Court cases that
‘kicked out God’
I must stand by my comment about kicking God out of schools. Although, “kicking God out of school” was a figure of speech, since we are all aware that God is omnipresent.
I cite several court cases over the years.
(1) Voluntary prayer offered in a school is unconstitutional, even if it is both voluntary and denominationally neutral. (Abington v. Schempp 1963; commissioner of Ed. v. School Committee of Leyden, 1971.)
(2) Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. (Collins v. Chandler Unified School Dist. 1981.)
(3) It is unconstitutional for a board of education to use or refer to the word “God” in any of its official writings. (State of Ohio v. Whisner, 1976.)
(4) It is unconstitutional for a school graduation ceremony to contain an opening or closing prayer. (Graham v. Central Community School Dist. 1985; Kay v. Dougals School Dist. 1986.)
(5) It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask during a school assemble whose birthday is celebrated by Christmas. (Flory v. Sioux Falls School Dist, 1979.)
(6) It is unconstitutional for the Ten Commandments to hang on the walls of a classroom. (Stone v. Graham 1980; Ring v. Grand Forks Public School Dist. 1980; Lanner v. Wimmer, 1981.)
Numerous other judgments have proceeded from these type of rulings.
In December 1988, an elementary school principal in Denver removed the Bible from the school library and an elementary school music teacher in Colorado Springs stopped teaching Christmas Carols.
In Mr. Stucky’s response (April 4 issue), he asked how would we like to have a Muslim teacher force your kids to read the Koran or pray Muslim prayers? All we would have to do is ask John Kevin Wood in La Plata, Md. His daughter, at La Plata High School, was forced to profess and to write out the Shahada in worksheets and quizzes. The Shahada is the Islamic Creed, “There is no god but Allah” and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” A lawsuit was filed after the dad objected to Islamic indoctrination of his daughter.
My point in the original article was that students are blaming “guns” for the school shootings. I believe the big elephant in the room—not a real elephant, just a figure of speech—is we have taken God out of our educational system and we are teaching a different religion. The religion of naturalism and atheism. Even though students can exercise their rights, it does not appear to be working.
I certainly did not indicate there was no crime before 1962. However, I certainly don’t remember the number of mass shootings before 1962.
Our founders wanted religion (Christianity) and morality “taught” to our children in schools. This is the part that is missing today. We are seeing the results of not teaching religion and morality.
John Adams, second president of the United States said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Abraham Lincoln expressed it so well when he declared: The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.
I can only imagine, what it would be like if students were protesting the removal (teaching) of religion and morality rather than guns. I can only imagine since about 80 percent of America profess to be Christians, if we all wanted the teaching of morality and religion back in our schools. Wow! I can only imagine.
Larry Ensey
Marion
