Comment on Freie Rede? by: Jack

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:18:36 +0000

I believe that part of the problem is legal in any educational context. Graduation speakers who are valedictorians are considered to be spokesmen for the institution, and not merely for themselves. The decision was probably technically correct in the case of the public school, because the girl was endorsing a religion acting as an arm of the state government; public schools are understood as agents of the states. However, maybe, common sense could have “let it slide.”
In the case of the university, I don’t know what the legal issue would be, because even public universities have more freedom to teach about religion than public elementary and secondary schools; the legal Supreme Court opinion is that the older students are not as liable to manipulation–go figure! But educational administrators are really, really, scared to death of long, drawn-out court cases and the legal fees they run up–not to mention the threat of civil lawsuits.
In both cases, problems could have been avoided if more of our vaunted common sense would have been used on all sides.
The whole complex of the relationships between the state, schools and religion is very strange and rather constantly shifting, depending of court decisions; and decisions are not only taken at Supreme Court level, but in appeals courts, state courts, and even local courts. Complicating things is the fact that each state has a constitution and can have its own rules governing the relationships between the state, its schools and its churches. For instance, in New York State, school districts are allowed to provide transportation and release time for public school students to get religious instruction; that is expressly forbidden in Missouri in the constitution. The religious and political situations here are so pluralistic and so litigious (we really like to sue each other) that it makes any educator scared to death to even do the slightest thing that might offend someone. It is sort of a shame that the situation is so, but it is.
Around here, in my experience, public schools do try to accommodate the religious views and needs of students if the law allows.
The good old First Amendment has its ups and downs for believers here. Generally though, the ups win out, I think. http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i42/42b00601.htm : Here is an interesting article by an evangelical on the relationship between faith and the political realm.
Sorry for such a long post. Jack

Comments on: Freie Rede?

Comment on Freie Rede? by: Jack