It started about a week ago, when Damon objected to a prayer that was scheduled during his graduation ceremony. In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled against coerced prayer in a strongly worded decision which read, in part:
"As we have observed before, there are heightened concerns with protecting freedom of conscience from subtle coercive pressure in the elementary and secondary public schools. Our decisions in [Engel] and [Abington] recognize, among other things, that prayer exercises in public schools carry a particular risk of indirect coercion. The concern may not be limited to the context of schools, but it is most pronounced there. What to most believers may seem nothing more than a reasonable request that the nonbeliever respect their religious practices, in a school context may appear to the nonbeliever or dissenter to be an attempt to employ the machinery of the State to enforce a religious orthodoxy."Ironically, the original suit was brought by Christian parents who objected to a rabbi giving the benediction at their child's graduation. In the 18 years since this ruling, Christians have repeatedly and vociferously complained and fought against this ruling, illustrating the 'be careful what you wish for' aspect of any such effort.
When Damon went to the ACLU, the school backed down, and agreed to a moment of silence in place of the prayer. He then posted this on reddit.com, a social media site with a strong atheist community. The top-rated out of the 1,771 comments is a response from Damon's brother, who kept the community in the loop after Damon was cut off from communication by his parents. He conveyed the amazing support to his brother in conference calls through Damon's sister. Meanwhile, Damon's teacher Mitzi Quinn told the local newspaper, "[In the past, non-religious students] respected the majority of their classmates and didn’t say anything. We've never had this come up before. Never…And what’s even more sad is this is a student who really hasn't contributed anything to graduation or to their classmates." The paper reported that Quinn was given an award for her "great service." Damon received death threats, and his brother and sister feared for his safety attending the graduation.
I would dare any apologist to defend the behavior of the so-called Christians in this story. One of my dearest Facebook friends posted the graduation video with a comment that she missed the days we could openly make religious references in school, but what I saw was a student defiantly flouting the Constitution and going back on the school's promise, and the crowd cheering wildly:
But while Damon was cut off from almost every avenue of support, wonderful things were happening across the internet. A Facebook fan page now has 10,115 people who "like" it (though some apparently clicked the like button so they could say hateful things and boast about how the prayer was said anyway, that's to be expected). The FFRF had already awarded Damon a $1,000 scholarship, but an additional scholarship fund was set up on ChipIn with a goal to raise $10,000. The total donations now stand at $14,482.75, thanks to support by prominent atheist bloggers like The Friendly Atheist.
The most striking element of this story, to me, is the terrible behavior exhibited by the Christians in contrast with the outpouring of support from the atheists. I'm sure my own cognitive biases are hard at work here, but I just spent the last few hours reading through a huge amount of commentary on this subject and I have yet to find one redeeming comment from a religious individual, even among my own friends. I had intended for my first post to be more of an uplifting story, but the more I read about this, the more I despair for the prospect of coexistence. Yes, this one had a happy ending, but my mind keeps going back to the thought of one kid, alone and scared, publicly shamed and cut off from support. How an entire community, including that child's parents, could come together to do that is beyond me.
Godlizard,
ReplyDeleteThe school prayer issue is just about the most bogus thing I've ever seen: religion has absolutely no place in the official business of a public school. The parents and children who find themselves offended at the "lack" of religious ceremony and sentiment in class and on campus are quite free to spend every waking hour outside school praying fervently if that's what they want to do. They don't need to enforce a "moment of silence" or anything of the sort in the classroom. It's simply ridiculous, and not at all innocuous: a "moment of silence," even if non-denominational, still amounts to communal coercion.
Wonderful post. I am ashamed at how he was treated by his own family. Tired of "Christians" not remembering how to act. Appreciated the reddit link as well. That really clarified it for me.
ReplyDeleteGodlizard,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post, which speaks to me personally. Almost 55 years ago, a similar situation occurred in the country village where I grew up. A religious fundamentalist grade school teacher had segregated her class into two groups during the Christmas holidays; one group of Christian children at the front of the classroom singing carols, telling stories, and exchanging presents; a second group of religious minority students moved to the back of the classroom, ignored and unattended.
When the parents of the minority students discovered how there their children were subject to discriminatory treatment, there was a huge controversy within the village, angry words, and confrontations. I was one of the minority students in the classroom, and my mother was one of the outraged parents.
Incidents like this are never forgotten. Once abused, always abused, and the wounds last a lifetime.
Godlizard - you have chosen a topic near and dear to Zoners' hearts to make your debut. The use of religion to club others over the head and justify their hatred and bigotry has become such an extreme problem. It is comforting to know some of the next generation is taking up the cause to keep church and state separate. I am sad that this young man's best day had to become his worst nightmare just because he championed justice and upholding the law of the land.
ReplyDeleteHe is a true patriot.
Thanks, all, and Octopus, I am just so sorry to hear that. It breaks my heart, I just imagine the sadness and fear and I can't stand when adults behaving like idiots cause pain in children. I think of Damon's reddit post, in which he speaks of a few other students who agreed with him but did not come forth, and now are even more determined to stay in the closet. It must be just awful for them. And yes, Rockync, he is a true patriot, and a true hero.
ReplyDeleteI'm late to comment only because of computer problems, but I'm applauding. People are not aware of the discrimination against atheists -- the violent antipathy all too often, and in the Bible Belt here, people are aghast at any suggestion that government sponsored Christianity would be offensive or that George Washington didn't put God on the coins and in the mouths of school children.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed that an entire community could have so little compassion, so much hate, and so much ignorance all rolled into one nasty spirited package. They should be ashamed to call themselves Christians. I'm ashamed for them. There is no excusing such malevolence. I hope that Damon knows that he was right to stand up against the bigotry. I hope that he knows how courageous his stand was.
ReplyDeleteGraduation is for all students and their families and schools are organs of the state. The state is not allowed to establish a religion nor favor one religion over another nor prohibit the free practice of religion. In other words, no group religious events at graduation.
It's all so ludicrous. No one has ever told people that they could not pray at school; only that they cannot conduct public prayers in schools. In math class, there are still kids that pray before algebra tests but the principal doesn't get to demand over the intercom that everyone fold their hands in prayer, nor does the teacher get to stand before the class and lead them all in prayer. Any Christian with true charity in his or her heart doesn't need the spectacle of standing up in a crowd to pray. Faith is a matter of personal choice not something you need to display for others to admire.
Excluding others in the school setting is just wrong and it's harmful. It teaches the wrong message to those who are not excluded and it belittles those who are excluded. Those who are not excluded grow up thinking that the only beliefs that matter are their own and that it is perfectly acceptable to ostracize any others who do not share those beliefs. Hubris is one of the seven deadly sins. Someone needs to remind those pseudo-Christians of this. I fear that we are about to segue into an even more prolific phase of Christians alleging that they are the victims of discrimination.
I have friends and family who are Christians. They are busy running soup kitchens, making weekly food deliveries, packing up relief boxes to send somewhere all the time. They are advocates for the homeless, speak out against injustice. Some of them are lawyers who work for ACLU and Legal Aid, using the law a a tool for justice. I forget that this is not always the way of all those who would call themselves Christians. It truly saddens and makes me feel ashamed that so much hate is done in the name Of Christianity. However, I reiterate as I have many times before, it is no more fair to judge all Christians by the actions of these people than it would be for me to judge all whites based on the racism that I have encountered and do encounter from many. Some people are simply ignorant purveyors of hate and the only thing Christian about them is their self-attributed title as such. I know all about people who fall on their knees on Sunday and wear white sheets on Saturday night. Hypocrisy has been around for a long time.