By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
Saturday, June 23, 2007
June 19, 2007 - In April, incidents in New Jersey and California involving Christians and Muslims makes me wonder if there's not a double standard for how these two groups are treated in our public schools. In both cases, Muslims came out the winners.
The first case involves the Burlington Township High School in New Jersey. School officials decided they would conduct a mock "hostage situation" drill at their school involving terrorists. Who were these terrorists? Why, they were described as a "right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders,' who don't believe in the separation of church and state." The alleged Christian terrorists went to the school and took hostages over one of their children being expelled for praying before class.
The second case involves Carver Elementary School in San Diego, California. At Carver, Somali Muslim students are being catered to in unusual ways. The school district has absorbed these students from a defunct charter school and spent $450,000 on altering the cafeteria menu and creating new class schedules so Muslims can engage in Arabic instruction and prayers. An extra afternoon recess period permits Muslims time for prayers.
A substitute teacher who was called in to teach at Carver was shocked when she saw the lesson plans, which included a special Muslim recess for prayer. She was also troubled when asked to teach a segregated class of Muslim girls.
The question I must ask is this: Why aren't Christian or Jewish students accorded the same privileges in public schools as those accorded Muslims? Would a public school redesign its whole cafeteria menu to meet the special needs of Christian students? How many schools would redesign their menus for Jewish students?
Morever, what public school would create an extra recess so that Christian students could pray? The ACLU would be on that school district at light-speed with an injunction against it.
So, why is there this double standard when it comes to Muslims versus Christians or Jews? Why are Christians smeared as terrorists by school officials in New Jersey, while Carver's Muslim students get their own cafeteria food and an extra recess for prayer?
Perhaps the answer is the overwhelming liberal bias of school officials and teachers against Christianity in general. They can tolerate anything in public schools except Christianity. In fact, they'll routinely support any anti-Christian activity or philosophy while suppressing the religious freedom of Christians.
Examples abound. Take the issue of the homosexual agenda in public schools. Homosexual teenagers can freely operate Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs, but Christian students who protest with T-shirts quoting the Bible are sent home for violating "sexual orientation discrimination" policies. The Liberty Counsel, National Center for Law and Justice, Pacific Justice Institute, United States Justice Foundation and the Alliance Defense Fund have horror stories galore about this double standard against Christians.
The tragedy in all of this is that it was Judeo-Christian principles that gave rise to our nation, our Constitution, and the belief in the freedom of the individual. Our nation would not exist as it does today without the influence of Christianity, yet this important religious movement is being frozen out of our public schools in favor of multiculturalism, political correctness, atheism, and Islamic philosophies.
Without Judeo-Christianity, our nation will perish. But, maybe that's what liberals really want.
Rev. Sheldon is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, an ordained minister, and the founder of the Traditional Values Coalition in Washington, DC. His new book, The Agenda -- The Homosexual Plan to Change America, was recently released by FrontLine Publishers, a Strang Communications company.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement