warning this can offend law abiding citizens - Which I'm not one of., page 3

This is not a statement that was read over the PA system at the football game at Roane County High School , Kingston , Tennessee , by school Principal, Jody McLeod. Rather it is a modification of that statement, done as an experiment, to shed a different light on the principal's remarks

"It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the National Anthem, to honor God and Country," and thus to inject patriotism and the pressure of religious conformity into what should be, after all, simply sport.

Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a Prayer is a violation of Federal Case Law. I am implying by this statement that the Supreme Court seeks to ban prayer. This is a false statement and therefore a violation of one of the so called Ten Commandments. The truth would be that the Supreme Court of a pluralistic society is seeking to prevent a majority faith from imposing it's observances on members of minority faiths in public places.

As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it "an alternate life style," and if someone is offended, that's OK. In my particular social milieu, sexual matters are rarely discussed frankly or compassionately, so I won't mention the word homosexual. If it were up to me, discussing homosexuality in a frank and compassionate way would be illegal in a public venue.

I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity, by dispensing condoms and calling it, "safe sex." If someone is offended, that's OK. If I had my way, no information about birth control or contraception would be made available to the young and if it were, it would certainly not be accompanied by sound advice on the implications, emotional, moral, ethical and financial of casual sexual intercourse.

I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a "viable! means of birth control." Of couse I am just as free to oppose abortion as a means of contraception, if I wish, but I am more interested in removing the right of others to advocate for the right to abortion. If someone is offended, no problem..

I can designate a school day as "Earth Day" and involve students in activities to worship religiously and praise the goddess "Mother Earth" and call it "ecology.." This statement is another one where I don't seem to recall what I said in my opening statement. The Supreme Court seeks to prevent the imposition of One faith on people of other faiths in places like public schools. The phrase "Mother Earth" is an age old personification of the planet. The fear that I am raising about the surreptitious recruitment of the young to a new "earth religion" in the schools, although it might be applicable to "satanic rock and roll," is a little overblown when applied to the situation in schoolrooms.

I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depicts people with strong, traditional Christian convictions as "simple minded" and "ignorant" and call it "enlightenment." Main stream Americans of sound Christian backround have been portrayed as dumb klutzes since the days of Nathanial Hawthorne, with scarcely a break. Television is one great hymn to the American klutz. The focus in school material is seldom the ignorance of Christians except where Christian absolutism has stood in the way of science, as in the case of Giovanni Bruno or Galileo, or where Biblical literalism has been poorly handled in class by insensitive and ill prepared teachers.

However, if anyone uses this facility to honor GOD and to ask HIM to Bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, then Federal Case Law is violated. Given political will, it would be possible to strike down any law of the land by force of legislation, if it were the will of the majority of Americans and if that will could be translated into political action. That is the price of democracy. The fact of the matter is that the political will of the majority of Americans is toward tolerance and the prevention of the imposition of one religious viewpoint, unlike the situation in Iran where the state can send religious police into the street to harass the population on the minutiae of religious observance.

This appears to be inconsistent at best, and at worst, diabolical.
Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and anyone, except GOD and HIS Commandments. I'm afraid I am betraying my biases here. I don't want tolerance of God and his commandments. I want the pre-eminence of God and his commandments. I want a return to Salem in the 1600s. I want to impose my beliefs on those of you here before me. I want you to be forced to endure my religious observance, even if you have another belief or no belief.

Nevertheless , as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules with which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be inconsistent at best, and at worst, hypocritical... I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally.. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression. Federal statute forbids me from extending my control over others even further than it already extends. I'm a big fish in a little pond. I may not attempt to extend my sway beyond what is lawfully given to it without feeling the sanctions of a vigilant democratic state.

For this reason, I shall "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's," and refrain from praying at this time. Ceasar salad is my favorite so I like to work him into a speech. What I meant to say is that I will obey the law, as it is a law abiding citizen's duty to do.

" However, if you feel inspired to honor, praise and thank GOD and ask HIM,in the name of JESUS, to Bless this event, please feel free to do so.. As far as I know, that's not against the law----yet." In a land where legal issues are adjudicated by courts, a rose might, by any other name still be a rose, but it might sneak past lawmen on the lookout for roses. And so it is with prayer. In a benevolent society, prayer presented as such might sneak by without sanction, but an injunction to pause and reflect in whatever way seems appropriate to you on the good fortune we share on this occasion and which we all together, no matter of what faith or conviction, help to make for one another, will surely meet with no objection.

[edit on 25-5-2010 by ipsedixit]