Holy war: Louisiana students fight Christian indoctrination at public high school

[Photographer]

Baptist pastor and an evangelical Christian high school principal are fighting the ACLU and students over a pattern of intense Christian indoctrination at Airline High School, a public school in Bossier Parish, Louisiana.

According to Slate, Pastor Mike Welch of Bistineau Baptist Church and Airline principal Jason Rowland are angrily retrenching after the ACLU served them notice on Sep. 24, ordering the school to stop aggressively proselytizing students.

At Airline High, students are regularly force-fed Christian ideology. They’re taught Creationism as science and in health classes, teachers drill students in Bible verses. Girls’ gym classes warn against the evils of contraception and a Christian speaker and self-proclaimed “born-again Virgin” was brought in from the local “crisis pregnancy center” to lecture female students about the dangers of sex out of wedlock.

Students and their families have complained that wall-to-wall Christian dogma should not be the cost they pay for receiving a public education. The ACLU sent a letter to the Bossier Parish school board warning that the school’s religious indoctrination plan is in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which forbids the establishment of an official religion by government officials.

More at http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/holy-war-louisiana-students-fight-christian-indoctrination-at-public-high-school/comments/#disqus and plenty of good comments.

[guillaumeb]

1. Many believers do not understand what is meant by separation of Church and State.

In 1947, in the case Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared, "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach." The "separation of church and state" phrase which they invoked, and which has today become so familiar, was taken from an exchange of letters between President Thomas Jefferson and the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, shortly after Jefferson became President.

http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=123

When the First Amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

it means that there can be no established religion.

[tclambert]

5. Wait, are you saying freedom of religion doesn't mean I'm free to force my religion on you?

Obviously, people of other religions aren't free to force their religions on me because their religions aren't real. But surely we followers of the one true religion must be free to practice our belief that we should spread our faith through threats and harassment of unbelievers. It's bad enough that local law enforcement persecutes us by frowning on our old practice of torturing heretics until they agree to convert. So far the ACLU and Amnesty International have ignored our requests to help us regain our sacred right to conversion through torture. What is America coming to?




(Out of respect for the insuperable power of Poe's Law.)

[guillaumeb]

10. You certainly do have the right to force your beliefs on people.

In Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, and certain other places. Just not in the US.

As far as torture, the Bush Administration allowed torture so it must be Constitutional.

[annabanana]

2. I wonder how wide spread this horror show is. I fear it

isn't uncommon in some parts of the Country.

[randys1]

3. Public schools? Fire the people doing this instantly.

See how important school boards are?

The KOCH bros are behind this all over the country

[lindysalsagal]

4. This, in the 21st century

Louisiana. Yep. The nutty south.

[BigDemVoter]

6. They're too stupid to even get it.

They just can't grasp the fact that they are pushing THEIR religion down everybody's throat. I'm sure they would be raising an enormous commotion if the shoe were on the other foot and students were being indoctrinated in Islam or Buddhism. These assholes attribute all kinds of imaginary quotes to the "founding fathers" or completely misread and misinterpret the quotes they actually get right.

I knew Bobby Jindal was a fool, but is he a complete and utter, fucking moron? I love that Vitter the Shitter is jumping into the fray. I hope he doesn't get his diapers singed.


On edit-- have any of you taken a close look at the photo of the principal? That is one smug and creepy looking FUCK.

[Dawson Leery]

7. The Evangelicals, not Islamic Jihad

will bring the downfall of this country.

[smirkymonkey]

8. This is outrageous!

This creeping Christian fundamentalism must be stopped. Our democracy is at stake.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. It's all over East Texas.

The ACLU and the FFRF have their hands full responding to school districts in Texas who can't understand why they can't force kids to be Christians in a public school.