A story in the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer today discusses how parents in Chatham County are upset at school and county officials. The reason for their ire is a school assembly sponsored by a Christian organization speaking about abortion, saying no to drugs, and abstinence.
One parent said, “The biggest issue to me is what are [school officials] thinking, bringing in any group grounded in religion.” The article also quotes Duke University Professor Erwin Chemerinsky who said that it was a violation of the First Amendment because students were required to attend. If the News and Observer had talked to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, I’m sure they would have received a different argument.
The program was sponsored by Teen Challenge, a national faith-based group that focuses on teen drug and alcohol use. Area churches picked up the tab.
Before I really get into this some more, let me take you back to my high school and junior high days. I can remember several events and school assemblies that focused on people who made the wrong choices in their lives. They never really talked about their faith openly, but you knew something bigger than themselves (God) had brought them to recovery. I remember the military coming to do drill performances. I can remember signing no alcohol promises and I think there was an abstinence pledge, but I can’t fully remember.
Minus the drill performances, these were stories we needed to hear as young kids.
Now back to present time and Chatham County. Was this a violation of the First Amendment? I don’t think so.
School officials said there were no mention of religion in the presentation, but even if the speakers had quoted a verse it wouldn’t have led to a violation of the First Amendment. The event was not paid with school resources. It was paid for by local churches.
The First Amendment simply says “freedom of religion.” Separation of Church and state, that phrase, never appears in the Constitution. What the clause means is that the government, when you look at writings of the framers of freedom of religion such as Thomas Jefferson, is that government cannot establish one religion over another. I don’t see that being violated in Chatham County.
The Church has a place in our schools. Groups like Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Young Life do a tremendous job in reaching out to students and helping them through the difficult periods of being teenagers in today’s society.
I don’t think this was so much a religious message that students heard, but a message on how to live better lives as humans.
If that is a message our parents are concerned about their children hearing, then we have more problems, as a society, than figuring out the proper role of churches and schools.
