First, let's review the text of the first section of the First Amendment, the one pertaining to religion: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"
The meaning of this is not complicated. You can try to make it complicated if you want to, but in reality it is quite straightforward. The Founders wanted no repeat of the experience they'd had under the British crown, which tried to force them into submission to the state-sanctioned Church of England. So they put in the Constitution that the United States of America would establish no official state religion, and would also allow no state action to restrict anyone's right to practice whatever religion they chose.
That's it. Nothing else. That's what it means. Unless Congress passes a law establishing this or that religion as the official religion of the United States, the first part of the First Amendment has not been violated. And Congress has not done that. Now, as to the second part, that's another story. Anti-religion groups and individuals (mainly anti-Christian if we are to be honest) have sought to extend the meaning of the establishment clause to apply to even the most tangential interaction between any public entity and any institution of faith. Prayer at a high school football game, for example, hardly establishes Christianity as the official state religion of the United States. It is not an act of Congress. It establishes nothing and carries no force of law. But just try it, and you'll get your # hauled into court by the ACLU or some confrontation-seeking atheist.
And now public schools can't even rent a church building for an entirely secular affair like a graduation ceremony, at least not without having to defend the decision in court. The
Los Angeles Times reports:
Last year, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that the Elmbrook School District, near Milwaukee, violated the 1st Amendment and its ban on "an establishment of religion" by holding a high school graduation ceremony in the sanctuary of an evangelical Christian church.
The choice had been popular with students and school officials for a decade. The old high school gym was hot, cramped and uncomfortable, they said. The Elmbrook Church was modern, spacious and air-conditioned. But as the court noted, "towering over the graduation proceedings … was a 15- to 20-foot-tall Latin cross, the preeminent symbol of Christianity."
The appeals court said that goes too far, turning a public school ceremony into an "endorsement" of a particular religion.
Nine students and parents, all unnamed, sued the school district, saying they felt uncomfortable and offended by having graduation in an evangelical church. Christians should "stop and think about how it would feel if their high school graduation ceremonies were held in a Jewish temple or Muslim mosque, where diplomas were handed out beneath a looming Star of David or Islamic crescent," said Ayesha Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the winning plaintiffs.
Know what? Let's consider that. I am a Christian. Evangelical, in fact.
Pentecostal, in fact. Yep. All that
oogedy-boogedy stuff that bothers Kathleen Parkerso much. That's me.
Now, my son goes to a public school. He's in seventh grade, so next year I guess he will probably have an eighth-grade graduation of some sort. Let's say his school district decides to hold the ceremony in a mosque because there are lots of seats and comfortable air conditioning, and the price of the rental is reasonable.
I would surely think a lot of things. Among them:
- So this is what one of these places looks like.
- Where's Aladdin?
- Do they also use the prayer mats for yoga?
- I wonder if Lewis Farrakahn has ever been here.
- The Tiger game is starting pretty soon. Can I get a good 4G signal on my Android in here?
Yes, I would think all those things and more. One thing I would certainly not think is, "Oh my God, Congress has passed a law establishing Islam as the official religion of the United States." Why?
Because that would be ridiculous.
And the people who bring these lawsuits know that a school using an evangelical church building for a secular graduation doesn't amount to anything of the sort either. They know perfectly well that a building is just a building, and having to look at a cross doesn't make you any more a Christian than holding a Bible in your hand, or even reading it, because that only comes from a commitment in the heart to Christ.
These lawsuits are designed to do one thing and one thing only, and that's to harass those who practice faith in Jesus Christ. It's also a fruitless exercise, because the power of God cannot be lessened by anything that happens in a human courtroom. It might deny the occasional Christian church some income from a facility rental, but it doesn't change the outcome of the biggest battle of all time.
But anyway, if these people force this school to hold their graduation in a cramped, hotter-than-Hell hall somewhere, I hope they're proud of themselves. Because it's all they're going to accomplish. Every fight against God ultimately turns out the same way the first one did.
