May 19 2007
‘God’ Removed from Graduating Senior’s Yearbook
[From Christian Post]
A graduating senior at Higley High School in Gilbert, AZ discovered this week that his reference to âGodâ had been edited from his yearbook profile. Anthony Sciubba, 18, approached the school Wednesday about why the yearbook had taken out âGod,â who he felt was essential to his bio page, and was told that it was to avoid problems with the separation between church and state.
Read about it here.
[From me]
I don’t get this one at all. It is a student, not a teacher who is telling his fellow students that God transformed his life. What is the problem?
What do you think?
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7 responses so far
I think, unfortunately, that I am not surprised. Jesus tells us we will be persecuted. Although these early pangs of persecution fail to touch the tragic and deadly persecution that reigns in much of our third little planet they are still wrong and should serve as a warning to us. German Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892â1984) wrote in his poetry:
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
OOps, I split a cotton pickin’ infinitive! :>O Make that, “to say also”.
Fog,
Good point.
Constitutionally, there isn’t a problem with this student’s expression of his beliefs, and the school was clearly out of bounds by removing “God” from his senior profile. The Supreme Court has again and again upheld students’ rights to express their personal beliefs in school, with a few caveats (eg, it’s fine for students to have a before or after-school Christian fellowship, but they can’t interrupt class time to have a group prayer).
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.
The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…” It seems to me that this school is acting unconstitutionally.
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.
This shines a bright light on the ignorance of the school leaders regarding the 1st Amendment. From a court standpoint the student is on completely solid ground.
Once again political correctness strikes!