Where is your evidence that anyone is being forced to accept Bibles?
Posted on 09/07/2006 10:51:37 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ST. LOUIS - A federal judge ordered a small-town school to suspend a program that gives free Bibles to students, saying it improperly promotes Christianity.
U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Perry also scolded school officials for continuing the program after warnings that it violated the Constitution.
South Iron Elementary in Annapolis, a town of 300 in southeastern Missouri, has quietly allowed Gideons International to hand out Bibles to fifth-graders for years. After concerns were raised last year, the then-superintendent consulted with the district's attorneys and insurance company and recommended that the handouts stop, but the school board voted to continue them.
Acting on behalf of two sets of parents from the district, the American Civil Liberties Union sued in February in federal court in St. Louis.
"The defendants were repeatedly told that their actions violated the Constitution, but they chose not to heed those cautions," Perry wrote in the preliminary injunction issued Wednesday.
A final ruling is not expected for months.
Eastern Missouri ACLU legal director Anthony Rothert said the injunction was "a victory for parents who want to direct the religious upbringing of their children without interference from public schools."
Erik Stanley — an attorney for Liberty Counsel, part of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., which represented the school district — called the ruling unconstitutional and said it would continue to fight the case.
Gideons, based in Nashville, Tenn., distributes more than 63 million pocket-sized Bibles each year in hotels, prisons, hospitals and schools worldwide, according to the organization's Web site. A spokesman for the organization declined to comment.
___
On the Net:
School district: http://schoolweb.missouri.edu/southiron.k12.mo.us
Eastern Missouri ACLU: http://www.aclu-em.org
Liberty Counsel: http://www.lc.org
I meant no disrespect...
Exactly why schools shouldn't be handing out bibles. You wouldn't like it if they gave your kids a Koran. Some people who are of a different belief wouldn't like their kids to be given bibles.
Exactly why schools shouldn't be handing out bibles. You wouldn't like it if they gave your kids a Koran. Some people who are of a different belief wouldn't like their kids to be given bibles.
The captive audience of a school aside, a Bible is fine if the intentions are sincere. That's how I got a couple of mine.
Where is your evidence that anyone is being forced to accept Bibles?
I didn't see any force being used in the story. Care to point it out?
So continue to give 5th graders Bibles just don't do it in school grounds. Is their purpose to spread the word of God or force a court case?
I remember the Gideons gave away New Testaments to my classmates and me when I was in the 4th and 5th grades.
Somehow, our Republic survived.
"Just curious, what would one give an atheist?"
There are few atheists in the fifth grade, I think. Most people come to their atheism as adults, and I don't know a single atheist who doesn't own a Bible. I have several, in different translations and languages.
Most atheists have read the Bible. Some have studied it closely.
"Fellatious reasoning."
Was that intentional?
Welcome to the Judicial Oligarchy of America.
"Was that intentional?" - Your guess. [Actually it is a case of double entendre, signifying the quality and proper use of reasoning in question.]
'Perhaps that explains why he seems to have more than passing familiarity with the U.S. Constitution'
That is a hoot trollboy. Get thee to DU.
hmmmm
so school boards should not have discretion at a local level and in the community to act in good faith?
Born 1952 in Hobart, OK Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
Nominated by William J. Clinton on July 15, 1994, to a seat vacated by Clyde S. Cahill; Confirmed by the Senate on October 6, 1994, and received commission on October 7, 1994.
Ok Your Honor, send in your troops to stop it.
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