February 19, 2001

A case study on religious speech
___AUSTIN--Sally is a public school student who has been to a Catholic church camp over the summer. On her first day back at school, the teacher asks each student to tell the class something about what they did over the summer.
___Sally stands before the class and says: "I went to church camp this summer, and I learned to pray the rosary. It totally changed my life, and now I feel so much closer to God."
___Should the teacher allow Sally to give such a speech? Has Sally crossed the line into the forbidden territory of church-state separation?
___No, she hasn't, and the teacher should allow her to talk, advised Oliver Thomas, special counsel to the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center.
___Thomas set up the hypothetical situation during a presentation at the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission seminar Feb. 13.
___Then he took the case study one step further. Suppose Sally concluded her speech by handing out rosary beads to all her public-school classmates and saying, "Now, I'm going to teach you to pray the rosary."
___That should not be allowed, he advised, because Sally has crossed the line from telling about her own experiences--while fulfilling the assignment set out by the teacher--to calling on fellow students to participate in a religious activity.

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!