorry to disappoint—there will be lawsuits, and I truly hope we have a new Jessica Ahlquist, inspired student group emerge in Florida.

There are two other points to discuss here.  One is that students will get to vote on the kinds of messages allowed to be stated.  As a former high school teacher of ten years, the only thought going through my head is from The Lord of the Flies.  In all seriousness, do we want to give children aged K-12, the right to mandate what is heard over the loudspeaker in their schools on a daily basis?  Good news atheists, this may not be all bad, as there is a 50/50 chance that Florida educators receive daily inspirational messages from today’s pop stars (“hey Snooky says that…”)and/or fart jokes (the wit of teenage boys must be taken into account).  All kidding aside this is a terrible idea.  There is not a demographic in this country that is more hostile to those who are different than the young.  Bullying is already a major problem in today’s education environment—thank you to the Florida government for giving bullies a pulpit.  If you would like to see what this scenario could turn into I refer you a previous post of mine regarding the Anoka County School District in Minnesota and the accompanying Rolling Stone article.  You can read of the disgusting behavior perpetrated by the Christianity inspired “righteous” students here.  The evangelically intentioned officials behind this law clearly are not concerned with the religious freedom of all of the non-Christians who will need to hear these “inspirational messages”.

The second thing to note is that initially groups like the Florida Family Policy Council and the (poorly named) Liberty Counsel rejected the proposed law.  Why would these two right wing evangelical groups do such a thing?  In the words of Mathew Stave founder of the Liberty counsel, “I opposed the original Senate bill, because it allowed only non-sectarian and non-proselytizing messages, which means it required the state to censor student speech.”  Isn’t that sweet, Mr. Stave wants the kids to be able to say whatever they want as long it can be proselytizing and sectarian.  (Tongue planted firmly in cheek)  If this proposed law comes to fruition, I wonder how long it will last in certain scenarios.  Here is a quick example:  what happens when a school in a predominantly Muslim community starts reading “inspirational speeches” quoting from Shari a law?  I suppose that will set well with our evangelical officials.

In closing, I would urge that young atheists in Florida also get in on the action and deliver some of their own “inspirational messages”—Jessica Ahlquist style.  Perhaps something like this:

I do not need a promise of eternal reward or the fear of eternal punishment in hell for me to be a moral person.  I do not need to believe in a supernatural being to know that is wrong for me to discriminate against my fellow classmates based on their beliefs.  Each and every student here, Christian, Muslim, Jew, atheist, etc has a right to his or her own beliefs.  I know that any god who would urge me to believe that my views are superior to theirs is a god that would inspire to me to act in a discriminative manner.  Today’s message:  be kind to each other and question the source of your morality before you act.  Would you want someone doing to you, what you are doing to them?  Where does god fit in that picture?  Think for yourself.  You often know the right answer, but sometimes an old book can give you the wrong one.  Think for yourself.

Make no mistake about it, messages from any other faith, or from no faith at all would not be tolerated by the same people proposing this bill.  There is no polite way to state that fact.  There is also no other way to view this scenario as another front in the Christian Right’s war on the Constitution.

Thanks for reading.  I look forward to your comments.