{"id":78,"date":"2008-10-22T15:14:56","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T15:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/10\/schools-can-promote-political.html"},"modified":"2008-10-22T15:14:56","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T15:14:56","slug":"schools-can-promote-political","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/10\/schools-can-promote-political.html","title":{"rendered":"Schools Can Promote Political Ideas, Cannot Promote Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay, you are mixing apples and oranges.  Let’s start with the story of the pro-Obama textbook.  Although I must admit I generally treat anything reported in WorldNetDaily like I used to treat the stories of Bat Boy<\/a> in the now defunct Weekly World News, let’s assume they are right about the use of the text containing Obama speeches.  This might be worthy of debate but it doesn’t raise any First Amendment issues.  Schools are free to purchase textbooks that make many kinds of choices about content.  It is not unconstitutional to purchase a book that emphasizes John Kennedy over Dwight Eisenhower or which gives more space to Western settlers than to the Native Americans they displaced. Again, there could be pedagogical reasons to challenge the wisdom of some books over others, but it is very rare that you can take those challenges to federal courts. (By the way, the very story you cite indicates that the book was published before Obama was a Presidential candidate and that subsequent editions removed these pages, presumably so as not to appear partisan.)<\/p>\n

Indeed, the only ideas that public schools cannot promote are “religious” ideas.  You say, that’s unfair!  Here’s why it is not.  The First Amendment only prohibits the “laws respecting an establishment of religion”; it doesn’t prohibit governments from promoting cultural ideas, economic ideas or political ideas (that’s why we have elections)<\/p>\n

As for the girl and the cross.  I have been hearing about cases of schoolchildren allegedly being denied their right to expression of religious ideas for decades.  USA Today <\/u>famously put out a headline once reading “Girl Gets ‘F’ For Jesus Paper”.  She went to court and lost her free speech claim because she had gotten the required teacher approval for a drama paper but decided to change her mind and write on Jesus instead.  She got the failing grade because she hadn’t followed directions.<\/p>\n

So, whether you were right (you might have been) or wrong in writing to the principal depends on some facts that aren’t on the record.  If the assignment was “draw a powerful image”, you are correct; if the assignment was “draw a representation of an animal”, you were wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay, you are mixing apples and oranges.  Let’s start with the story of the pro-Obama textbook.  Although I must admit I generally treat anything reported in WorldNetDaily like I used to treat the stories of Bat Boy in the now defunct Weekly World News, let’s assume they are right about the use of the text…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-politicking"],"yoast_head":"\nSchools Can Promote Political Ideas, Cannot Promote Religion - 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. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}