First, the situation is that someone complained because he/she didn't want to pray at graduation. Since this is a public high school, prayer shouldn't be a part of any public official ceremony. Everyone has the right to pray when they want to, and a school should give equal time to any religious group that wants to have a school club. But separation of church and state should be maintained.
A judge issued an order banning prayer. The student body's response:
. . .About 200 seniors stood during the principal's opening remarks and began reciting the Lord's Prayer, prompting a standing ovation from a standing-room only crowd . . .
Cool. That's their right.
. . .The revival like atmosphere continued when senior Megan Chapman said in her opening remarks that God had guided her since childhood. Chapman was interrupted repeatedly by the cheering crowd as she urged her classmates to trust in God as they go through life. . .
Okay, so this public school obviously has a highly Christian group of students. Once again, no big deal.
. . .The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky filed suit on behalf of the unidentified student on Tuesday.
ACLU attorney Lili Lutgens said she was pleased with the judge's order and "very proud of my client for standing up for the Constitution." Lutgens said prayer would be unconstitutional because it would endorse a specific religion and religious views. . .
This is what people don't get about banning prayer. What if it was a Catholic prayer they were going to give? Do you think all Christians would be okay with it? Hell no. All the Baptists and Mormons and Episcopalians and other religions would be up in arms that a school was endorsing Catholicism. Endorsing a generic Christian prayer is the same thing - it alienates Jewish students, Islamic students, Hindi students, Buddhists, Scientologists, and any other non-Christian religion. That is disrespectful to the concept of freedom of religion and contrary to Constitutional intentions.
. . .Russell County School Superintendent Scott Pierce called himself a "person of faith" and said he was pleased with the response to the ruling by the senior class.
"This was a good learning process for them as far as how to handle things that come along in life," Pierce said. The response of the students showed an ability to be "critical thinkers."
"They exhibited what we've tried to accomplish in 12 years of education - they have the ability to make these compelling decisions on their own," Pierce said. . .
This type of hypocrisy pisses me off. Fuck off and die, idiot. If these students had exhibited "critical thinking" and made "compelling decisions on their own" about something else, like protesting prayer, or protesting the suspension of a student who brought nail clippers, or something that was against his own interest, this fucknut wouldn't be praising them - he'd be condemning them.
. . .Gabe McNeil said during a rehearsal on Thursday, other students booed the student suspected of filing the challenge when he walked across the stage.
"They've been giving him crap," McNeil said. . .
Wow - great Christian attitude.
I'm not sure why this whole story annoys me. It may be that I consider 80-90% of Christians to be complete and utter hypocrites. They put on the "Christian face" and go to church, but in their private life, they exhibit gross immorality, intolerance, and act contrary to what they profess they believe. And I think this story just seems to give a peek into that hypocrisy. I wonder how many of those people praying loudly would have grumbled when the Superintendent was reading the prayer if things hadn't changed? I wonder how many of those students have had sex, or stolen, or said or done racist things? Who knows? I suspect that the truth would be sobering, though.
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This is exactly why I don't believe in organized religion. (hello... 9/11?!)
The amount of hate, strife, and suffering that has amounted in the name of G-d is ridiculous.
We don't need organized religion to teach your kids values, we need an open minded, educated person to teach them concepts such as empathy and respect. /rant
fucknut - a first. must use. oh yea and no prayer in schools.
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