Thanks to the United States Constitution and its Bill of Rights, the people of this country are supposed to be guaranteed religious freedom. Some people think "religious freedom" means they have the right to force their own religion on everyone else, but that's not what it means at all. Religious freedom means every citizen has the right to worship whatever god(s) in whatever religion they wish, or the right to have no religion at all.
To insure this religious freedom, the Constitution demands that government must not establish an official religion, or show favoritism toward any religion (which amounts to the same thing). All government entities, whether national, state or local must follow this rule to protect the rights of all the citizens they serve. And in this multi-cultural country, even a local government organization can be guaranteed to be representing people of many different religions and people with no religion.
To the consternation of many fundamentalists, the Supreme Court has said this even covers the prayers used to open government meetings. A government entity (such as a school board) can open a meeting with a prayer, but according to court decisions the prayers "must not advance a particular faith or belief, because to do so would have the effect of affiliating the government with that particular faith or belief in violation of the Establishment Clause."
So I have to wonder why the board of the Glen Rose Independent School District (GRISD) violates the Constitution at the opening of every one of their meetings. Every meeting is opened with a prayer "in Jesus name". There is only one religion these prayers could possibly represent -- the christian religion. These prayers affiliate this local government entity with the christian religion -- to the exclusion of all others (not to mention those with no religion).
Making matters even worse, they are the only government entity in Somervell county that does this. All the other government entities (county commission, city council, water district, etc.), in an effort to be fair and respectful of all citizens, have dispensed with an opening prayer altogether. And GRISD cannot claim ignorance of the law. They have been informed that they are in violation of the Constitution, and requested to cease those violations. So far, they have refused to comply.
The way I see it, the school board has three choices to bring themselves into compliance with the Constitution. They can stop praying before meetings, they can water down the prayer so it doesn't mention any god(s) including Jesus and could be applicable to all religions (including no religion), or they could allow all religions to offer prayers on a rotating basis (including atheists and minor religions such as Wicca). The easiest choice by far (and probably the least provocative) would be to just stop the prayers.
I hope they will willingly decide to comply with the Constitution. Refusing to do so will only eventually result in a lawsuit they cannot win. And I'm sure there are much better ways for taxpayer money to be spent than in defending an unwinnable lawsuit.
The school board is an elected government body. They do not get to choose whether they will obey the Constitution or not. Like it or not, it is a requirement.
ahh jeez...
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