{"id":160,"date":"2009-04-23T11:24:12","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T11:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/04\/graduation-in-a-church-and-it.html"},"modified":"2009-04-23T11:24:12","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T11:24:12","slug":"graduation-in-a-church-and-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/04\/graduation-in-a-church-and-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Graduation In a Church–and It’s Not Confirmation Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, Jay, let’s move from the national scene to a local one. Americans United has now filed a precedent-setting lawsuit<\/a> challenging the use of a church for a public high school graduation ceremony in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

We had asked<\/a> a number of Wisconsin schools to stop the practice of holding graduations in churches.  One<\/a> complied, but the Elmbrook School District did not. It wants to go on having its activities in the Elmbrook Church in early June.  <\/p>\n

This shouldn’t even be a close question. The church has an enormous cross<\/a> in its sanctuary (not surprising for a church) and plenty of other religious symbols throughout the building (also not surprising).  The church refuses<\/a> to cover up the icons of the faith, and I certainly understand that as well.  What I don’t understand is why the two schools involved, years ago, didn’t start looking for another locus for the celebration of graduation day. Motivation should have been increased after church members distributed church literature to attendees in the lobby one year. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our plaintiffs are not comfortable attending an event at the church
\nand wouldn’t go for a number of reasons.  What could bother them in
\naddition to the symbols and literature distribution?  The Elmbrook
\nChurch is well-known for its particularly conservative viewpoints on
\nlocal and national issues.  Non-Christians, it notes, go to hell.  Gay
\npeople, it teaches<\/a>, act “contrary to God’s will.” And then there is its animosity toward Oprah Winfrey<\/a>
\nfor being a purveyor of false “spirituality.” All in all, it is easy to
\nunderstand why a lot of folks would feel a chill in the air as they sat
\ndown in the Elmbrook pews.<\/p>\n

There are other venues used by nearby school districts; Elmbrook
\nSchool District ought to use them also. It is wildly inappropriate to
\nmake anyone feel like a second-class (and perhaps hell-bound) graduate
\non this terribly important day in the life of many students and their
\nfamilies.<\/p>\n

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

Well, Jay, let’s move from the national scene to a local one. Americans United has now filed a precedent-setting lawsuit challenging the use of a church for a public high school graduation ceremony in Wisconsin. We had asked a number of Wisconsin schools to stop the practice of holding graduations in churches.  One complied, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,35,11],"tags":[130,126,129,125,51,128,67,127],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-constitutional-law","category-education","category-public-schools","tag-christian-cross","tag-elmbrook-school-district","tag-gay-students","tag-high-school-graduation","tag-news","tag-oprah-winfrey","tag-politics","tag-wisconsin"],"yoast_head":"\nGraduation In a Church-and It's Not Confirmation Class - 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\/04\/graduation-in-a-church-and-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Graduation In a Church-and It's Not Confirmation Class - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, Jay, let’s move from the national scene to a local one. Americans United has now filed a precedent-setting lawsuit challenging the use of a church for a public high school graduation ceremony in Wisconsin. 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Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. 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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