The principal of Lebanon High School has issued an apology that isn’t really an apology. I’ll post that shortly.
First, I’ve received one more letter from a graduate of Lebanon High—one who wishes to be identified. I wrote her twice asking for confirmation, for we all know (viz., the Jessica Ahlquist affair) what can happen to students who stand up for the separation of church and state in a religious town. The student repeated that she wanted to be identified because, as she wrote, “It doesn’t have to be anonymous at all. I stand by my views and wish to help fight for the cause!” How heartening to hear a young person talk about the “cause”!
Therefore, I give you the views of McKenzie McCaskill, who attended Lebanon High School:
At the graduation of my old school in Lebanon the principal, Mr. Lowery, talked a lot about god and even had a moment of silence (I’m assuming for prayer but maybe I’m wrong). I find this extremely wrong. Just because a majority of kids who go to the school are Christian doesn’t make it right to bring god into the celebration of a school matter. Imagine how out of place anyone of a different religion felt during this speech. If Mr. Lowery was, let’s say, Hindu and he had a speech that strongly mentioned and worshiped the Hindu religion he would most likely be hanged in Lebanon. Just because the majority of people in the town are Christian does NOT make it acceptable. There is a separation of church and state, and quite honestly I would have walked right out of that graduation if I heard that speech. If he would have pulled a stunt like that in any bigger city he most likely would have been fired.
Lebanon high school is a public school. If you want to talk about god then be a principal at a private school. I have nothing against Christians, I have nothing against any religion, I have nothing against god, I have nothing against the followers of god, but I sure have something against making people feel out of place because they have a different belief than you. Any kid of a different religion or of no religion probably felt like such an outsider and felt so out of place. Mr. Lowery has done this in many speeches before, and though he knows some students and parents are not comfortable with the talk of religion in events such as the graduation, he proceeds to do as he wants and disregards those in the minority. Laws were set to separate church and state and students at Lebanon High School should have a privilege to those rights. Those rights should not be ignored just because a majority of the town shares the same beliefs. There is a time and place for everything and it was very wrong for Mr. Lowery to put some (even if only a few) students in such an awkward and unfair situation at their own graduation.
This now makes three students who have expressed their opposition to the principal’s proselytizing and the relentless religiosity of Lebanon High, far worse than even I imagined. These are courageous young folks, for, one way or another, people will probably figure out who they are. McKenzie doesn’t care, and good for her. I hope she doesn’t get too much pushback.
I’d like the school board of Lebanon to read those three letters (the first two are here and here), and then contemplate the effect of the school’s pervasive Christian proselytizing on their young people. For one thing, it’s going to drive the freethinkers away from Lebanon, as it has done for some already. But maybe Lebanon doesn’t care if it hemorrhages its smartest kids, so long as the town can keep its Christian unanimity.
****
I’ll append one attempted comment by a Guy Caley, just to refresh you about the Constitutional acumen of many Lebanon residents:
Do any of you people even live in Lebanon or have kids in the school? No? Then this doesn’t concern you. I do and nobody I have heard in Lebanon is complaining. We aren’t really in need of your assistance.
And by the way the folks at Freedom From Religion Foundation that Professor Coyne tattled to have already said that Professor Coyne is an idiot and there is no constitutional violation here.
You’ve heard three complaints, Caley (there are more). The reason more people don’t complain is that you and your fellow Christians have intimidated them into silence. Oh, and you’ve lied about what the FFRF said. You have no integrity.
Finally, you do need our help, or at least the FFRF’s, if your schools are to follow the law. Since you don’t do that willingly, we have to force you through the legal system.
Does the ban on prayer by school officials include public universities? At my school recognition event last month (the one where we get to walk across stage in cap & gown to do the grip & grin with the Dean), one of the department chairs gave a Christian invocation and benediction. I don’t recall the exact words, but it definitely wasn’t a non-sectarian utterance.
Yep, illegal. see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_v._Weisman
All the court cases I’m seeing deal with public K-12 schools, where the students would be presumed to be minors. In a public university, the students would normally be expected to be adults. I’m not seeing any court rulings that explicitly cover these public post-secondary institutions.
I do realize that age should not be an issue where the Establishment Clause is concerned, but I can see some trying to make it a factor.
Lee v Weisman seems to involve only a middle school, not a public university.
Very enlightening. One sees of course in this ruling the dissenting opinion of Scalia, who clearly poses a great danger in nibbling the edges of the Establishment Clause.
I don’t think he really wants to nibble; I think we wants to take great heaping bites out of it.
Getting back to Mark Perew’s question – Mark, IANAL but AFAIK the question’s never really been settled by the courts. There haven’t been a lot of relevant cases involving public universities.
Bravo, McKenzie!
I’ll second that!
And I will as well!
I will too!
Too many Christians — and too many theists in general — seem to have serious problems with distinguishing public expressions of religion which are supported by government from those which aren’t. If the State is providing the forum for some purpose other than the statement of private beliefs then you can’t take advantage of this captive audience. You don’t have the right to an audience.
