Students fight ban on giving Bibles at school

Des Moines Register ^ | 06/02/2002 | PERRY BEEMAN

[Darth Sidious]

Sasha and Jaron Dean, along with Becky Swope, filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Davenport claiming the district violated their constitutional right to free speech.

The fliers advertise Oneighty, an 800-member youth program at Calvary Church of the Quad Cities in Moline, Ill. The Tuesday night meetings mentioned in the fliers draw 400 to 500 people. The students also wanted to distribute "Truth For Youth Bible," a translation of the New Testament for teen-agers.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Students fight ban on giving Bibles at school

[Snake65]

Hand out condoms? Yes! Hand out bibles? NO!

What a world.

[Darth Sidious]

I did a search, but it didn't show up :-\

[John H K]

Let's see how upset people get when students hand out Korans.

[Arthur McGowan]

The students should ask the school administrators HOW THEY KNOW that the Bibles are "religious." They should press them on that point: "Speaking AS A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, how do you distinguish a religious from a non-religious book? What religious dogmas does the GOVERNMENT hold that enable the GOVERNMENT to declare what is "religious" and what is not "religious"? If the GOVERNMENT holds no religious positions, how does it distinguish what is "religious" from non-"religious"? If the GOVERNMENT is neutral with regard to religion, how does the GOVERNMENT identify what is "religious"?

[Snake65]

Koran, Book of Mormon, Tao, Communist Manifesto, Flat Earth Society leaflets, Necronomicon...they should either let religious clubs and student groups hand anything out (as long as they're actual students), or nothing. It's discrimination against Christians that gets my goat.

[Daniel_in_Babylon]

An often-overlooked but clever line of questioning. I like it. I wonder if Liberty Counsel will get the answers to these questions?

[Cleburne]

Those things aren't religious. They're "multi-cultural". Everyone knows all Christians are evil white guys in business suits who want to take over the world and make us all recite Bible Verses. Muslims, Communists, Maoists, and such are actually the good guys, and wish to spread a message of solidarity and peace.

[weikel]

The thing that angered me most about bans in schools I couldn't set up a candy stand I would have made a fortune.

[Darth Sidious]

Koran, Book of Mormon, Tao, Communist Manifesto, Flat Earth Society leaflets, Necronomicon...

Yeah, everything else goes, including those darned kids running down the halls screaming "Tekeli-li, tekeli-li!" It goes too far, I tells ya!

[tutstar]

good to see there are kids willing to fight for their rights

[Snake65]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

[Dimensio]

Except that in this case the school was specifically prohibiting "religious" materials while allowing anything else (well, there might have been one or two other "forbidden" categories, but those weren't stated). This wasn't an issue of the school teaching religion, but about students distributing information on their religion on their own. The school has no legal grounding for their decision and I can only assume that the principle is involved is a complete idiot who is totally out of touch with reality -- I still don't understnad, what with every court victory against such garbage, why the mentality that "1st amendment means that no student may profess their religious beliefs in school" prevails.

[2nd_Amendment_Defender]

They will protect the THEORY of evolution in schools as a fact that really happened, but the minute you say anything about God creating man, that is completely offensive and unacceptable.

[Dimensio]

How is a student distributing religious material without the aid or endorsement of the school the same as the school "teaching religion"?