ACLU wants apology after student leads graduation crowd in reciting Lord's Prayer

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The ACLU and a couple of other organizations dedicated to the separation of church and state are asking for an apology after a student led a graduation ceremony crowd in the Lord’s Prayer despite warnings to refrain.

The request sent to Bastrop High came jointly from the ACLU, ACLU of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Laci Rae Mattice, had been instructed not to mention religion and only observe a moment of silence. The school district had issued the instructions after another student had complained about the possibility of prayer at the ceremony.

wwltv.com/news/local/ACLU-wants-apology-after-student-leads-graduation-crowd-in-reciting-Lords-Prayer-122670109.html
 
Were the people in attendance forced to say the prayer? Could they refrain, or were they forced?
 
karow said:
Doesn’t this happen every year?
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Pretty much. The ACLU and other ultra-liberal groups are now fighting private speech at public events. I actually find their position laughable this time, rather than just sad and pathetic.
 
If this is a public school then yes, it was in poor taste for a student/teacher to lead the rest of the students in the Lord’s prayer.

Just like Christians do not want to have to be led to say a prayer to Odin… Non-Christians who go to non-religious public schools do not want to have to be led to say a prayer to the Christian God.

If you want to say the Lord’s Prayer on the podium, go to a Catholic School.
 
pinay said:
If this is a public school then yes, it was in poor taste for a student/teacher to lead the rest of the students in the Lord’s prayer.

Just like Christians do not want to have to be led to say a prayer to Odin… Non-Christians who go to non-religious public schools do not want to have to be led to say a prayer to the Christian God.

If you want to say the Lord’s Prayer on the podium, go to a Catholic School.
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If a student at a high school graduation wants to pray to Odin during the moment of silence, oh well. It is a private citizen’s right to freedom of speech (and religion) and that does not magically dissolve even if they are speaking, as a private citizen, at a public place.
 
I don’t know… I do have to say if he started leading everyone in prayer and THEY FOLLOWED ALONG then it’s safe to say it wasn’t a bad thing to do.

Funny how a country founded on so called Christian morals has gone so far from its roots… but then I don’t know much about the US so I could be wrong that it was initially a Christian country.
 
Ok, I apologize! 😃 Oh, and since they said they want adults to lead the moment of silence in the future, I’ll volunteer for that too. 😉
 
This brings to mind a large conference for public school special education I attended. I was actually paid by a parent organization to attend, even though I insisted we not only home school, but we use Catholic curriculum. But anyway, I digress.

So we all have our rubber Danish and cup of bad coffee, and the opening ceremony with some stupid “ice-breaker.” Having come from the hospitality industry, I get the cold sweats just thinking about the ice-breaker. But OK, that’s expected.

What wasn’t expected was when they had all 800 of us stand and supposedly participate in a Navajo Prayer. Led by someone who wasn’t Navajo. And I sincerely doubt there was a Navajo much less and Native Americans in the group.

I did stand up, and I left the room. Not that I have anything against the Navajo’s and their religious beliefs. But I found it frankly sacrilegious for a large crowd of non-Native Americans to pray a prayer from another faith as if it were just “nice, politically correct modernism.”

When I returned to the table, I was asked about why I left. I pointed out that if we were all lead in the Hail Mary or a Jewish prayer, for example, it would be considered horrible, against the law (as it should be in a secular setting of mixed faiths). But that it was a blatant slap in the face to think that because its was a Navajo prayer, it was OK because somehow that isn’t a “real” faith and therefore no separation of church and state issues abide.

I would be just as insulted if a group of mixed faiths including Hindu, Jewish and Wiccan were to whip out a crucifix and then have the whole crowd mumble a Consecration to Mary, and then all giggle and pat themselves on the back to have done so, never believing a word of what they said.
 
