Over the past 60 years, public schools have been scrubbed of religion, stripped bare in the name of the name of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars favoring one religion over others. Now the void is being filled by social justice ideology, the left’s religion by another name.
Why should traditional religion be discriminated against, while teachers and coaches are allowed to proselytize their woke belief system, displaying Gay Pride symbols and BLM slogans in the classroom? Are children any less at risk of coercion or indoctrination by these ideas presented by authority figures whom they’re eager to please?
That’s the inflammatory context for a high school football coach’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was heard Monday. Joseph Kennedy, who coached for the Bremerton School District in Washington state, customarily took a knee and prayed quietly on the 50-yard line after games. Occasionally, some players and attendees joined him, though he didn’t call for them to participate.
Bremerton officials told him praying within sight of students violated the Establishment Clause and asked him to go across campus and pray in the janitor’s office. Kennedy refused, arguing that would send a message that prayer is bad and must be hidden. The refusal cost him his job.
Kennedy’s lawyer told the justices on Monday that the firing violated the coach’s right to freely practice his religion. Clarence Thomas asked whether Kennedy would have been fired had he taken a knee to protest racism. Samuel Alito queried whether a coach taking a knee to protest the invasion of Ukraine, or climate change, or another political issue would have been fired.
If the reason for the firing is religion, Alito said, that’s unconstitutional discrimination.
Much of the back and forth was over whether the coach’s barely audible prayer amounted to government speech, which can be regulated. Probably not. He was praying after the game, when his duties were over, and his words were barely audible even to people close by.
Bremerton School District’s lawyer also tried to argue that students might feel compelled to join in the prayer because the coach is an authority figure and can determine who gets the most playing time. The case could turn on that, though the facts again seem to undermine the argument. Kennedy coached JV football, and both players who expressed personal reluctance to pray became captains of the JV team, nonetheless.
Monday’s oral argument signals the Court is poised to welcome more religion in public life, including public schools. The question several justices posed again and again is, why should religion be singled out for disfavored treatment, compared to other ideas?
Some areas of Maine are so thinly populated that towns can’t afford public high schools. Instead, the state of Maine offers tuition assistance for families in these rural areas to send their children to the private schools of their choice. The hitch is, state law says they must choose a secular school, not a religious one. Parents sued, challenging the religious school exclusion.
If schools that teach religion are ineligible for state money, Alito asked, are schools that teach critical race theory also ineligible? The lawyer for Maine’s school system stammered and confessed he didn’t know.
Alito’s question was on the mark. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the most powerful teachers unions, promote a curriculum that stresses transgenderism, white guilt, the 1619 Project and other progressive ideologies. But these unions want no part of traditional religion. They know religion is the kiss of death for their anti-family values agenda. The unions weighed in with a joint brief to the Court against coach Kennedy.
The educational bureaucrats are fast making public schools into temples of progressivism. Fortunately, the Court appears on the verge of striking a fairer balance, protecting the rights of teachers who practice traditional religion and the rights of students to be taught by them. Parents should be glad.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and author of “The Next Pandemic,” available at Amazon.com. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Secular Socialism, the religion of the god of Self, worshipping the foolish, finite, fallible, impotent temporary life of the self, rejecting the infinite, infallible, omnipotent, omnipresent power of their creator. It all began in the garden of Edon when the serpent whispered into Adam and Eve’s ear, “Eat of the fruit of the tree of our knowledge and you shall become as Gods.” Thus, was born the fall of mankind, as well as the origins of the Modern religion of the Secular Socialist present day American Democrat party of deceiving demons, now teaching our children the fine arts of human deception, themselves being the first to be deceived, who are now educated to live lives in the image of the great CONSUMER, abandoning the image of their great CREATOR, who only have an ability to bring to the American table an appetite, leading to the sudden recent death of MAGA in just 16 short months.
ALito is spot on here.. IF “Wokism is the leftists religion”, WHY THEN IS IT not just ok, but MANDATED that wokism be shoved down our kids throats, WHILE ACTUAL Recognized religions are squished into nothingness..
Public schools have become one of progressivism’s greatest achievements, once education was the province of religious organizations, this includes Harvard and Yale whose function was to train clergy (noy today), schools established by churches were the norm in many communities because government wasn’t really equiped. As a diverse population grew so did the need for schools for all liberal ideas slowly seeped into the system so what was once based in religion, I remember Bible reading and prayers plus the Pledge of Alliegence, moved to more secular topics outside real learning verging on indoctrination. Using the establishment clause as a club progressives went after any expression of religion, especially Christianity, bit allowing Islamic studies as being cultural! The establishment clause has been abused over the years and it’s time things be set right, there is no outright ban on religion in The Constitution.
Educational Institutions have become bastions of socialism, Leftist Ideology with About 90% of the teachers voting for the democrats One doesn’t Have to guess which Ideology they instruct their Students In.
As Stalin said.. GIVE me the kids, “the seeds i have sewn will not be uprooted”
To fully advance the Demonic, Lying, Treasonous, Socialist, Woke Democrat Party’s destructive agendas: is to divide our citizens with hate and promote; rioting, burning, looting, open borders, gun control, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, transgender “gay marriage” and the like, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with GOD, our Constitution, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
Under the guise of “anti-discrimination.”
BUT…. Only if WE the PEOPLE let the disgraceful Democrat Party get away with their destructive agendas.
This is America. We were founded upon Judeo-Christian principles and values. God has been a big part of this nation’s history from its inception. God’s name is found in many Federal buildings—printed on our money—and is used liberally in ceremonial occasions. That’s the way it is here. You go to any other country, whatever their predominant religion is, that’s what you are expected to respect and practice.
Anybody having a problem with God and Christianity here—you are in the wrong place. You need to move on.
Those who partivipated on Jan 6 went about it the wrong way but “We, the people” need to take “our” country back and the best way is by our votes and making sure our votes are counted as we voted not any other way. We also need to keep using the legal system to have our voices heard.
HOW though can we ‘have our votes heard’, WHEN THE LEFT KEEPS STEALING ELECTIONS and the courts LET THEM!?
I just read an article where the science teacher at some school was arguing that kids s/b taught that a woman isn’t the only person who produces eggs. But see, this teacher is a trans who is a woman identify (pretending) to be a man who produces eggs from her/his ovaries. See, to me,if you are going to be a man or a woman when you were born a woman or a man, then you should go the whole 9 yards and get those parts removed. This is what is so confusing. You have a trans man who actually gets pregnant and the Left point and see, men can give birth. No, a WOMAN, pretending to be a man, is pregnant, which is how it was all intended. So, until you have the guts to have the sex change surgery please don’t push your wokeness on my kids. The judge is correct, too many on the Left only want their views presented and while I am supposed to respect them and I do, I do not want their views fostered on my kids. Go to school, teach none Wokeness, and take your self home and do whatever you want. But if you are going to scream words matter, they do and not going all out is a copout.
AND UNTIL THey have had those things removed, they shouldn’t BE CALLING themselves a ‘man’ or woman!
Woke is not a religion, it’s a demonic cult, like Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. Maybe the woke crowd will do the same thing to itself as Jim Jones did to his blind followers. I’ll make the Kool-Aide.