congratulations graduate: now pray!

here we go again... blurring the lines... graduation in a church?

from the national school boards association:

N.J. district settles lawsuit over holding graduation in church

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Newark Public Schools has settled a lawsuit filed in 2007 by the American Civil Liberties Union-New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) on behalf of Bilal Shareef, a Muslim student who skipped his graduation from West Side High School two years ago because it was held in the sanctuary of a Baptist Church.

The suit alleged that Bilal's faith prohibited him from entering a building with religious icons, such as pictures of God or images of the cross, according to the suit filed. The suit claimed when West Side High held its graduation at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark two years ago, the district violated the New Jersey Constitution by forcing people to attend a place of worship contrary to their faith and discriminated because of religious principles.

According to the settlement, the district agreed not to sponsor or promote religious events, to no longer reward students for attendance at religious events or ceremonies, and to stop using religious buildings or places of worship for school events. Nonetheless, the settlement still allows NPS to schedule events with other schools that use religious buildings, and students may still visit religious buildings if the purpose is "both academic and secular in nature."

Superintendent Marion Bolden confirmed that there was also a financial settlement between NPS and Shareef. In addition, NPS issued an apology to the Shareefs and other students who "felt forced to forego or uncomfortable attending the 2005 or 2006 graduations." NPS legal counsel Perry Lattiboudere's statement emphasized that the settlement agreement "reaffirmed that the past scheduling of graduation ceremonies at local church locations was not in any way intended to make any student or member of the community feel uncomfortable in attending the ceremony."

Mr. Bolden acknowledged that in response to the lawsuit, and concerns students might be discouraged from attending graduation, none of the district's schools are holding commencement at religious buildings this year. The ceremonies will be held in either government owned facilities or secular private venues. "There has to be sensitivity to that because you don't know what children are thinking," he said. "(Shareef) might have been the one who voiced an objection, but others might have gone and been uncomfortable."

Source: Newark Star-Ledger, 6/10/08, By Kasi Addison

Mitt Romney's Religious Intolerance Speech

"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone. -Mitt Romney- 2007

Oh really?

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference... - John F. Kennedy- 1960

That sounds more like it.

I have never been a fan of Mitt Romney. I was there in Massachusetts when he almost upended a weak Ted Kennedy. He did not and I thought him gone from the public landscape. He reappeared as an Olympic guru which somehow catapulted him to the Governorship of Massachusetts and now as a religious zealot for President.

But, the comparison of the speeches made by Romney and Kennedy should never be compared. One speech was a text book declaration and argument for religious tolerance, one where an America shall seek to include and ensconce the separation of church and state as a bedrock constitutional principle.

The other, a declaration of zealotry and exclusion, where a presidential candidate sucks up to a right wing Republican party that has been taken over by intolerant "social conservatives" who seek to rewrite history and our constitution. It is embarrassing and the media bought it - hook, line and sinker.

Compare again:

"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator. And further, they discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. -Mitt Romney-

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish--where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source--where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials--and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim--but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril. -John F. Kennedy-