Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood, Mississippi is under fire for
allegedly forcing its students to attend and listen to Christian
lectures during three assemblies held in April alone. Worse yet,
students were barred from leaving and teachers blocked the exits to
prevent any of them from doing so. One student was able to film one of
the assemblies. As a result, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the
students by the American Humanist Association. The organization filed
the suit on Wednesday.

According to Raw Story,

“The assemblies showed a video laced with Christian messages about
overcoming personal hardships through Jesus Christ and were allegedly
led by local church officials.”

These church officials spoke about Jesus Christ dying “for our sins” and
that the only way “to atone” for those sins is to accept Jesus. In other
words, Christian officials were trying to indoctrinate students into the
Christian religion whether they liked it or not.

Under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, such assemblies
are unconstitutional because they violate the religious freedom of those
who do not want to be in attendance. And since the school forced all of
the students to be there and physically blocked them from leaving, these
students were held against their will. That action is known as unlawful
restraint and it is a felony. So this high school basically committed a
crime in the effort to convert non-Christians to Christianity.

Whenever the Christian Right claims that religious freedom is under
attack by the government, that’s simply a way to hide the fact that they
themselves are attacking religious freedom. What is happening in
Mississippi isn’t new. Similar instances are occurring in states around
the country, where religious zealots have positioned themselves within
state governments in an effort to shape the states with their sick and
twisted version of Christianity. To date, North Dakota, Arkansas,
Kansas, Virginia, Florida, Nebraska, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, North
Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana have all passed or
seriously considered laws written based on an extreme religious view.
These bills and laws are specifically designed to target reproductive
rights, science, history, and other religions in an effort to declare
America a Christian nation, even though the Constitution forbids laws
that place one religion over another. But that is exactly what all these
bills attempt to do. By introducing and passing such measures, states
are favoring a specific yet misguided Christian viewpoint despite the
fact that not every citizen is a Christian. Some practice Islam, some
practice Judaism, some practice Buddhism, and some are even agnostics
and atheists. And not even all Christians have the same views. But
nevertheless, Republicans are endorsing one specific religious view, and
that view is extreme fundamentalism, and extreme fundamentalism in any
religion is dangerous. And when you have to stoop to the low level of
holding kids captive in an effort to convert them, your religion is a
bad one.

- - -

A high school in central Mississippi allegedly forced students to watch
a Christian video and listen to church officials preach about Jesus Christ.

The American Humanist Association’s legal center filed a lawsuit against
Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood on Wednesday, accusing the
school of violating the student’s First Amendment rights.

The school has held at least three mandatory assemblies about finding
hope in Jesus Christ this month, according to the lawsuit. The
assemblies showed a video laced with Christian messages about overcoming
personal hardships through Jesus Christ and were allegedly led by local
church officials.

“See, before Jesus came, innocent blood had to be shed for our sins,”
one of the church officials allegedly told the students. “There had to
be an animal that was sacrificed toatone for our sin. There had to be
innocent blood. So Jesus came and he was the innocent blood because he
lived a perfect life. He was that innocent blood. See the last few years
of Jesus’ life he traveled from region to region and country to country
and he had 12 disciples that followed him everywhere. And he talked
about the hope he was bringing.”

The assemblies concluded with a prayer and teachers blocked the exits to
prevent students from leaving, the lawsuit claimed. A disillusioned
student videotaped one of the assemblies.

Though student-led religious groups and activities are constitutionally
permissible in public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that
faculty-sponsored religious events violate the Establishment Clause of
the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from advancing or
endorsing religion.

http://tinyurl.com/d7kehrd

On Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:05:27 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:


another troll.
--

Hope you're having a great day!