{"id":144,"date":"2009-03-18T09:20:39","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T09:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/03\/tragedy-makes-for-political-po.html"},"modified":"2009-03-18T09:20:39","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T09:20:39","slug":"tragedy-makes-for-political-po","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/03\/tragedy-makes-for-political-po.html","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy Makes For Political Posturing in Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, Jay, even I was shocked by your report of “prayer police” in Kentucky.  However, having heard these tales in the past on so many occasions, I got myself under control and immediately realized that many facts are missing.<\/p>\n

Students do have a right to pray in schools so long as it is not promoted or orchestrated by the school itself or teachers, administrators or other school officials.  It is important to note that even you and the ACLJ, however, have never said that the “right” is so broad that praying can interrupt school activities.  I mean, you wouldn’t support having a student say: “Look, I’ll be skipping the algebra test this period to have a quality conversation with God.”  At least, I hope you would not.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nHere at the East Jessamine Middle School, students were trying to deal
\nwith a real tragedy in the death of a parent.  These youngsters do have
\nthe right to pray individually or together during a non-instructional
\nperiod (unless the school is helping them by setting up a special place
\nor rearranging schedules just to accommodate one group of religious
\nstudents).  From the limited media reports on this issue, the
\nadministration tends to describe what went on differently that you
\ndid.  School officials say they were simply trying to make sure
\nstudents got to class on time and that there were no calls to arrest
\nany student.  Obviously, some students see this differently.<\/p>\n

It
\nis my experience with examining similar claims in the past that calls
\nof “anti-religious bias” are nearly uniformly proven to be erroneous. 
\nYou may remember the phony controversies about a Tennessee student who,
\naccording to your side, got a failing grade for writing a report about
\nJesus. There was a lot more to the story, and she lost<\/a> in court. Or you might recall the good folks in Dodgeville, Wisc., who were falsely accused<\/a> a few years ago by Jerry Falwell’s attorneys of altering Christmas carols to make them secular.<\/p>\n

This
\nnew outrage of yours is likely to be a “he said\/he said\/she said\/she
\nsaid” situation.  What really went on in Nicholasville? I wasn’t there
\nand neither were you. But if you believe you have a strong case that
\nstudents’ rights were violated, you can always file a lawsuit and seek
\nredress. We have both done plenty of those.  As for now, count me
\nskeptical leaning toward total disbelief.<\/p>\n

To subscribe to Lynn v. Sekulow, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, Jay, even I was shocked by your report of “prayer police” in Kentucky.  However, having heard these tales in the past on so many occasions, I got myself under control and immediately realized that many facts are missing. Students do have a right to pray in schools so long as it is not promoted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[93,51,67,91,92],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-schools","category-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-kentucky","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-religious-freedom-2","tag-school-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nTragedy Makes For Political Posturing in Kentucky - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/03\/tragedy-makes-for-political-po.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tragedy Makes For Political Posturing in Kentucky - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, Jay, even I was shocked by your report of “prayer police” in Kentucky.  However, having heard these tales in the past on so many occasions, I got myself under control and immediately realized that many facts are missing. Students do have a right to pray in schools so long as it is not promoted…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/03\/tragedy-makes-for-political-po.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-18T09:20:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tragedy Makes For Political Posturing in Kentucky - Lynn v. 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An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. 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