Another small but important victory

[Bonnie]

Minnesota School Agrees to Allow Students' Christian Song at Graduation

By Allie Martin
June 8, 2006



http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/6/82006d.asp

(AgapePress) - A Minnesota public high school that had banned two of its students from singing a religious song at this year's graduation ceremonies reversed course and allowed the selection, but only after Florida-based Liberty Counsel intervened with the threat of legal action.

LaPorte High School students Aaron Reimer and Victoria Raddatz had been invited by a student-led committee to sing a song at commencement, and they had chosen "Treasure of Jesus," a song by Steven Curtis Chapman, as their selection. However, administrators at the school informed the two teens that they could not sing their duet because of the so-called separation of church and state.

Liberty Counsel, a pro-family litigation, education, and policy organization, contacted LaPorte High School and threatened to sue if the school did not allow the students' musical selection to be sung at graduation. The legal group also offered school officials free legal assistance should the district be sued over allowing the Christian song to be performed.

Attorney Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, says young Reimer and Raddatz are to be commended. "It's important to stand up for your rights," he observes, "and in this case these students had a choice: either buckle because of the controversy and not sing the song, or stand up. And stand up they did."


Mat Staver
The good news, Staver adds, is that the two young people were able to sing their Christian song and freely express their faith in Christ at the graduation exercises. "We were able to stand with them, and the event went off as planned," he says.

Songs with religious themes may lawfully be sung at graduation ceremonies, the pro-family attorney points out, so long as the students have selected the songs without input from faculty or staff. Under these conditions, he says, Christian songs and other expressions of religious faith do not violate the Constitution of the United States.

However, Staver notes, many educators and school officials are unaware of what the law says regarding religious expressions at graduations and many are wary of legal attacks from secularists. For that reason, he says, "We have to be eternally vigilant. We have to educate and litigate where necessary to make sure that the gospel and religious messages are not censored from the public square."

The Liberty Counsel spokesman emphasizes that while school officials are sometimes intimidated into believing they must bar students from expressing their religious faith in speech or song at public school graduations to keep from violating the law, in fact, the opposite is true. If school districts are to stay on the right side of the law, he says students' lawful and constitutionally protected religious expressions must be permitted.

Silencing student-initiated musical performances or other free speech at graduations on the basis of its religious content is not only insensitive, Staver asserts, but it's also unconstitutional. When students elect a classmate to deliver a message or perform a selection of that individual's choice, school officials may not censor the student's religious viewpoint.

 

[acludem]

Would this school allow a Muslim student to sing a traditional Muslim call to prayer song? Perhaps a Jewish cantor could perform as well. Maybe some Rastafarian Reggae could be added, too.

Why do Christians constantly feel the need to jam their religion down everyone's throat? I am a religious person, but I don't constantly badger everyone else about my religion. By all means, practice your faith, but keep it to yourself.

acludem

 

[Bonnie]

OKay

acludemWould this school allow a Muslim student to sing a traditional Muslim call to prayer song? Perhaps a Jewish cantor could perform as well. Maybe some Rastafarian Reggae could be added, too.

Why not have all religions represented???

Why do Christians constantly feel the need to jam their religion down everyone's throat? I am a religious person, but I don't constantly badger everyone else about my religion. By all means, practice your faith, but keep it to yourself.

They don't, Christians just want the freedom to practice their faith in public which is supposed to be a perk for a free society. Im curious as to how exactly one practices their faith and keeps it to themselves?? How does that work? Basements and churches only, are church bakes sales allowed on lawns, are crosses allowed on property, do I have the right to hang my rosary beads in my car, or wear a religious symbol around my neck???? Who decides this??
What criteria is used??

 

[acludem]

The difference is Christians constantly want to use public forums, like a graduation, that are not religious in nature and inject their religion into them.

Do whatever you want in your car, at the park, whatever, but why do you constantly seek to use public events that have no religious significance for the purpose of promoting religion?

acludem

 

[Bonnie]

The difference is Christians constantly want to use public forums, like a graduation, that are not religious in nature and inject their religion into them.

