For the next couple of weeks I will concentrate on the ‘silent’ enemy that our nation is faced with…public school classrooms and the so-called school leadership. Parents, patriots, and churches must understand that our public school classrooms have been used against us. The stealth revolution is taking place using text books and phony constitutional interpretations instead of firearms. Far Left educators have added a fourth “R” to their list. Now it’s reading, writing, arithmetic…and radicalism. School leadership has gone right along with it.
For example, Forest Hills Public Schools in Michigan in 2016 deemed the ‘Betsy Ross’ flag a symbol of hate after students displayed the flag at a high school football game. The superintendent Daniel Behm wrote to parents that to some it symbolizes exclusion and hate, injects hostility and confusion to an event where no one intended to do so. [Fred Barbash,”Does America’s First Flag Symbolize ‘Exclusion and Hate’, As This Mich. School Superintendent Said?”, Washington Post, September 15, 2016]. Students at this predominantly white school were admonished for waving ‘Old Glory’ during a red, white, and blue-themed football game…and it didn’t even have a cross on it. [Ibid]. The head of a Black Lives Matters group in nearby Grand Rapids accused the children of “overt, intentional racism.” [Marvin Herring,”Superintendent Apologizes for Display at Football Game”, WOOD Television LLC September 10, 2016]. I guess the lives, both white and black, of those who gave their lives in support of the country the flag represents doesn’t matter. For these white kids to bring out a flag of the ‘colonies’ along with a “Make America Great Again’ Trump flag was just too much for some in attendance at the game. The white students hate of black students was quite obvious reports Briana Urena-Ravelo on a local television station. [Ibid]. One parent even went so far as to accuse the children of “brandishing these symbolys of nationalism and white supremacy”. [Matthew Patulski’s Facebook page,”An Open Letter to the Leadership of Forest Hills Public Schools”, September 10, 2016]. If some…very few…can find something wrong and sinister about our flag and love of country, how long before they come after those ‘evil’ churches and the symbol of hate crosses that adorn many of them…after all doesn’t the cross represent ‘white supremacy’?
This next story of silencing the Christian majority takes place in Georgia. The next event takes place at West Laurens High School in Dexter, Georgia, where faith flavors everyday living far beyond the walls of the church house. Friday night football games feature the marching band performing great songs of faith and folks bow their heads to pray before the games. [Jason Halcombe and Rodney Manley,”Lord’s Prayer Fills Moment of Silence”, Courier Herald, August 24, 2015]. But those traditions are a problem according to the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization that loves to stick its nose into public displays of Christian faith. The group got involved after someone…notice just a single ‘someone’…complained about a pre-game prayer and the marching band’s performance of the Christian hymn “How Great thou Art” which AUSCC claimed was “timed to accentuate the prayer”…think so! [Americans United for Separation of Church and State in communications with Todd Starnes, August 2014]. In their eyes,” The opening prayer and religious hymn at the football game were plainly unconstitutional”, as they wrote to the school district. (Maybe a school shooting would have added a little constitutional spice to the game!) Further,”The presentation of prayers at school sporting events violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.” [Ibid]. (This evaluation of the Constitution has more twists than Chubby Checker.) After consulting with legal counsel, the school board decided to replace the prayers with a “moment of silence.” (In my opinion their resignations would have been much more appropriate.) The current school superintendent, Dr. Juliann Alligood, said the decision to drop prayers was before she got hired. She wanted it to be known that she is a good Christian lady and a church pianist…gets her ‘ticket punched’ every Sunday morning. [Juliann Alligood in communication with Todd Starnes, August 2015]. She believes she should follow the ‘law’. Let me see if I got this right…her predecessor makes a ‘law’ and she is just a ‘helpless victim’ unable to undo what he did? She said that the now banned invocations were just part of the fabric of the community. Well, in spite of ‘gutless’ school administrators, the football season must go on. So when the West Laurens Raiders started their season, instead of one person leading the invocation, the entire stadium led the invocation. Hundreds stood to their feet and recited the Lord’s Prayer. [Halcombe and Manley,”Lord’s Prayer Fills Moment of Silence”, August 24, 2015]. The marching band also complied with the Americans United. They did not follow the prayer with “How Great Thou Art”. Instead they played “Amazing Grace”. If Americans United are offended by that song, no problem. There are plenty of songs in the local hymnal. (So Americans United, up your nose with a rubber hose.) I wonder if our Founding Fathers realized they were violating the Constitution when they opened each session of Congress with a prayer led by a chaplain on government salary?
That’s enough attempts by the secular world to shut down Christianity for this week, but there are more stories of trials and victories. Churches that reach out into the communities can have an impact…and put politics in its proper place. So Americans United take your ‘crying towels’ and crawl back into the hole you came out of.
– Bob Munsey
Geezer Politics 