Fundies Shoot Themselves In The Foot

Back in the 1960's there were some landmark Supreme Court decisions that outlawed prayer and other religious activities in public schools.   They determined that it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution to force students to participate in any religious activity -- a violation of the constitutional concept of separation of religion and government.   This upset many christians, especially right-wing fundamentalists, and since that time they have been searching for ways to inject religion back into the public school systems.

Back in the early 1980's they can up with an idea.   They decided they could get religion back into public schools by forcing the school systems to allow the formation of student clubs -- clubs that don't have anything to do with the school's academic curriculum.   They fought for this idea, and finally prevailed in 1984 when they got Congress to pass a law that would allow the formation of these non-academic clubs.  

As expected, religious clubs were formed in many schools -- especially high schools.   And this quickly spread across the nation.   The Supreme Court upheld the law, since no student was forced to join or participate in any of these clubs.   It was a smashing victory for the fundamentalists -- or at least they thought so at the time.

But things haven't quite worked out like the fundies had hoped, and many of them are unhappy now with how the law has worked out.   It seems that the same law that allowed the religious clubs has also allowed the formation of other clubs (such as atheist clubs).   And to the horror of many fundies, it has also allowed the formation of gay-straight alliances.

Currently there are about 4,000 of these gay-straight alliances in schools across the country, with many of them in the fundie-controlled Bible belt -- and the movement is still growing.   Even worse for the fundies, there is no way they can stop the formation of these clubs.   That is because they are protected by the same law that protects the religious clubs -- a law that was past due to their own efforts.

Would the fundies have pushed for the law if they had known it would result in the proliferation of gay-straight alliances in schools?   Probably not.   But it's too late now.   It looks like they have just shot themselves in the foot because they didn't think through their brilliant idea.   What a shame.