Political correctness now reigns in our nation’s public schools, and religious people are apparently helpless to change it and even resigned to accepting it. The latest offense, by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Palmdale, California, upheld a school district’s right to ask sexually explicit questions to children as young as seven. ABC Evening News recently ran a story about the father of a public school kindergarten student in Lexington, Massachusetts, who was arrested for trespassing after he refused to leave the school until he was assured that his child could opt out of a class that was using Who’s in a Family, a textbook that promotes a variety of family relationships, including same-sex couples.
Multi-cultural school curricula designed to promote tolerance seem to be used increasingly to target traditional morality. This is all the more troubling because of the enormous power of education in forming social opinion.
Because America is a religious nation, the moral power of religion cannot be ignored—not only as a force to be dealt with but one to be used by cultural liberals to promote their agenda. Recently these activists have begun to co-opt religion itself as a tool to further the gay agenda, and this avenue has become especially virulent in their push for the sanction of homosexual marriage and domestic partnership legislation.
Although it is tempting to be pessimistic about the current state of affairs, with Christ even the behemoth public school bureaucracy can be overcome—and perhaps even used for Christian witness. Here’s a case in point.
Trouble in River City
Every year, Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, celebrates an event called “Diversity Week,” a popular occasion now throughout the nation. The week’s activities include a general assembly program; panel discussions on race, religion, and sexual orientation; an open mic session during lunch hour; and a number of multicultural activities involving food and music. The panel discussions are held during class time, and teachers sign up to bring their classes to hear them. Students have the option of not attending.
The events are organized by the student council under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Student organizations are invited to assist in organizing the panels.
In 2002, months before the event, the general student meeting for planning “Diversity Week” had been held. Betsy Hansen, a Catholic and a senior at Pioneer, indicated that she wanted to be part of the sexual orientation panel. Betsy was a member of Pioneers for Christ, a student organization that promotes the Christian faith and offers support for other students.
But then, in a strange turn of events, another student group called the Gay/Straight Alliance volunteered to run the sexual orientation program and decided to change the program’s topic from sexual orientation to “Religion and Sexuality.” The alliance said the panel would not be comprised of students, as in the past, but of adult religious leaders, i.e., clergy from the Ann Arbor community. According to the GSA’s faculty advisor, “the club wanted to have people who could speak with authority on some of the more technical points regarding religion’s stance on homosexuality.” Ostensibly, they wanted to offer a more learned approach to the topic, but they also hoped that the presenters would use religious sources, like the Bible, to back up their assertions.
Betsy asked if she could invite an adult clergyman of her and the PFC’s choosing to participate on the panel. Instead, though, it was decided that neither Betsy nor any representative who would express Betsy’s point of view could speak on the panel. Only gay-friendly religious leaders were to be invited so that a positive and welcoming message regarding homosexuality and religion would be promoted. The panel ultimately selected consisted of two Episcopalian priests, a Presbyterian minister, a Presbyterian deacon, a rabbi, and a pastor from the United Church of Christ.
Homogeneity Week
Betsy felt a moral obligation to protect other Christian students from the confusion that would be caused by the upcoming lopsided panel presentation. She also knew that her civil rights were being violated. Betsy contacted the Thomas More Law Center, a non-profit organization that defends and promotes religious freedom, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. Located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the center provides its services without charge and depends on donations.
The center accepted the case. In 2003, it brought an action in federal court against the Ann Arbor Public Schools alleging deprivation of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion as well as violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which forbids the government to promote one religion over another.
The plaintiff’s case turned on how freedom of speech should be governed in a school setting. Three cases were presented as having controlling authority: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1988), Castorini v. Madison County School Board (2003), and Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeir (1988). Tinker and Castorini essentially state that a student’s expression must be tolerated unless school authorities have reason to believe that such expression will substantially interfere with the work of the school or impinge on the rights of other students. Furthermore, according to Hazelwood, a school’s restrictions on speech reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns must be viewpoint-neutral.
The case went to trial. The court found that the school’s exclusion of the PFC viewpoint from the sexuality and religion panel was far from viewpoint-neutral. The court also found that the school officials’ actions were predominantly motivated by their disagreement with Betsy and PFC’s message. The judge said that the school officials failed to show how adding an opposing viewpoint on a panel that included six members of the clergy would make gays feel threatened or less safe and that their actions were intended to allow only one viewpoint on the panel. The defendants had, then, promoted one view and one religion over another, which is prohibited by the First Amendment.
According to the court, the panel had an overtly religious character; some of the panelists were in full clerical garb and quoted the Bible and other religious texts. Accordingly, the school had violated the Fourteenth Amendment by denying Betsy equal protection of the laws; the court found that the PFC had a legal right to be on the panel and a legal right to say that homosexuality is not a valid lifestyle.
Onward, Christian Soldiers
Betsy, now a student at the University of Florida said, “I hope this case has an influence on other schools in the future so that other opinions are heard, especially Christian views.”
For too long Christians have given up on the public school bureaucracy. Too many parents have resorted to private school education or homeschooling in order to isolate their children from the moral decrepitude that public schools promote. No doubt these are viable solutions, but they concede our tax dollars to the distortion of truth and the pollution of young minds.
Betsy’s case should move parents to urge pastors to make high school religious education a high priority in their parishes. Even very small parish groups can inform and empower high school students to take initiative in their schools’ events. A priest friend of mine in New Jersey holds a monthly meeting for secondary school students called “Hot Topics with Father Hartman.” Approximately ten to fifteen students from the parish public school population attend the meetings. The sessions consists of prayer, a Catholic perspective on current events, perhaps a taped program from EWTN, then a discussion that includes the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The evenings conclude with pizza and soft drinks. This simple, inexpensive monthly experience highlights Catholic teaching and demonstrates the commitment the young people have made to Christ and his Church. It also sensitizes them to the distortions of truth and the attacks of Satan that bombard them daily under the guise of tolerance.
Bishops, pastors, and parents should initiate strong Catholic leadership training programs for high school–age students. These students should then be encouraged to introduce Catholic clubs into their schools and take part in school activities under their aegis when appropriate occasions, such as “Diversity Week,” arise. By doing so, young people will not only fulfill their baptismal and confirmation promises but also recapture a valuable public forum for truth that has been all but ceded to secular humanism at a cost to Christian taxpayers.
Pope Benedict XVI holds the conviction that a smaller but more intense Catholicism might be the impetus for the reconversion of Western society. After all, wasn’t it only a handful of Christians who were able to spread the faith and conquer pagan Rome? Perhaps a few more dedicated young Pioneer Catholics like Betsy Hansen can begin to save the souls of their peers and turn the tide in our nation’s secondary school system.