Religious Student Groups and their Rights in the Public School System

Bob Heath, from Kids for Christ USA sent me this link today. The Rutherford Institute has compiled a comprehensive report which includes information on:

• Religion in the Public Schools (and so-called “Separation of Church and State”)
• Students’ Free Speech Rights
• Religious Expression at Graduation Ceremonies and Assemblies
• Non-Student Expression on School Property
• Teachers’ Rights in Public Education
• “Zero Tolerance” Policies and School Searches

Read and download the .pdf’s HERE.

 

Third Circuit Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of Freedom of any Religion Except Christianity

In an appalling ruling by the Third Circuit Federal Appeals Court, allowing a Kindergartener’s Mom to read Psalm 118 out of the Bible, the favorite book, during an “all about me” classroom activity, has been decided unconstitutional. The object of the classroom activity was to feature the student’s personal characteristics, preferences and personality in classroom activities.” When this student’s personality included Bible reading, however, the exercise came to an abrupt halt. Other students were allowed to celebrate their love of Halloween and Judaism, but Christianity and the Bible were off limits, according to the court, based on “separation of Church and State.”

What kind of a message does this send to the students in this classroom during this activity which is meant to celebrate the individual students on a very personal level? That there is something very, very wrong with Christianity and the Bible – so wrong, in fact, that they are not allowed in the classroom. The students have now been led to believe that this Christian student’s beliefs are so radical that they should be marginalized. Basically, in this case, the Bible has been treated in a similar manner as so-called “hate speech,” which is “wrong,” and students are learning that secularism, humanism, and godlessness, the state religion, is the new “right” way to believe and think. They learned that the celebration of “holidays” which glorify witchcraft, as well as the religious views of American minorites should be tolerated, but that the religious views of the majority of Americans will not be tolerated.

To read more details of the back-story and court ruling, visit Right Side News.

Hat-Tip, Frances of Conservatives for Educational Reform

 

Liberty Institute: This liberal attempt to intimidate pastors has backfired.

IRS upholds the ‘religious liberty’ clause of the U.S. Constitution

From the Liberty Legal Institute:

PLANO, TX — Liberty Legal Institute announced today that the Internal Revenue Service found that pastors who gathered in 2006 for a series of public policy conferences had every right to do so and that the organizers of the events did not violate any tax laws that govern non-profit organizations.

“This liberal attempt to intimidate pastors has backfired,” said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of Liberty Legal Institute which represented event organizers. “There is now a clear IRS statement outlining these pastors’ events and approving them as valid under the law.”

In January 2008, the IRS began its investigating into the Niemoller Foundation who held six conferences in 2006 calling pastors to stand up for moral issues and to encourage their congregants to get involved in the political process. The investigation was a result of a complaint filed by a politically liberal organization who accused the non-profit group of breaking the law by trying to influence political campaigns. Specifically, Niemoller was accused of “encouraging pastors at the gatherings to mount voter registration drives and turn congregants out at the polls.” The IRS ruled the meetings were legal.

“We educate churches on moral issues facing our society and encourage them to participate in the democratic process,” said Laurence White, director of the Niemoller Foundation and a Lutheran pastor. “The IRS has unequivocally affirmed the right of pastors nationwide to come together as spokesmen for the Word of God, to interact with political leaders, historians and scholars in discussing the moral issues under debate within our culture and to assert their Biblical responsibility to address such issues from their pulpits.”

A number of liberal groups have been in a national campaign filing IRS complaints against religious leaders and pastors. “Be careful what you hear from these liberal organizations,” Shackelford said. “They sound very confident and file many complaints yet none are found valid even by the IRS.”

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Liberty Legal Institute specializes in First Amendment and constitutional law and is often before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Institute represents more than 4 million veterans in the Mojave Desert Memorial case, Salazar, et al. v. Buono, now before The Supreme Court.