“Class president adds Scripture to commencement address”
I saw this headline in a recent article published in Teacher Magazine (subscription required). It told about a co-valedictorian who was asked by school officials not to include scripture in his commencement address. He complied, but the class president had not been issued similar instructions. He quoted from the books of John and Ecclesiastes and explained, “What I said is what I truly felt and saying anything else would not have been true to who I am. I wasn’t expressing the views of the school, I was expressing my own views… I was told to write an essay about a life lesson and I did that.”
You just gotta respect that.
What I don’t respect — nor do I understand — is that according to the article, “an attorney for the district in western Michigan had advised that allowing Grooters to include Bible verses in his speech would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.” Perhaps we should send this attorney a copy of the United States Constitution, because it’s obvious he’s never read it. I’m frankly tired of hearing about the “constitutional” separation of “church and state”. What is it about “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” that these people don’t understand?
No, there literally is not a “constitutional separation of church and state”, but there’s one more thing that bothers me about all of this.
As a Christian, I believe in speaking out about my faith. I believe the constitution guarantees me that right, but it does not give me the right to speak about my faith whenever and wherever I want. It does not deny me that right, but neither does it guarantee it. See, I don’t want a Muslim valedictorian getting up in front of a graduation crowd and preaching from the Koran either. Nor do I want a Buddhist praying in a classroom with my child or grandchild present. I respect the one valedictorian speaking his mind and quoting scripture, and I respect the other for acknowledging authority and not including scripture. Was one right and the other wrong? Were both right? Were both wrong?
Am I wrong to believe a public school graduation ceremony isn’t the place to speak up about one’s faith? Let me know what you think. What would you do in that situation? Have you ever been in a similar situation?
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Posted on June 11th, 2008 by Bob Mathews
Filed under: "In" not "of", Christian Example, Evangelism, Prayer, Society, Witness
