Falwell Confidential
Insider weekly newsletter to The Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance
http://www.faithandvalues.us

CHRISTIAN STUDENTS IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Officials at an Ohio high school have cancelled the appearance of a local rock band because the group’s message is too controversial.  No, the band doesn’t emulate Marilyn Manson, promote skin-head philosophies or bite the heads off bats, ala Ozzie Osbourne.

Instead, the band is a Christian group.

Long gone are the days when “McGuffey’s Readers” were used in American public schools to teach respect for biblical values.  Today, growing numbers of American school officials have become ACLU converts and are advancing a new brand of religion that has abject secularism at its core.

Christian bands such as Pawn have no place in this Godless school culture (even though one of the members actually attends the Rossford High School).  So instead of allowing the band to participate in an anti-drug assembly, the school’s superintendent decided to cancel the entire event.  The Toledo Blade reported that the school district’s law firm concluded that the performance of a Christian band “wasn’t appropriate.”

There’s no need for this hard-line approach.  Students at the school can choose whether they wish to attend the band’s performance, or not.  But common sense doesn’t matter when it comes to shutting out Christians.

The message here is that Christian students should check their beliefs at the public schoolhouse door because their convictions are undesirable.  This is nothing less than viewpoint discrimination.
 
I recently started the Moral Majority Coalition largely because Christians are facing bullying tactics in virtually every area of public life.  I am working to enlist one million supporters who will help me turn the tide of this growing secular supremacy in America.  Learn more about this project at www.faithandvalues.us.

You see, incidents like that at Rossford High are taking place across our nation.

The Christian Law Association reported last month that they have in recent months been called to defend several students in comparable cases.  Here are just a few:

In Texas, a teacher discontinued all Christmas celebrations in her classroom and substituted the celebration of Kwanzaa, during which first graders were taught to worship their ancestors.

In Pennsylvania, a principal told a public high school teacher that he could not include religious music in the annual Christmas concert.  When the teacher protested, he nearly lost his job.

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Bible club students were told they could not distribute candy canes to classmates because the candy package included an explanation of the religious origins of the candy cane.

In Illinois, a fourth grader who enjoyed hearing her public school teacher read a book about the origins of Hanukkah was told that the teacher would not read a book about the origins of Christmas.

In Texas, a first grader was informed he could not mention Jesus during a class discussion on the origins of Christmas.

In Tennessee, teachers were told they could not include any religious material in a general holiday decorating theme in their classrooms.

It’s simply amazing that many of our nation’s public schools, which once wholly embraced biblical ideals, now have policies that prevent the most elementary allusion to God.

It’s no wonder that Junior can’t read.  Many of our schools have become havens of politically-correct schemes that focus on diversity (unless you’re a Christian) and forego standards that once ensured that our kids were being properly educated.

Sure, there are still good public schools in America.  But I fear that more and more of our schools are being influenced by educators who have become credulous devotees of ACLU-inspired guidelines that seek to utterly secularize students.

In the immortal words of Pink Floyd — and who would have ever thought that Jerry Falwell would quote Pink Floyd? — “We don’t need no thought control.”

I urge parents to painstakingly ensure that their children are not being enslaved by the champions of secularism in their public schools.

Christian students have the right to express their beliefs and communicate their biblical values in schools.  By making certain that students understand that there is no need to cower in the corner regarding their beliefs, I pray that a rising wave of vocal Christian students will surface in order to confront this dire wave of secularism that is taking control in many schools.

Finally, students facing persecution at school should contact our affiliate legal group, Liberty Counsel.  This organization, which has 600 affiliate attorneys nationwide, will represent students facing viewpoint discrimination at no charge.  Visit the Liberty counsel website at: http://www.lc.com