
Originally Posted by
Agent Gold
Ugh... This is a mess in so many ways, I barely know where to begin...
Prayers in schools is kind of a tricky issue. I've always thought that the stance that it's unconstitutional is wrong (at least partially). The first amendment says that the government (and by extension, public schools) can't enforce any religion, but it also says they can't prohibit people from exercising their religion. (Normally I bring this up when people say "students aren't allowed to pray in public schools", but I know this issue is a little different.) Hanging a prayer on a wall when no one is forced to pray it? I could see that getting by. Putting up a prayer specific to one religion on a banner and calling it official to the school? I can see where that's more controversial.
I don't really feel like schools should be forced into complete neutrality because there tends to be a thin line between that and enforcing atheism. If a teacher says to his students, "I like to pray in the mornings, and anyone who'd like to join me is welcome to come by my desk before class starts", should someone be allowed to take legal action against the school for that?
Back to the issue at hand, though. If she was put off by that banner or feeling alienated, I've got nothing against her saying something about it. From what I can tell, it's a fairly large school, but they should (ideally) be able to listen to a complaint like that and take it seriously. A law suit seems a little extreme to me, like something that should be more of a last resort (and isn't it lovely how the article doesn't say if she tried anything else first?). Plus, as the article states, the message in the prayer is fairly inspiring.
Now all of that said, the reaction by the people opposed to the lawsuit is about 10 times worse. I think it's been mentioned well enough how hypocritical it is to react with that amount of hate, so I'll just hit the high points.
Totally not shooting himself in the foot or begging people to say the same thing about him, am I right?
Tradition is something I respect (so long as it isn't pointless and harmful), so this is something I would take into consideration. Kind of going along with what I said before, if the school is neutral but the majority of the city is all for having something like that banner, why not? (This particular city probably doesn't deserve it if this is how they react when someone speaks up against it, but it is something I would normally take into consideration.)
Death threats are definitely going way overboard. I hate to think about what it says that those students took to internet hate like it was such an acceptable thing.
If anyone ever wonders why I don't think America is the greatest country in the world, here's an example.