Do whatever you want in your car, at the park, whatever, but why do you constantly seek to use public events that have no religious significance for the purpose of promoting religion?

acludem

Whose doing that? I just posted the article I wasn't actually there. Anyway whose to say Christians just want the right to celebrate their faith at a graduation or other meaningful event? You make a lot of assumptions that it's all about converting the world, yes those devious Christians are all out to kill everyone's fun. Get real here. Like or not Chrtistians make up the majority in this country and don't like to be told they can't celebrate their faith in public. Courthouses and government buildings etc I can see an argument to be made that churches have no real place there, but school recitals, parks (which Im glad you mentioned btw, since you will be supporting the Boy Scouts then as well?), graduations et al are not crossing the line of seperation.

Ill remind you that it was the ACLU that took this fight to Christians, did they seriously expect Christians to just role over and not fight back? If you want to be frustrated make sure you know who and why, even nice dogs will eventually fight back if picked on enough.

 

[CockySOB]

Tyranny of the minority.

When the rights of the majority to freely exercise their religious beliefs because a minority doesn't know how to look aside and "turn the channel" as it were, you find the minority running roughshod over the majority as the athiests have done to Judeo-christianity here in the USA.

I like your question Bonnie - what would these same indignant athiests do if stateside muslims decided to speak openly about their faith, or practice their religious beliefs in public? Personally, I think the athiests would continue to harangue the Christian faiths and leave the muslims alone, after all, when was the last time anyone saw Christians riot in the streets and cut the heads off of infidels?

Frankly the athiests should thank whatever god they DON'T believe in that they don't live under sharia where they would REALLY be able to appreciate their rights in the USA to ignore the religious and to even openly criticize the religious bodies.

BTW acludem, it's not about forcing others to practice a majority religion. It's about allowing the majority to practice their Constitutionally protected right to freedom of religion and allowing the minority to NOT practice any religion if they choose not to.

 

[acludem]

I would have the same problem if any religion was allowed to use a public forum, like a graduation, to ram their faith down everyone's throat especially where other religions are denied the same opportunity. In this case, these students who are performing at a graduation ceremony at a public school, with a diverse student body, chose a specifically Christian song that has absolutely nothing to do with graduation, to promote their religion. Why is this necessary?

Also, FYI, I'm a very religious person, but I'm not a Christian.

acludem

 

[no1tovote4]

Would this school allow a Muslim student to sing a traditional Muslim call to prayer song? Perhaps a Jewish cantor could perform as well. Maybe some Rastafarian Reggae could be added, too.

It appeared the school would according to the final rule. If the students chose him and he then chose to sing that....

Why do Christians constantly feel the need to jam their religion down everyone's throat? I am a religious person, but I don't constantly badger everyone else about my religion. By all means, practice your faith, but keep it to yourself.

acludem

Some guy singing a song at the request of the student body is badgering? You have an entirely different idea of badgering than I. I am not a christian, but I certainly can spend two minutes listening to a song without feeling "badgered"...

 

[Annie]

Personally I have much more of a problem with teachers devoting more than a month to teaching Islam in classes, under the guise of cultural diversity.

 

[acludem]

Of course, you'd be fine if teachers spent a month teaching Christianity in schools. I took a humanities class in high school (many high schools offer this) that had a religion component that covered Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam for an academic, rather than promotional, perspective.

acludem

 

[no1tovote4]

Of course, you'd be fine if teachers spent a month teaching Christianity in schools. I took a humanities class in high school (many high schools offer this) that had a religion component that covered Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam for an academic, rather than promotional, perspective.

acludem

When did she say that? You would have a problem if they had a play that had a character that mentioned Christ! (Same type of inane strawman accusation!)

