Russell County High School Students and Superintendent Need Lessons on Religious Freedom

Posted on | May 23, 2006

The Louisville Courier-Journal printed an interesting opinion article entitled "Religious Coercion" which criticized the behavior of some Christians who decided that the right to freedom of religion only applied to them and their proselytizing. A student objected to a student-selected speaker saying a prayer in her opening remarks at the Russell County High School graduation ceremony last week. The student felt that this amounted to the speaker forcing her religious views on others and a federal judge issued an injunction preventing it. In response, a baptist minister who claimed that it was "a travesty that a minority view could override a majority view" showed up accompanied by some followers to protest and advertise his their religious views. The student who was suspected of being the objector was booed during the ceremony rehearsal which was rude and extremely tacky. And students interrupted the principal to recite the Lord’s Prayer which received a standing ovation from the crowd.

The school’s superintendent said that the students who interrupted the principal, which again was tacky and rude, were "critical thinkers". Yeah, I could be persuaded to agree with that. However, as the article’s author(s) point out, that while these students may be critical thinkers, they are sorely lacking in any basic knowledge of one of the principal reasons why this nation was founded in the first place. The first colonies established here in the US were by people who left England to gain religious freedom and not have religious views forced upon them. I guess students like those of Russell County High School have forgotten things like that or their history curriculum is severely lacking.

This is also another quintessential example of why if there is a such thing as a "war on Christianity", it is because these so-called "Christians" started it. The author(s) of the article wonders about the reaction these Protestants would have had of a Catholic student wanted to say the Rosary. I would like to take it a step further. What if a student wanted to invoke a Pagan god or goddess? What if a Buddhist student wanted to chant? What if a Satanist wanted to say a prayer? You can bet these students and parents would be up in arms about that.

Hat tip to Wren’s Nest

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