Indiana student sues over school graduation prayer

The pussification of right wing religiousity...???

 

Why does the prospect of, gasp, some school not having a prayer at graduation, make life miserable for you?

 

Which is why the Supreme Court ruled that religious prayers do not belong at a public gathering. Enough people fought against being forced to pray or forced to listen to a prayer that is totally against their belief system to change the law.

The argument is that there isn't any harm in listening to prayers. Sure, when you voluntarily don't have to do it. When you're being told that if you have to listen to a prayer in order to participate in a graduation ceremony, that's harmful (relatively speaking, of course).

 

The SC just ruled this week that 'Under God' can remain in the Pledge. Nevermind that it was originally not in the Pledge and only added in the 1950s because Congress wanted to show how different we were from those godless Commies. So, for roughly 60 years prior to the change, I guess everyone who said the Pledge were going to hell.

And as someone whose third grade teacher had to be dragged kicking and screaming into adding a Hanukkah segment to her Christmas play thanks to his mom's relentless fight for equality, I can fully understand why this kid doesn't want to be forced to hear someone else's prayers.

 

Why is this kid's life apparently miserable because he might have to listen to a 30-second prayer? Life's too short. It wouldn't kill anyone to hear a few words of spirituality.
But I suppose this kid thinks it's okay for every other car riding down a city street to be belching out rap lyrics with every homophobic phrase and obscene word known to man.

 

Why, that's exactly the same issue!

 

We all know he's a commie.

 

It would be the coolest thing ever if the kid owns an electric guitar, stands up, and:

 

In case anyone's wondering, this is the outfit our young man will be wearing.

 

This letter might explain why the Texas state board of education just kicked Thomas Jefferson out of the curriculum. Also, the board also voted to drop teaching about the Establishment Clause.

When you force other people into your religion, it's no longer freedom of religion. It's a theocracy.

By the way, the full Workman v. Greenwood High School is here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/28255503/Workman-v-Grenwood-Complt

A few interesting notes:

Right in the first paragraph, the lawsuit notes that the high school "requires" a vote on student prayer at graduation. Presumably, this was the school's way of mollifying its Baptist-American community while not violating the law, but I would guess a court will find that merely sanctioning vote on student prayer is as good as a violation.

Later, the lawsuit notes that in September, there was a school assembly -- during school hours -- where school personnel passed out ballots on the prayer. (The ballots covered other issues, which weren't mentioned.) I would be curious as to what the principal and other school personnel said as they passed them out. I'm sure there will be depositions about that very thing.

Even beyond the Constitutional question of allowing any prayer, I'm curious how the ballot was worded. I wouldn't be surprised if it were explicitly stated, if not implicitly, that this would be a Christian prayer only. As I mentioned a zillion pages ago, Greenwood has a growing Sikh community. I presume there was not a ballot question over whether their religious beliefs would be incorporated into the ceremony.

By the way, Workman voted against the prayer at the time -- so it's not like he never had a forum before to express his beliefs to school officials. Other students did as well. Unless the school releases the total, we won't know exactly how many said no. But it is clear that Workman is not alone, that not everybody wanted a prayer. Not that, legally, it matters.

What I really, really, really hope doesn't happen is that, out of spite, Greenwood cancels the graduation ceremony, just like how that school in Mississippi decided it would rather cancel prom than allow a lesbian to bring her date, thus ensuring that the student indeed would be the focus of harassment from students for "ruining" everything. Geez, why not just march along with the rest of us?

 

Actually it's wonderful and jerkoffs with positions like this who advocate violence because they can't get their way by throwing temper tantrum make it even more satisfying.