I have spoken many times about the way religious speech is suppressed today by officials at schools and elsewhere. If one reads the First Amendment, how could this be justified? The same Amendment that prohibits the Congress of the United States from establishing a national religion and guarantees BOTH freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
Many of our Founders, perhaps most so Thomas Jefferson, were wary of the courts gradually taking on too much power. Today our legislators seem to be allowing the Supreme Court to be the final word, and I suspect most of our population believes that to be the way it was intended. But if the three branches of government are equal, how can one have the final word?
We also live in a "celebrity" culture. A sign of this from several years ago was the TV show The People's Court, and now we have Judge Judy et al. Judges have a lot of power, and some of them abuse it.
One judge in Texas showed how bullying can be used to enforce the law, as he saw it. Here is what he said about possible prayer being offered at a school graduation:
"And make no mistake, the court is going to have a United States marshal in attendance at the graduation. If any student offends this court, that student will be summarily arrested and will face up to six months incarceration in the Galveston County Jail for contempt of court. Anyone who thinks I'm kidding about this better think again. ...
"Anyone who violates these orders, no kidding, is going to wish that he or she had died as a child when this court gets through with it."
In this case the state legislature did step in to create a law that guarantees students may do the following:
- express their religious viewpoints in class assignments
- organize religious groups and activities
- express their religious viewpoints at graduation and non-graduation events (such as football games).
Read more here:
How to treat a bully
No comments:
Post a Comment