Blue America

"Red America" appreciates our founding documents, and our founding fathers. Many in "Blue America" do not. Here is the latest example:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams rights to free speech under the First Amendment.

I'm sure that not all Democrats/liberals feel this way, but the problem they face is that a good number of patriotic Americans on both sides of the fence see this sort of view as a growing trend. Once a guarantee of freedom of religion (as in you can choose how to worship or to not worship at all), the Constitution is increasingly being stretched to deny any sort of public religious expression, and many religious Americans feel we are now on the verge of the criminalization of any and all public displays of religiosity.

The Establishment Clause mentioned in the article is part of the 1st Amendment, and reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

In other words, the federal legislature is prohibited from establishing an official religion, or barring free expression of religion.

For the liberal Democrats it means "Congress shall not establish a religion, and shall prohibit the free exercise thereof all the livelong day in any and all public arenas, especially schools. Of course, they don't accomplish this through legislation. As with gay marriage and abortion they go to the courts to accomplish what they cannot get done via democracy.

I wouldn't want my children to be forced to pray in school, but I wouldn't give a damn if my kid or any others engaged in voluntary prayer. But I do have a preference that my children be allowed to learn about and read the Declaration of Independence in school. What we are talking about is not indoctrination in a set of religious beliefs, it is simple exposure to those beliefs as expressed by our founders. It seems a strange leap to see a reading of the Declaration of Independence as congress establishing a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

It is time we come to understand that exposure to religion does not abridge any religious freedom, but banning public exercise of religion does.