ChristIsTheWay said:
Pretty much. The ACLU and other ultra-liberal groups are now fighting private speech at public events. I actually find their position laughable this time, rather than just sad and pathetic.
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I look at it the other way. It gets old to read about students, teachers, schools, districts, etc., etc., etc., trying to sneak in a prayer during graduations. Why do they do this? Because it garners them attention? Because if they think if enough people do it, it will eventually be Okay? Because they’re hoping to evangelize? Because they want to be passive-aggressive about their faith? Because lawyers on both sides of this issue make a lot of money, therefore they have a vested interest in finding a new case every June? The cynical side of me suspects the latter.😦

If folks want to pray at commencements, formal dances, athletic events, and awards dinners, attend a religious school. Or join a home school co-op. My grandparents sent me and my brother to a private religious school, and no one got all twisted up when we prayed six times a day, seven if you count lunchtime.

But don’t attend or send your kid to a public institution and expect sanctioned prayer. Just don’t. All your doing is making the lawyers rich.
 
nickybr38 said:
I don’t know… I do have to say if he started leading everyone in prayer and THEY FOLLOWED ALONG then it’s safe to say it wasn’t a bad thing to do.

Funny how a country founded on so called Christian morals has gone so far from its roots… but then I don’t know much about the US so I could be wrong that it was initially a Christian country.
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Exactly my point. It seems people did follow along…so what is the big deal? So, by just hearing the Lord’s Prayer someone is going to suffer harm…really? Under those loose rules, one can easily say a great deal of harm is spoken in public schools every day.
 
karow said:
I look at it the other way. It gets old to read about students, teachers, schools, districts, etc., etc., etc., trying to sneak in a prayer during graduations. Why do they do this? Because it garners them attention? Because if they think if enough people do it, it will eventually be Okay? Because they’re hoping to evangelize? Because they want to be passive-aggressive about their faith? Because lawyers on both sides of this issue make a lot of money, therefore they have a vested interest in finding a new case every June? The cynical side of me suspects the latter.😦

If folks want to pray at commencements, formal dances, athletic events, and awards dinners, attend a religious school. Or join a home school co-op. My grandparents sent me and my brother to a private religious school, and no one got all twisted up when we prayed six times a day, seven if you count lunchtime.

But don’t attend or send your kid to a public institution and expect sanctioned prayer. Just don’t. All your doing is making the lawyers rich.
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It is not sanctioned prayer…it is just a prayer said by the student because that is what the student wanted to say. Free speech seems to mean something only when it has no chance at offending others (doesn’t seem very “free” to me).
 
My reading of the article is that the student disobeyed specific instructions from school authorities. The student should be sanctioned for that, but the school tried to be in compliance with the law.

John
 
sojo said:
What wasn’t expected was when they had all 800 of us stand and supposedly participate in a Navajo Prayer. Led by someone who wasn’t Navajo. And I sincerely doubt there was a Navajo much less and Native Americans in the group.
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If I were Dineh, I would hug you right now. Aw, the heck with it, I’m going to hug you anyway. :hug3: Cultural appropriation like what you describe bugs me to no end. It’s condescending, it’s racist, it’s ignorant, and I wish people would stop and think for two seconds before they agree that it’s a good idea. It’s not.

When I lived in Bangkok it briefly became fashionable amongst the young hipsters of the time to wear rosaries. I’d venture 98% of those kids hadn’t the foggiest what rosaries are, they just knew they were “western” and, therefore, cool. And they were cool for wearing them. I did my best to caution those kids I could, telling them they were devotional objects with quite a bit of meaning behind them, and that a good many Christians would find the way they were using them very objectionable.

But yeah, cultural appropriation… It’s something else, isn’t it?
 
irishpatrick said:
Were the people in attendance forced to say the prayer? Could they refrain, or were they forced?
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Don’t know. But it’s prayer in a public secular school, so that can’t be allowed because not everyone is Christian
 
pinay said:
If this is a public school then yes, it was in poor taste for a student/teacher to lead the rest of the students in the Lord’s prayer.

Just like Christians do not want to have to be led to say a prayer to Odin… Non-Christians who go to non-religious public schools do not want to have to be led to say a prayer to the Christian God.

If you want to say the Lord’s Prayer on the podium, go to a Catholic School.
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👍
 
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