No, God Wasn’t Making A Political Statement By Sparing Trump
Conflating religion and politics does an injustice to both.Conflating religion and politics does an injustice to both.Texas school district cancels prayer event, caving to pressure from out-of-state group
A Texas school board planned a prayer marathon in the lead-up to the new school year. The prospect that educators, parents, and students would voluntarily appeal to an unspecified higher power for safety and wisdom ahead of the fall semester proved too much to bear for one activist group from out of state.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation appears to have successfully pressured the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District into canceling the event and agreeing to refrain from proposing something again online in the future.
In the revisionist history on the FFRF's website, the group alleges that "most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion," making no mention of the atrocities secular regimes have been wont to commit ever since the French Revolution.
The group further boasts that the irreligious have been, in modern times, "the first to speak out" in support of euthanasia, abortion, contraception, and sterilization.
Extra to promoting the separation of state and church, championing the legality of eugenicist practices, and advocating for LGBT dogma to be peddled in schools, the group has taken on an evangelical role: "to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism."
The group appears particularly hostile to public prayer, havingcharacterized it as "unnecessary, ineffective, embarrassing, exclusionary, divisive or just plain silly."
On July 25, the Burnet CISD shared a now-deleted post on Facebook that read, "Join us beginning tomorrow as we pray to the first day."
The post assigned different schools and groups within the district, from custodial staff to parents and guardians, a different day to voluntarily pray, starting July 26 and running until August 16.
Samantha Lawrence, a legal fellow at the FFRF, apparently caught wind of the marathon and penned a letter to Superintendent Keith McBurnett on July 27, claiming a "concerned complainant" had flagged the event.
Lawrence suggested that the optional prayer event — which did not appear to specify a style or method of prayer, a corresponding creed, or an object of the transcendent appeals — displayed "clear favoritism towards religion over nonreligion by promoting and encouraging prayer."
"The District serves a diverse community that consists of not only religious students, families, and employees, but also atheists, agnostics, and those who are simply religiously unaffiliated," wrote Lawrence. "By promoting prayer, the District sends an official message that excludes all nonreligious District students and community members."
The FFRF activist demanded that the Burnet CISD "cease promoting prayer and refrain from doing so in the future," as well as remove the post from its Facebook account.
Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist newsletter highlighted how this was neither a lawsuit nor a threat.
Nevertheless, the school complied, reported the Washington Times.
In an Aug. 3 statement, the FFRF noted that McBurnett had written back, "The Facebook post has been removed, and the district will refrain from posting anything similar in the future."
Annie Gaylor, the co-president of the FFRF, celebrated the capitulation, writing, "We're glad that school officials are taking action to uphold constitutional neutrality."
"A school district does not need to pray for their students and staff. It needs to focus instead on providing a secular education free from religious indoctrination," added Gaylor.
Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch appears to be of a different mind.
In a June 2022 decision, where the Supreme Court ruled a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team's games, Gorsuch wrote, "Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic — whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head."
TheBlaze reached out to McBurnett and Burnet CISD Board President Earl Foster for comment, but had not received a reply by the time of publication.
It remains unclear whether educators, students, and parents will continue their prayer marathon, albeit without the official sanction or direction of elements of the district.
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Leftists Don’t Mind NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ Religious Talk Because He Puts Politics First
Adams' faith raises important questions about reconciling different political opinions that both claim to derive from religious truths.'I don't want Jesus riding on my car': Atheists sue Mississippi over 'In God We Trust' license plates
Atheists in Mississippi are suing the state over its new license plates — which display the phrase, "In God We Trust" — arguing that their First Amendment rights are being violated. One group is even arguing that the phrase is rooted in "deep hostility" toward atheists.
What are the details?
On Tuesday, separation of church and state watchdog organization American Atheists, the Mississippi Humanist Association, and three atheist Mississippi residents filed a lawsuit against the state's commissioner of revenue, Chris Graham, for allegedly trampling on the rights of nonreligious residents by forcing them to display the national motto on their personal vehicles.
Since 2019, the standard license tag in Mississippi has included the phrase, "In God We Trust." As such, car owners in the state are required to display the message on their vehicles, or else pay a fee for an alternative design. Additionally, for some specialized vehicles — such as trailers and motorcycles — there are no alternative designs available.
