Hell No!

In light of the recent court decision regarding a public school's prayer banner that had been hanging in the gym illegally since the 1960s, my son's experience with the imposition of religion--specifically Christianity--in his school came to mind.

In objecting to the posters put up by an after-school bible club, he did not experience vilification, threats of assault and even death, ostracism, and elected officials spewing vitriol, as did Jessica Ahlquist, who acted as plaintiff in the lawsuit. (See here, here, here, and here, just for starters--there's much more.)

Jessica Ahlquist ran into trouble from day one. And the school administration was dishonest, claiming that the banner (which began with the words "Our heavenly father" and ended with "Amen") was not a prayer, just a "tradition." This fooled no one, certainly not people speaking at a public meeting about the issue last February. Speakers invoked god and insulted atheists openly.

Here's what happened in my son's case: the Hell No! club hung posters in the hallways featuring bible quotes, quotes such as "only a fool does not believe in God," and threats of eternal punishment for nonbelievers. Our son felt that these were inappropriate in a public school and wrote letters to the principal, superintendent, and school board. While I'm sure that some people thought we put him up to this, we did not. Ethan asked me to check the letter for spelling and formatting, which I did. I had no other input.

A few days later he was called to the principal's office. The school's attorney had been informed of the situation, and some of the school board members contacted a local college to see how such matters were handled there. The attorney  considered that featuring a cross on posters advertising a bible club was legal, but that posters suggesting superiority of a particular religion and containing arguably harrassing statements had to come down. About half the posters were removed.

As Ethan reminded me in an e-mail, "A few people were irritated about the signs coming down, but once I exposed myself as the 'squeaky wheel,' no one was really mean about it and some people congratulated me." I recall running into the superintendent and a few of the board members at a restaurant shortly after this happened and being complimented on our son's letter.

But as my husband pointed out, the religionists have gotten much uglier in the past couple of decades, so who knows what might have happened to him if the events that transpired then were to happen today? Whether it's the political clout of the rabid religious right or fears about a secularist minority that's becoming more vocal and less inclined to stay closeted that's causing such vile behaviors as Ms. Ahlquist has had to suffer, the godbotherers have gotten nastier and nastier.

There is a reason not to tolerate such expression of religion in a public school: as the courts have decided again and again, it violates the separation of church and state. Yes, I remember singing a little song in first grade that started with "Oh, the Lord's been good to me," but that doesn't mean it was right, and subsequently such religious artifacts in state-funded schools were ruled illegal. As they should be. The majority of Americans may believe in god, and particularly a Christian god, but the Constitution exists to protect the rights of the minority.

We were very proud of our son for taking this action, as I assume Jessica's parents are of her. It isn't easy to stand for what's right when the majority of your community is against you--even without name-calling and death threats.

To all those religious believers and promoters who tell the rest of us to shut up, I can only say, "Hell, no!"

 

Comments

[Ethan]

It's kind of sad that public schools cannot teach the Bible (as literature and history), or hymns (as music, to kids old enough to understand it's being treated as simply music), or the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. I put most of the blame on fervent believers -- looking for any way to twist everybody's arm into public prayer and religious training. Even though Hell No! was a legit after-school club, they just had to twist a little arm with their posters, thus crossing the line and bringing down some enforcement for them to gripe about.

I had figured that the Ahlquist thing had happened in some Gaia-forsaken backwater of the Deep South or something ("we haven't heard much about the separation of church and state around these parts"); the fact that it happened in Rhode Island really suggests that the religious hardliners are getting nastier over recent history.

[Kris]

Actually, the Bible can be taught as literature, but that sometimes becomes just a way to smuggle in religion. Same with hymns. Did you read some of the comments Ahlquist got over FB, Twitter etc.? Really nasty. I understand that the police have taken some of the threats seriously enough to investigate.

[cindy]

You have to be so proud of Ethan, Kris. I have noticed my own reaction to the word "christian" has changed dramatically in the last dozen years or so. Where the connotation was once benign, it now fills me with existential dread.

[Ethan]

The Bible -can- be taught as literature. The teachers at my schools were as afraid to teach the Bible as they were to teach evolution.

[Kris]

Even Hitchens thought that knowledge of the bible as a literary and cultural artifact was important, because it's played such a significant role in western civilization and because without understanding various allusions to biblical myth you lose out when it comes to literature etc. I'm not surprised that many atheists/agnostics know way more about the bible than many Christians. This is what amuses me when proselytizers come around--do they really think nonbelievers have never investigated the topic??