COOL! Now what we need to do is get all kids to start wearing crosses, saying prayers, talking about Jesus. It’ll be an academic exercise, of course. We’ll just be making kids “pretend” to be Christians. Then we can see just how many seconds it takes for organizations like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the ACLU to oppose it vigorously.

From SFgate.com:

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday by evangelical Christian students and their parents who said a Contra Costa County school district engaged in unconstitutional religious indoctrination when it taught students about Islam by having them recite language from prayers.

The court, without comment, left intact a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last November in favor of the Byron Union School District in eastern Contra Costa.

The suit challenged the content of a seventh-grade history course at Excelsior Middle School in Byron in the fall of 2001. The teacher, using an instructional guide, told students they would adopt roles as Muslims for three weeks to help them learn what Muslims believe.

She encouraged them to use Muslim names, recited prayers in class, had them memorize and recite a passage from the Quran and made them give up something for a day, such as television or candy, to simulate fasting during the month of Ramadan. The final exam asked students for a critique of elements of Muslim culture.

Just close your eyes and imagine Americans United not saying anything about Christianity being “role-played” in the same way. What’s that you say? They don’t know about this case? Not exactly. In fact, they’re AOK with the original ruling of the 9th Circuit. How do I know?

I asked:

Knowing how active Americans United is with regards to religion in schools, I would like to know if they’ve taken an official stance on the following story: http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=3&issue=20060519

I’ve noticed many articles on au.org about school prayer, vouchers, etc. This type of story would seem right up your alley with regards to things you would be outraged over.

Any opinions from the organization on this story would be greatly helpful.

And, of course, I got an answer:

Dear Mr. Ferrari,

Thank you so much for your e-mail. AU believes religion has a place in public schools, but administrators and teachers must exercise extreme caution when integrating it into the curriculum. World religions should be taught about in history, social studies and human geography classes because it is important for students to understand diverse viewpoints if they are to participate in a global society. However, schools may not teach religion or advance (or disparage) any religious viewpoint.

A word of caution: This article shows a clear conservative bias and does not, in my opinion, accurately reflect what happened in California or the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to allow the religious role-playing.

I hope this answers your question. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

All the best,

Lauren

*****************************************
Lauren Smith
Communications Department
Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Oh good. Apparently teachin of Islam and muslim prayers isn’t a problem, just conservative bias. Of course, I didn’t take that for an answer:

Thank you so much for your reply, Lauren.

Wouldn’t making children actually say prayers, proclaim the greatness of Allah, and so on at the very least be furthering Islam in a public school?

My question is at what point does it go from role playing to practicing and proselytizing? I would say it crossed the line on prayer to Allah and proclamation of his greatness.

I only chose that article because it was the one in front of me at the time. There has been quite a bit of play on the story either from a conservative viewpoint or otherwise. As for the decision itself, it only affirms that this case doesn’t violate the Establishment Clause, but the facts of the case are not presented in the decision at all.

I do appreciate your response, honestly. I really wasn’t expecting one at all. I’m only a bit disappointed that an organization such as yours doesn’t have anything at all to say on the matter.

Thanks,

Vincent Ferrari

Proving yet again that the anti-religion zealots are frauds. I hope someone has the balls to adapt the exact same methods and start teaching Christianity, if nothing else but to demonstrate the sheer idiocy and hypocrisy of organizations like AU and the ACLU.

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