I’ll believe theists when they say that the prayers at graduations and government meetings are not coercive — you can “ignore” them — when they have no problem with people talking and doing other things during the prayer. But we know damn well they’d be horrified at the lack of “respect” should that happen.
I remember a while back there was a (high school?) football game where the prayer was said by the Christian spectators while the players took the field and other spectators cheered them. This should have been a win-win situation, a classic example of those who want to pray praying — and those who aren’t interested in praying abstaining. But oh, didn’t they pitch a fit?
Those who don’t pray need to sit on their hands, hang their heads, and maintain silence.
“Those who don’t pray need to sit on their hands, hang their heads, and maintain silence.”
Says who?
During any public invocation (sporting events), I will not interrupt or be rude, but I damn sure am not bowing my head or removing my cap.
I’m 99% sure the last sentence was Sastra’s characterization of Chrisian spectator’s position, not her (Sastra’s) position.
That makes sense and after reading it again, I agree that is how it might have been intended to be read, but through me off.
This is relevant to a recent event this past memorial weekend. We attend the Indianapolis 500 event every year and they always have an invocation during pre-race ceremonies. I usually try to make a point to sit down while everyone is standing, keep my head straight up high and generally ignore what is going on around me. Not disruptive or rude, but a casual “I don’t give a shit about your prayer”.
Sastra uses that rhetoric trick a lot. Be warned when you read her comments in the future! 😉
/@
*rhetorical
Yeah, that was rhetoric, a summary of the Christian position: don’t “interrupt.” Stand up during the completely optional and voluntary non-coerced prayer and call out or even just speak to someone else about something else — “Say, did you remember to bring the files?” or “Thanks for inviting me to the barbeque” or “How ’bout them Packers?”– and be prepared for wrath and condemnation from the hell-of-a-lot-holier- than-thou.
God must be hard of hearing. Maybe they’ll have to start all over again, to do it proper.
If only they *did* intimidate them into science! Who knows, maybe they did? 😀
Oops, a Freudian slip, which I’ve fixed. Thanks.
I don’t think Lebanon cares about “smart”, all they care about is “Christian”.
Dear Jerry and everyone,
This article is a bit old now, but it is well worth a read.
It’s from an “evangelical Christian” who gets it. Perhaps the Christians of Lebanon could read it?
“Why I’m against pre-grame prayers”
http://www.wnd.com/2005/10/32839/
Typo:
You’ve heard three complaints, Caley (there are more). The reason more people don’t complain is that you and your fellow Christians have intimidated them into science.
autocorrect?
This is a very brave woman. The letter suggests she’s a recent graduate, so hopefully she has since moved to a college city and is free.
Good on you, McKenzie and I’m glad you didn’t capitalize “god”. 🙂
Excellent, Mr. Caley, just excellent. We get to see you lie intentionally and show your ignorance. Your actions show that you don’t believe in your religion any more than I do. Thank you so much for showing that Christianity is nothing more than a reflection of its believers and no “magical truth” at all.
As lying to support their religion (aka “Lying For Jesus”) goes, that was among the worst I’ve seen!
Besides making a lie [sic!] of their magical beliefs, I’m sure it warns off potential sect members. If you must lie to protect your belief, and make dishonesty and lack of morality an integral part of it, how alluring can it be? It’s no wonder why its social support in some communities has deteriorated from brainwashing into mob rule.
This must be hard on theologians as well. Instead of tucking away its pretend magic agency safely (or not) with the formulaic deepity of “Ground Of Being”, outsiders know it as Ground Of Lies.
Good cross-connection; yup, Lowery’s speech is a classic example of just how disconnected and unrepresentative ‘sophisticated theology’ is of regular christian belief.
Guy Caley:
You prefer not to live under the law? Why don’t you try living without science. You can start by praying for clean water, electricity, and paved roads. Pray for those three things and I would be surprised if you made it one week without serious health problems. Alas, you can pray for those to go away as well.
Bravo to all these students for speaking up.
McKenzie, thanks for taking a public stand. I know it must be difficult, but you’ve just made it that much easier for others — perhaps even the two anonymous students whom we’ve already heard from — to take a similar step. And that, in turn, would make it easier for those who don’t actually believe but only pretend to out of fear of being seen as an outsider to also stop pretending.
I’m pretty sure that the actual “true believers” represent a plurality at best. With people like you stepping forward, we’ll hopefully have the chance to see all people express their true conscience…and, in so doing, demonstrate that the emperor isn’t merely naked, but that he himself never even existed in the first place.
Cheers,
b&
I wonder if McKenzie is related to the senior Missouri US Senator? Whether she is or is not, I hope Claire publicly stands for the Establishment Clause and does not undermine it like so many of her Congressional peers (not to mention the 4 Fools & their sometime Friend).
I agree with this student, McKenzie, that if he wants to preach religion then the principal should be in a religious rather than a public school.
Good on her for publishing her name.