ACLU Looking to File Suit Over JHS Graduation "Altar Call" (Someone shoot me)

http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=4150375&nav=0jsh ^ | November 21, 2005 | Heather Flanigan

[AZRepublican]

In May of this year, a Jonesboro student gave a prayer during a high school graduation ceremony at the Arkansas State University Convocation Center. During the prayer, which lasted four minutes, she gave an “altar call” to the community, asking those in the audience to come forward to accept Jesus Christ.

“In the closing moments of this service, if you would like to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, here's your chance,” said senior Jessica Reed in a May 20, 2005 taped video of JHS graduation ceremonies.

“We were contacted sometime after that by the American Civil Liberties Union that they felt like there had been a violation of the First Amendment, separation of church and state with regard to a prayer,” said Jonesboro Public Schools Attorney Donn Mixon.

And now the ACLU is looking for a plaintiff in a case against Jonesboro High School. In a letter written by the Arkansas ACLU executive director Rita Sklar, the event is described as a “blatant display of contempt for the First Amendment.”

[SoothingDave]

While definitely not a violation of the First Amendment it was still out of place.

Exactly. It was not the place for this type of behavior. Not with a captive audience just trying to enjoy their children's graduations. Talk about rude.

SD

[goldstategop]

Its not required. I don't see where the young lady forced her views on others. They are her views. And nothing about a commencement event should lead people to conclude the government agrees with the speaker's views or lack thereof. It simply provides a public forum and as such doesn't necessarily mean it agrees with the views expressed there.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[muawiyah]

You are trying to have the government draw a line between one level of religious practice and another.

The government is prohibited from doing so. Further, your own views on the matter are ridiculously and narrowly sectarian.

[sharkhawk]

I wonder what the screams would be like here if the valedictorian was a wiccan who asked everyone to come up to the stage to join the coven, or if it was a mooslim who asked everyone to get on their knees and pray to the moon rock. I agree it is not a first amendment violation, but the graduation was not the time or place to make this call.

[xusafflyer]

Who is the State in this case? The High School student made the altar call. She is not a school employee.

[VeniVidiVici]

ACLU
Booty Calls in School = OK
Alter Calls in School by a student = NO

[SoothingDave]

Sure ~ the Constitution says that the government does not have the authority to PROHIBIT THE PRACTICE.

They can't prohibit the practice. Duh. But they don't have to allow it in the middle of a public high school's graduation ceremony. This little idiot can have all the altar calls she wants on her own time and in her own place. In a public place and on a public ceremony, this is out of bounds.

SD

[Hank Rearden]

Idiotic, embarrassing and silly - yes. Unconstitutional - no.

Did she supply loaner snakes for anybody coming up to the front forgetting their own?

[Hacksaw]

She did more than express an opinion. She tried to hijack the ceremony and insert a Christian initiation rite into the middle of it. That goes beyond expressing an opinion.

Talk about hyperbole!

[muawiyah]

Hey, you sure got it backwards. The young lady asked NON-Christians to come forward. Christians have already done so previously and have no need to. The young lady turned 100% of her attention to others.

BTW, Christians are required to call folks to Christ. Other groups look at proselytizing as being somehow dirty. Obviously conflict might occur from time to time, but when a Christian accepts you to accept the Lord he is hardly excluding you.

The government does not have the authority under our Constitution to prohibit this sort of thing.

[muawiyah]

BTW, whether or not the young lady acted "stupidly", the issue is that the ACLU wants to bring in the government's jackbooted thugs to suppress her religious behavior.

It's not a simple matter of criticism.

[SoothingDave]

I don't see where the young lady forced her views on others. They are her views. And nothing about a commencement event should lead people to conclude the government agrees with the speaker's views or lack thereof. It simply provides a public forum and as such doesn't necessarily mean it agrees with the views expressed there.

You are missing the point. What if more people shared her lack of commmon sense and decency and decided to answer her altar call and came forward? What then? Should the Protestants, Jews and others just "boycott" the event or sit by quietly while the public high school's ceremony turns into a sectarian religous service?

SD

[muawiyah]

Hmmmm. What would be the "screams"?

How about "the Constitution requires that the state stay out of the issue".

[goldstategop]

The First Amendment allows people to say even stupid things. And I'm glad we live in a country where that's allowed. You and SoothingDave are free to think she's wrong. And others think she's right, too. Where the ACLU has screwed up is in thinking we need the government to police certain thoughts that people have. When we start going down that road, soon no one can say anything of consequence.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[SJackson]

Repeat after me.

I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger

I'm sure the posters on this thread, other than you too, would be just fine with that at a public school graduation ceremony.

[the Real fifi]

The goovernment--in this case a public school--has no right to underwrite it either, and yet they did.

There's plenty of real overreaching by the ACLU. Don't blow your case by defending this conduct as appropriate.

[SoothingDave]

You are trying to have the government draw a line between one level of religious practice and another.

Yes, between a private expression of beliefs and the making of a public event into a sectarian tent revival.

The government is prohibited from doing so.

Very well then. I guess no more mention of God at these events cause some Christians don't know how to control themselves. Talk about being your own worst enemies.

SD

[muawiyah]

The government does not have the authority to "ALLOW" either. The government must maintain strict neutrality, so it may neither "allow" nor "prohibit" such practices.

I refuse to worship at your church/temple/synagogue, to your god(s), in your manner, and there's not a damned thing you can do about it because I live in America.

[SoothingDave]

I wonder what the screams would be like here if the valedictorian was a wiccan who asked everyone to come up to the stage to join the coven, or if it was a mooslim who asked everyone to get on their knees and pray to the moon rock. I agree it is not a first amendment violation, but the graduation was not the time or place to make this call.

Exactly. Yet some one here will tell us with a straight face that they wouldn't mind.

SD

[SJackson]

Post 55 was meant for you, not Hank Rearden