ACLU Seeks to Ban Bible Distribution in Kentucky Schools
Threatens "personal liability" claims against school administrators
The
American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky sent a letter Thursday to 174 public
school superintendents citing the possibility of a lawsuit in the 2013-2014
academic school year if they continue to allow The Gideons International to
distribute Bibles, the New Testament and religious literature to students on
public school campuses.
In the letter accompanying
the Open Records Act request, William Sharp, the ACLU Kentucky staff
attorney, states that the distribution of religious literature on public
school grounds during school hours violates federal law. He also
accuses elementary school staff of violating federal laws by being
complicit in allowing The Gideons International to distribute Bibles to
students.
He wrote, "… this practice violates both federal and
state constitutional guarantees barring governmental endorsement of
religion, and it also impermissibly encroaches upon parents' prerogative
to direct the religious upbringing of their children. By allowing an
outside group to distribute sectarian materials directly to public
elementary school students during school hours, school officials create
the impression that the school endorses those religious views which
subjects the students to 'subtle coercive pressure' to accept the
proffered religious materials."
"As part of that assessment,"
Sharp continued, "we are also closely examining whether, in an
appropriate case, school officials may be personally liable for
violations of clearly established federal law."
Michael Aldridge, the executive director of the ACLU Kentucky, said in a statement: "Directing the religious upbringing
of one's own children is one of the most fundamental rights a parent
can have. When government officials, including school officials, take it
upon themselves to usurp that parental prerogative, they exceed their
governmental authority and undermine religious liberty.
"The ACLU
of Kentucky fully supports the rights of all religious groups to promote
their message of faith. Government officials, however, cannot allow our
public elementary schools to be used by others to promote one religion
over another."
The
Gideons International faced similar challenges from the ACLU in
Missouri and Tennessee, in which the ACLU claimed that Bible
distribution to students in school classrooms and on campus grounds was
"unconstitutional."
In Tennessee, the ACLU and school officials in White County, Tenn., settled on an agreement that would ban The
Gideons International from entering fifth grade classrooms to
distribute Bibles to students, but would allow the distribution of
religious and secular materials as part of a forum. The forum, however,
would ban the promotion of religious literature, and limit the
organization's contact with students.
In Missouri, the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District found in 2008 that "the practice
of Bible distribution in the public school of a rural Missouri county
was unconstitutional," according to the ACLU website. "The ACLU of
Eastern Missouri filed suit against the South Iron School District in
February 2006. The court had earlier entered a temporary injunction
against Bible distribution, which was upheld by the Eight Circuit
appellate court in August 2007."
The ACLU also fought the
distribution of Bibles to military recruits in all branches of the Armed
Forces, citing that The Gideons International was "granted privileged
access" to give away free Bibles and literature to soldiers at Military
Entrance Processing Stations.
In 2007, the ACLU sent a letter to
the commanding officer of MEPS "to determine the extent to which
religious and non-religious organizations were permitted to circulate
literature," which prompted the U.S. government's decision to allow all
organizations, secular and religious, to distribute literature, thus
avoiding the impression that the government endorses Christianity over
secular beliefs or other religions.
The Christian Post contacted
The Gideons International for comment, but a representative was not
available to respond at time of publication.
6 comments:
Hooray!
Strange how the bible use to be the only commonly held book in most frontier homes that could be used for common reading instruction both in and outside of schools. Now we have people who are afraid its free distribution as some sort of cooercive infrengement on church/state seperation.
What next, redact from textbooks that Dr. M.L. King was baptist minister or make sure that we don't build churches within eyesight of schools?
Suppose to bring in folks from the outside to enrich cultural diversity and knowledge of world religions but not Christianity?
That all sounds great to me!
April 10, 2013 at 1:44 AM:
Is it really that strange? Let's consider the whole story.
You are correct, the entanglements between public schools and religion are well established and numerous. The Bible frequently served as a reading text, largely because of its availability and its broad acceptability among the protestant majority.
Of course, at the same time, the common teachings in school were overtly hostile to Catholics, so much so that Catholic families separated and formed parochial schools. Whenever a specific religion is promoted by the government (which includes public [government] schools) it violates half of the religion clause - that the government may not establish religion.
Of course, there is a second half to the clause - that neither can the government prohibit the free expression of religion. So an individual student may read the Bible, pray in school, study the literature of the Bible and more.
It's really tricky stuff and over the years the courts have struggled with it.
The way that all played out in my hometown was that all of the Catholic kids went to the Catholic schools, and the remaining Protestant kids in my public school went to week day school of religion every Wednesday afternoon during school hours, read Bible verses, prayed, had Christmas pageants...and did all manner of things that established our school as safe for protestants.
If a child from another faith had entered our school, they would have felt marginalized in many ways. It's tough being in the minority. Personally, I like it that American's try to protect minorities, to some degree.
Frankly, as a Christian, I'm not crazy about the Gideon's adherence to the King James version as the only true expression of Christianity. I don't want the Gideon's telling my kid what to believe any more than I want the government doing it.
I haven't seen anyone redacting M L King from textbooks, but in Texas we have seen them take Thomas Jefferson out of the social studies curriculum and replace him with John Calvin. What's that about?
Weird, we worry about a handful of guys handing out free new testiments to kids one day out of the week but don't seem the least bit worried as a society that our kids are walking around with Iphones, Ipads, etc. which provide them with infinite access at their leasure to view any word or image associated with any manner of truth, falsehood or anything inbetween.
I value the ACLU but it they really wanted to make a difference on this old planet beyond inflating issues like this in TN or MO, why not expand their scope globally and help those who don't even have a choice in the first place. I am sure some women under the taliban or folks living in North Korea could sure use their help.
Why not just have one day where you allow all faiths and beliefs access to a public area for voluntary distribution of their various materials. No prostletizing or recruiting, just handing out free material to take or not to take? I know it sounds strange to be providing reading materials but I kind of thought that exposing folks to information beyond their current level of knowledge was part of our charge. Couldn't they get any of these items from their school library anyway?
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