When I heard about the religious right complaint over a public school teaching yoga to students it kind of made me yawn because it is so typical. The religious right want their brand of religion to be promoted in public schools but complain about anything that they think isn’t their brand of religion. Some liberal religious people I know don’t think this hypocrisy happens so this post is for them as further proof.
Here is the basic story:
The Jackson Ohio school district voted to keep up the Jesus picture hanging in the middle school lobby. It claims since it doesn’t own the picture then they will keep it up and allow other student groups to hang pictures of importance to them. This is an old dodge that people use to justify forcing religion on people. That dodge doesn’t absolve the defendants of violating the 1st amendment and the picture still needs to be removed.
In a follow up news report about the Jesus picture hanging in the Jackson Ohio Middle school, the School District Superintendent reportedly said he was “shocked and surprised” by the lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). This was even after they got a letter from the FFRF, last month, warning that a lawsuit would be filed if the picture wasn’t removed. That wasn’t the only silly thing in the reporting about the lawsuit.
The Columbus Ohio TV station, WBNS, had a report in the evening after the ACLU and FFRF filed their lawsuit. In the report (see video below) it reported that Superintendent Phil Howard was “shocked and surprised” by the lawsuit. WBNS also reported that the school district had finished an investigation of the issue and planned on reviewing the report at the next school board meeting.
On Friday (02/01), President Obama’s administration announced a further watering down of the new health care rule that would require birth control coverage to be offered through an employee health plan. Previously churches were exempt but now religiously owned and operated non-profit groups and organizations will be able to gain an exemption if they request it. All exemptions would then shift the cost and provision of coverage to the insurance company. Of course the more vocal religious right groups say it’s not enough saying even private companies owned and operated by people who might have religious objections must be allowed to be exempt. They need to worry more about the people they serve rather than being so selfish.
Jesus Portrait in Jackson Ohio Middle SchoolA story, at the top of the 6 PM newscast on WBNS 10TV in Columbus, about a complaint over a Jesus portrait hanging in an Ohio middle school hit all the false talking points over religious symbols in a public school. The report missed or ignored an opportunity to give accurate information on the 1st amendment and instead spent a majority of time trying to defend an obvious illegal act.
WBNS 10TV is the top ranked news station in Columbus Ohio. It’s owned by the company that also owns the only print newspaper in town, The Columbus Dispatch. 10TV gave 3 minutes at the top of their premiere 6 PM newscast, on Monday 01/07, about a complaint lodged against a portrait of Jesus hanging in the public area of the middle school in Jackson Ohio. Chuck Strickler, who is also an anchor at the station was the reporter on the story. The fact they gave the story 3 minutes of time on the primary newscast and had one of their veteran anchor/reporters doing the story shows how important 10TV believed the story to be.
The new year begins much like the old year ended with unnecessary calls for “returning” religious prayer to the public schools. Indiana State Senator Dennis Kruse (R) introduced a bill, on the first day of a new legislative session, to force children in public schools to pray at the start of each day. Not only would such a law violate the 1st amendment, it simply isn’t needed. Prayer wasn’t removed from schools, only forced recitation is prohibited.
