Another High School Hero!

Why I Sued Northwest Rankin High School is a letter from a courageous 16-year-old who sued her high school for forcing her to attend a Jesus-drenched assembly.  In the lawsuit she is referred to only by initials, but today she came out with the post at the American Humanist Association site.

Key quotation: 

"I am not an angry atheist. As a matter of fact, I am not an atheist at all. I hold many Christian beliefs and values, and I do not mean to attack the religion or its message. Instead, this is a case about our constitutional right to be free from the government promoting these religious beliefs."

Damn straight!  You can't have a "Christian" school without defining what is Christian and what is not.  This means Catholics who don't believe the tenets of a Baptist minister could be forced to be preached at by one anyway.  It means Seventh-Day Adventists could be told they're not true Christians if they don't go to church on Sunday.  It means that children who find themselves mumbling the "wrong" words at the end of the Lord's Prayer could feel disenfranchised or offended.

Settlers from England certainly knew the sad English history of "official" religions switching back and forth and the murders committed because of it.  No "Christian" is free if any Christian can declare they know which Christianity is the best one.  They knew that "Bloody Mary" murdered Protestants.  They would have known about the Inquisition, too.  And then some of them were deists....  There's no doubt whatever that the Founders wanted the church to stay out of government and vice versa.

So anyway, good for her for standing up for the Constitution and her (and her parent's) right to decide whether and how to worship without bullies in her school forcing it on her.


hat tip: Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True blog