From Reuters: A California teacher
has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.
Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.
"Its a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams attorney, Terry Thompson.
"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence." There is more at The Remedy.
Happy Thanksgiving! Here is Washingtons
Proclamation, and Lincolns.
I dont think that it really went down quite like that. I suspect that the Declaration of Independence itself was banned.
As my mechanic said when I brought this story up, "...its like when you hear that a man was "arrested for praying" and you find out he was kneeling in the middle of a busy intersection at rush hour and refused to budge."
Ive read that he was actually doing was handing out "supplementary materials" that attempt to portray the Declaration as equivalent to an evangelistic creed declaring the USA a nation restricted to, by, and for conservative, evangelistic Christians, and the Founding Fathers as 18th C. equivalents of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc.
Alliance Defense Funds Founders:
Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ
Larry Burkett, founder of Christian Financial Concepts
Rev. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family
Rev. D. James Kennedy, founder of Coral Ridge Ministries
Marlin Maddoux, President of International Christian Media
Don Wildmon, founder of American Family Association
(And 25+ other ministries)
President and General Counsel: Alan Sears
Date of founding: 1994
Finances: $15,411,093 (2001 budget)
But the story will likely serve its well-timed purpose of getting more red staters angry at "Christian-hating" liberals. Puh-lease....
Whoops - typo. I meant to write that "I suspect that the Declaration of Independence was NOT banned." in and of itself, but merely this teachers selective presentation of it. Just like we wouldnt want teachers saying things like "the Founding Fathers were murderous thugs and criminals." or ONLY highlighting comments by the Founding Fathers that were critical of organized religion.