Students should also be allowed to pray in school. Many people who advocate prayer in school want mandatory Christian prayer. If the public schools allowed prayer in school and continued to remain in accord with the Constitution the schools would also have to allow Muslims, pagans and even satanists to exercise their beliefs.

It’s a fine line to navigate.

Constitutional problems arise when a public school does something that endorses a specific faith (eg, public schools can’t have what amounts to a government-sponsored prayer read over the intercom each morning). In this case, it’s clear that since this is a senior biography written by the student, the use of the word “God” reflects the student’s own views and not those of the school. The school messed this one up.

Without knowing more details of the case, I’d guess that the ACLU will jump to this student’s defense, as will the Baptist Joint Committee and many other organizations who genuinely care about freedom of religious expression in our country. The ACLU gets demonized by lots of Christians, but they defend students whose first amendment right to free expression of their religious views have been violated time and time again.

Good point.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

If you will allow me a little liscense I offer this observation. While we agree with our Master that we will be persecuted He has also placed us in a free country where we have the right, even the responsibility, to speak out against injustice. As Christians we need to say to our culture, “Allow an even playing field, that’s all we ask”. Then, if an unbeliever wants to attribute their success in life to their own internal strength and ability, so be it. We won’t stop it. But we also expect that when a God trusting student wants to give the credit to God that should be allowed as well.

When this does not happen we should speak out. I dare to also say that if we are willing to play on an even field it means we must speak out when the one being persecutedis someone “we are not”. But we also have the advantage of a confident assurance that Jesus is the Overcomer whether the field is even or slanted.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4