With the lawsuit, the coalition of atheists hopes to force Mississippi to provide nonreligious residents with an alternative license plate at no extra cost.
"Wherever I use my trailer, I am forced to profess a religious idea that I do not believe," said plaintiff Jason Alan Griggs in the lawsuit. "Imagine a Christian having to drive around with 'In No God We Trust' or 'In Allah We Trust.'"
Another defendant, Derenda Hancock, who describes herself as "a radical atheist," insists the government should not have the power to violate "her right to be free from religion."
"I don't want Jesus riding on my car," she reportedly told a tag agent in January 2019. At that time, she paid the $32 for a specialty "Mississippi Blues Trail" license plate and did the same again in 2020.
What else?
American Atheists, a national organization dedicated to ensuring the complete separation of church and state, argued that the license plate stigmatizes nonreligious individuals as unpatriotic and unfairly makes them a "mouthpiece" for a cause they don't believe in.
"Every minute they spend on the streets of Mississippi, atheists are forced to act as a billboard for the state's religious message," said Geoffrey Blackwell, litigation counsel at American Atheists, in a news release. "Some can avoid being a mouthpiece for the government by paying a penalty. For many others, even that isn't possible. Atheists with a disability or a special category of vehicle are stuck proclaiming a belief in the Christian god. It's an abuse of power and unconstitutional."
The group also argued in the news release that the phrase, "In God We Trust," is "rooted in deep hostility toward atheists."
It claimed the phrase, which was first included on U.S. coins in the 1860s, was done so to "relieve [the country] from the ignominy of heathenism," according to Treasury Department records. Nearly a century later, the phrase was made the national motto in order to differentiate the U.S. from the "godless" Soviets, the group claimed.
Anything else?
As a gubernatorial candidate in 2019, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves ran a campaign ad touting the new license plates, equating "In God We Trust" with "Mississippi's values."
In God We Trust youtu.be
Public HS principal to valedictorian: Mentioning your Christian faith in graduation speech is 'not appropriate.' But valedictorian is fighting back.
A Michigan public high school principal is getting called out by a legal firm after telling one of the valedictorians that mentioning her Christian faith in her graduation speech is "not appropriate."
What are the details?
According to First Liberty, one section of the speech Elizabeth Turner prepared for Hillsdale High School's graduation ceremony next Thursday noted that "for me, my future hope is found in my relationship with Christ. By trusting in him and choosing to live a life dedicated to bringing his kingdom glory, I can be confident that I am living a life with purpose and meaning. My identity is found by what God says and who I want to become is laid out in scripture."
The legal firm said the school's principal, Amy Goldsmith, reacted by highlighting that paragraph, along with a second, and telling Turner that "you are representing the school in the speech, not using the podium as your public forum. We need to be mindful about the inclusion of religious aspects. These are your strong beliefs, but they are not appropriate for a speech in a school public setting. I know this will frustrate you, but we have to be mindful of it."
What happened next?
Apparently Turner got in touch with First Liberty, because the law firm said it sent a letter to Goldsmith informing her that she's "violating federal law, which permits private religious speech at school events, and demanding that she allow Elizabeth to reference her faith."
First Liberty also said that student graduation speeches constitute private speech, not government speech, and private speech is not subject to the Establishment Clause. The law firm added that Turner's statements "do not transform into government speech simply because they are delivered in a public setting or to a public audience."
The letter concludes by requesting that Goldsmith "allow Elizabeth Turner to express her private religious beliefs at the graduation ceremony on June 6, 2021. Please confirm that you agree to our request by Friday, May 28, 2021 at 5PM."
Anything else?
According to another document from First Liberty, Turner emailed Goldsmith regarding her requested changes and said "unfortunately I don't think I would be able to deliver a genuine speech under those circumstances. I don't agree that we should avoid the topic of tragedy and death because that is part of everyone's future. I understand what you are saying, but for me, this is a time for my peers and I to elevate our lives and to choose how we want to live since we're not promised tomorrow, and I don't want to write a speech that won't be meaningful just to check off the box. I believe it is celebratory to call people to a life of purpose and meaning and a call to action to live a life well. For me, my personal future relies on my faith, and I also want the freedom to be able to address that in my speech if the opportunity arises."
Fox News reported that Goldsmith did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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