In high school, my principal told me to give the closing prayer for the graduation ceremony. A teacher told my friend he was going to hell for being an atheist. One of the biology teachers assigned her students a Bible reading for homework.
This was all at a public school in Louisiana. Schools are supposed to be secular, unbiased places for learning, but some school districts turned our institutions into publicly-funded indoctrination facilities for Christians. I couldn’t fight against the illegal indoctrination while in school for fear of being failed. Teachers have a way of manipulating students who don’t know all the legalities of prayer in school.
Pushing Christianity onto students seems to be the norm in Louisiana’s public schools. The ACLU accused Airline High School in Bossier City, Louisiana, of religious recruitment and promoting prayer.
The school’s principal, Jason Rowland, wrote “The Future Starts Today — May God Bless You All” on the school’s website in a message. The ACLU alleged he also encouraged students to “pray to the Almighty God.”
Rowland didn’t see the problem with his statement. He went on an interview on “Fox and Friends Weekend” and equated his message to telling people “bless you” after they sneeze.
“If it gets to that point and you’re not even allowed to sneeze within a school system and say ‘God bless you,’ where’s our culture?” Rowland said. “Where are we going if that’s going to be offensive to someone?”
Most people don’t think referencing God is offensive, and the ACLU isn’t telling Rowland to rid the school of Christian bias because it might offend someone. His First Amendment right to the freedom of speech gives him all the rights in the world to be offensive on his personal time, but this situation isn’t about offending anyone.
The ACLU wants him to stop referencing God because referencing a deity is unconstitutional. The First Amendment prohibits the government from “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
As a public school principal receiving taxpayer money, he cannot promote any religion in school. Doing so is a direct violation of the Constitution.
Our lawmakers, however, decided to defend Rowland instead of the Constitution. Remember Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson? He proposed the Louisiana Marriage and Conscience Act earlier this year, which would have made it legal for businesses to discriminate against LGBT people. He’s back.
Johnson said his law firm will offer Airline High School free legal defense to fight the ACLU if necessary.
“This is typical of the ACLU,” Johnson said. “They’re on a seek-and-destroy mission for all things religious.”
No Mike. They’re protecting people from religious extremists like you. Despite what you might hear at southern Baptist sermons, non-believers aren’t going to burn in the fiery pits of hell at the mercy of Satan. It’s not your job to force Christianity on people, especially not high school students who are still learning about the world.
Religious liberty is important in America. People shouldn’t have to support churches through public funds, and our laws shouldn’t reflect religious laws. Christians need to start respecting and protecting true religious liberty.
Cody Sibley is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Opelousas, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter at @CodySibley.