 

[Annie]

Of course, you'd be fine if teachers spent a month teaching Christianity in schools. I took a humanities class in high school (many high schools offer this) that had a religion component that covered Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam for an academic, rather than promotional, perspective.

acludem

Actually that is untrue and if you do a search you will see that it is untrue. I haven't a problem with comparative religion component in public high schools, nor would I favor 'teaching Christianity' in public high schools.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I would have the same problem if any religion was allowed to use a public forum, like a graduation, to ram their faith down everyone's throat especially where other religions are denied the same opportunity. In this case, these students who are performing at a graduation ceremony at a public school, with a diverse student body, chose a specifically Christian song that has absolutely nothing to do with graduation, to promote their religion. Why is this necessary?

Also, FYI, I'm a very religious person, but I'm not a Christian.

acludem

What are you? New Age?

 

[dilloduck]

What are you? New Age?

Satanic-------"cramming religion down peoples throats":rotflmao:
Get a new mantra. It's a song--it goes in your ears--if you don't like you can let it go out the other one.

 

[Abbey Normal]

Satanic-------"cramming religion down peoples throats":rotflmao:
Get a new mantra. It's a song--it goes in your ears--if you don't like you can let it go out the other one.

Indeed. Yet when it comes to porn on the TV or the Internet, we are told to "just turn it off" if we don't like it. Just another example of the endless number of hypocrisies from the left.

 

[1549]

Indeed. Yet when it comes to porn on the TV or the Internet, we are told to "just turn it off" if we don't like it. Just another example of the endless number of hypocrisies from the left.

That is not hypocracy. Everything is fucking on tv and the internet. From the religious right to porn and everything in between. I turned on my TV the other morning and two gentleman were talking about God...I get my God dosage from sources other than the TV, so I turned it off.

CORRECTION: I actually changed the channel

 

[Abbey Normal]

That is not hypocracy. Everything is fucking on tv and the internet. From the religious right to porn and everything in between. I turned on my TV the other morning and two gentleman were talking about God...I get my God dosage from sources other than the TV, so I turned it off.

CORRECTION: I actually changed the channel

It is clearly hypocrisy. Interesting that you refer to religious information as a God "dosage".

 

[1549]

It is clearly hypocrisy. Interesting that you refer to religious information as a God "dosage".

The dosage thing is merely a figure of speech. My point is that I do not get religion from a couple of guys sitting on a sofa on a local TV network.

Anyways, I do not think it is hypocracy because there is no double standard on the internet and TV. There is plenty of conservative talk and religious content (24 hour christian healer networks as well) and there is porn. As stated before, there is also everything in between. It would be hypocracy if the religious networks were kicked off the air or net and porn remained. Instead, both are present and both can be watched or tuned out by viewers.

 

[Abbey Normal]

The dosage thing is merely a figure of speech. My point is that I do not get religion from a couple of guys sitting on a sofa on a local TV network.

Anyways, I do not think it is hypocracy because there is no double standard on the internet and TV. There is plenty of conservative talk and religious content (24 hour christian healer networks as well) and there is porn. As stated before, there is also everything in between. It would be hypocracy if the religious networks were kicked off the air or net and porn remained. Instead, both are present and both can be watched or tuned out by viewers.

15, the delivery system (TV, Internet or a song at graduation) is not the point. The hypcorisy lies in the fact that when libs feel that something is too offensive to be broadcast (i.e., a Christian song at graduation), it must be silenceed. But if I find sex on TV, for example, to be offensive, I am told to tune it out/turn it off. If libs are unwilling to apply their own 'live and let live' philosophy to a 2 minute song, that's hypocrisy.

 

[1549]

15, the delivery system (TV, Internet or a song at graduation) is not the point. The hypcorisy lies in the fact that when libs feel that something is too offensive to be broadcast (i.e., a Christian song at graduation), it must be silenceed. But if I find sex on TV, for example, to be offensive, I am told to tune it out/turn it off. If libs are unwilling to apply their own 'live and let live' philosophy to a 2 minute song, that's hypocrisy.

Without taking a stand on the issue that started this thread, I will say the scenario is a bit different when choice is not a factor. You can tune out sex on tv because you have other channels. At a graduation, you can not choose to listen to a different song.

I am not going to say whether or not they should have played the song, I just wanted to explain that important difference between sex on tv and a graduation song.