Americans United for Separation of Church and State has had their work cut out for them lately. In two separate announcements this week, they've challenged a Tennessee school system they say favors Christianity over other religions, and a "prayer breakfast" hosted by the governor of Kentucky.
In Tennessee, atheist student Krystal Myers said Christianity is routinely favored at her Lenoir City high school, and AU is publicly supporting her. Myers, an honors student, said in a letter to the Knoxville News Sentinel, "The whole foundation of how our school is conducted is established by obvious Christians... Somehow, this is unsurprising. If our school board chooses to ignore the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Supreme Court, then it is no surprise that teachers choose to do the same... If we let this slide, what other amendments to the Constitution will be ignored?"
Meanwhile, over in Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear is planning a prayer breakfast for March 6, and AU has asked state officials to stop sponsoring religious events like this one. On the governor's website, the prayer breakfast is billed as "a time for Kentuckians to "come together in prayerful humility and reflection to ask God's wisdom in guiding the future of [the] Commonwealth."
You may remember Governor Beshear from last year, when he supported a whole bunch of tax incentives for a Biblical theme park.
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In Tennessee, atheist student Krystal Myers said Christianity is routinely favored at her Lenoir City high school, and AU is publicly supporting her. Myers, an honors student, said in a letter to the Knoxville News Sentinel, "The whole foundation of how our school is conducted is established by obvious Christians... Somehow, this is unsurprising. If our school board chooses to ignore the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Supreme Court, then it is no surprise that teachers choose to do the same... If we let this slide, what other amendments to the Constitution will be ignored?"
Meanwhile, over in Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear is planning a prayer breakfast for March 6, and AU has asked state officials to stop sponsoring religious events like this one. On the governor's website, the prayer breakfast is billed as "a time for Kentuckians to "come together in prayerful humility and reflection to ask God's wisdom in guiding the future of [the] Commonwealth."
You may remember Governor Beshear from last year, when he supported a whole bunch of tax incentives for a Biblical theme park.
Follow Pagan/Wiccan on Twitter or Join Me On Facebook.
I’m always shocked when I read things like this happening in USA. I born and live in Brazil, considered one of the most catholic countries in the world, and yet I never heard of a public school doing a prayer. The few funerals I gone had a catholic priest praying something for the deceased, but they invite the people to pray to whatever they believe, or just think about the good things that person did in their life. I think this apply for most public events. Yes, there’s crosses in courthouses and such, and I recieve condescending looks when I say I’m a witch, but religious tolerance is something you just have! So how such an “democratic” and “advanced” country as USA can have such medieval problems?! Sorry if this offend anyone, this was not my intention, I’m just very… well, shocked.
What can you expect from a country that men running for president that say the laws should be biblically based?
People are lazy and just accept things we need to rally for religious freedom
@Bia, I take no offense because you’re right. We claim that we are so advanced and so civilized when we are still doing things like hosting prayer breakfasts. I get it if its at a local church and the governer wants to attend for personal reasons. But to go and spend government money to host it is unbelievable. I can think of a million better things that money could be spent on. And we wonder why the country is so in debt, but I think I’m getting a little carried away here lol. The point is that religion is a private matter and is better left in the home and in the churches, mosques, synangogues, temples, or where ever you choose to worship, not in public places.
It never ceases to amaze me how mainstream Christian faiths continue to cry foul when presented with the realities that those of any other faith are confronted with on a daily basis. Other faiths would be laughed or shouted or picketed out of the Governor’s mansion if, say, he wanted to host a morning Ostara ritual instead of a prayer breakfast. The internet would literally explode with the public outcry against it, yet Christians are the ones being mistreated and their rights trampled on and suppressed. I wonder how many Christian politicians currently in power have any idea about the religious tendencies of the majority of our nation’s Founding Fathers? That was never discussed in public school here in New York, and certainly not in the Catholic high school I attended. The mere mention of separation of church and state appears to have an anti-christian stigma attached to it, and immediately shifts the attitude of a christian listener. I discovered my path while serving in the United States Navy, and while allowed to have a cross on my dog tags, a pentacle was in violation of uniform regulations. The Founding Fathers were a good deal more intelligent than many today give them credit for, including their ardent desire to fully and irrevocably separate public funds and projects from private religious institutions. America was at that time the place where the victims of religious oppression would come to experience the freedom to practice as they please, while now we are the monolithic oppressor. The America I took an oath to defend from all enemies foreign AND domestic is not the America that was waiting for me when I left my submarine.
The kids don’t like it when mommy and daddy play favorites; why should American citizens?
Government needs to remember the law; not all of us practice the same faith, and what we individuals do practice should be kept in our personal lives right next to our hearts, not next to our textbooks before we sing our ABC’s.