All that the Christian organization wanted to do was offer free copies of the Bible to Collier County (Florida) high school students. They had done so before, offering the literature during non-instructional time. Indeed, many other groups over the years had been allowed to make literature of various types available to students who requested it.But then Dr. Dennis L. Thompson, the Superintendent, decided that the Bible didn't provide proper educational benefits for students and he refused World Changers' request to again make copies available.
That's the kind of creepy, convoluted logic you get from government educators nowadays. The world's most famous, most well read book -- a book whose narratives and poetry are the basis for countless other books, songs, paintings, sermons, political action, and much more -- a book that is foundational to the very formation and history of the United States -- is a book that Dr. Thompson dismisses as being educationally irrelevant.
But literature provided by groups like the Legal Aid service of Collier County, the Humane Society, Girls Scouts, YMCA, a local martial arts club, local government, First Tee, Catholic Charities, the local Little League, a lacrosse club, and many other groups -- the progressive Dr. Thompson believes that those are acceptable for offering to students.
And one knows that within the school classes themselves, all kinds of literature is available for students including literature on such controversial subjects as politics, evolution, religion, sexuality, interpretation of history, ethics, and culture.
And yet Dr. Thompson singles out the Bible as being educationally irrelevant.
My, my. Dealing withe the dolts who run government indoctrination requires a great deal of patience...and good lawyers. Because what Dr. Thompson has done here is not only disingenuous, not only intellectually corrupt...it's illegal.
Thus World Changers is having to go to court to seek preliminary and permanent injunctive relief from the secular bigots running Collier County's school system to insure that World Changers’ rights to free speech, free press, free exercise of religion, and equal protection guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution are protected.
The action quotes the Peck decision of the Fourth Circuit Court which held that "the state does not violate the Establishment Clause when it permits private entities to passively offer the Bible or other religious material to secondary school students on a single day during the year pursuant to a policy of allowing private religious and nonreligious speech in its public schools.
In so holding, we are fully mindful of the unrivaled symbolic power of the Bible. We also recognize that there is an almost irresistible visceral temptation to raise the constitutional hurdle proportionately to the power of this text. But ultimately we are convinced that the power of a given religious text must be irrelevant to the constitutional analysis and that we cannot yield to the temptation to adjust the constitutional calculus depending upon the content of the particular religious material at issue. The Bible is no less deserving of the Constitution’s protection than any other text of faith. And to hold otherwise would be indirectly to set us on a course of religious discrimination as antithetical to the values underlying the Establishment and Free Exercises Clauses as the direct establishment of a
state church itself."
Yes, I too noted the irony in the above text; namely, the court's sympathy to that "almost irresistible visceral temptation" of secularists and other non-believers to find some way to mute the Bible's influence. But, the court had to eventually admit that you can't do it. The Constitution won't allow it.
Unless you are a government bureaucrat with an anti-religious agenda. Then you just ignore the Constitution and run your taxpayer-funded fiefdom however you like.
Oh, did I mention that World Changers wanted to offer the Bibles on January 16th, Religious Freedom Day?
Fortunately, things do not look good for Dr. Thompson because his actions were so arbitrary and unwarranted. And because there were lawyers with principles willing to help out. We cannot applaud such individuals nearly as much as they deserve.
As the legal brief describes it, "Defendants have denied World Changers access for no other reason than the religious content and viewpoint of the literature it wishes to distribute, specifically Bibles. This unequal treatment, based upon the religious nature of the literature World Changers wishes to distribute, is unconstitutional content-based discrimination, because World Changers’ materials otherwise fit within the parameters Defendants set for the forum.
Allowing access to distribute literature to some organizations which promote secular student interests and educational benefits, while denying World Changers access to distribute Bibles, which are religious in nature, but promote student interests and provide educational benefits, is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
On its face, Defendants’ Policy creates an unconstitutional prior restraint on World Changers’ right to free speech by ultimately giving standardless discretion to the Superintendent when determining what type of speech will be given access to their forum for literature distribution."
It's a case to keep an eye on. And to pray about.
