School reverses decision to censor references to God

Officials at a public school in Michigan have reversed their decision to censor a reference to God from a speech prepared for delivery by the valedictorian of the graduating class.

First Liberty Institute confirmed on Thursday that officials at Hillsdale, Michigan, high school reversed their decision that would have prevented Elizabeth Turner from referencing her faith in her valedictory speech.

"We are grateful to school officials for acting swiftly to ensure that religious students can freely exercise their right to express their faith in a graduation speech," said Keisha Russell, counsel for First Liberty Institute. "Elizabeth is thrilled that she'll be able to celebrate her graduation without being censored. We hope that future graduates will be free from religious censorship."

Turner said, in a statement released by her lawyers, "I'm grateful I will be able to share my faith with my classmates, and I pray that God uses this situation to advance His kingdom."…






https://www.wnd.com/2021/05/school-reverses-decision-censor-references-god/






It’s great to see religious liberty and freedom of expression prevail in this case. She earned the ability to make this speech by all her hard work and effort for four years. She should be free to credit all aspects of her life that she attributes her success to.

 

This speech is her private words. She’s a student, not an agent of the state. I’m glad that the school saw the light on this issue.

 

as long as a Christian or Muslim is not doing it in a religious nut sort of way, don't care

 

For me, not talking about the constitution here, I see this as a sliding scale. the older the kid, the less we have to worry about any of this. We have to be a bit more wary around grade schoolers to ensure that each one feels comfortable in the school setting. Its especially important that authority figures not show signs of preference towards one faith or another. But by the time kids are in high school, if an authority figure is pushing Christianity, its more likely than not to push students the other way! The way they develop their sense of identity, is to rebel not to follow authority. We don't need to sweat a christmas carol, or a painting of a jesus figure on the wall, or a book with a Christian theme as expressions of culture. Its not news to them that Michelangelo painted Moses, or the James Joyce grew up a catholic and spent time with priests, or that most African spirituals with three part harmony glorify the resurrection of Christ. As long as what you are focusing on is cultural, historic, the rhythms of the music, the colors and layers of the art, the use of symbolism in the story etc, the themes and memes involving religion aren't going to produce 'collateral damage'.

 

most schools choose not to allow it as they have to give equal time to other religions and even atheists, and that is where they just rather ban it all

it's all or none in a public school, most schools choose none

but in this case, it's not a teacher, it's a student and as long as she is not preaching, just saying God bless the class of 2021 or something, not a big deal

 

Years of choir. Its not as big a problem as you think..'Winter' concert means the teacher chooses one song that is neutral, one song that is traditionally Christian and one song that is Jewish or Muslim or Kwanzaa, whatever. Just remember to vary it next year a little. You don't have to have the exact proportion of each faith. You just have to show that you did not pick three songs that were glorifying Christ's birth every year for the last five and nothing that celebrated Hanukah at all.

Its the same with art appreciation or literature. More American literature is likely to have Christian influences than hindu. Its not hard to explain. Its what you are using it to teach, rather than what it has in it.

 

Good decision in my view. There shouldn't be censorship of a valedictorian address.

 

The school made the right choice. But I do wonder if the same people cheering for the school would be had it been Allah or Zeus or even Satan that was mentioned instead of God.

 

teachers should not be pushing religion

 

that is when the real test is applied, if they ban that, but allow the other, then they have a problem

that is usually when Christians are like, you know what, we are banning it, we decided we do not like this

they say this is our kids special day, we do not want it to be a about the Muslim religion, ect.....

 

I think the key difference would be that followers of other religions at mainstream American schools probably wouldn't feel able to express similar comments about their faith in a graduation speech. That said, I'd expect the school authorities might be more cautious about challenging non-Christians on it too.

 

Probably not, the hostile reaction they would receive is not something most are willing to deal with.

 

They didn't. They pushed choir music. A lot of great choir music has religious themes. We sang Bach! it just so happened the man wrote some of the richest chords in choral music and his lyrics were religious in theme as most were back then because choirs performed in churches with organs or harpsichords as accompiment. Thus they were written for Sunday worship services. Is Bach not supposed to be performed or should we have hummed it !

Here is what we sang at one.

Here is another

They were not chosen because of their theme. They were chosen to broaden our taste beyond the pop and rock we otherwise would have experienced.

 

depends on the music, if it's pushing religion, no, the teachers should not be pushing Muslim music on our children

 

Agreed.

She earned (through 4 years of good grades) the right to give that speech.

And, she has every right to talk about God, Bigfoot, or anything that she wants to.

In any event, regardless of "censorship", once that she was on the stage, she was always going to be free to deviate from the written text, and ad-lib, or freestyle, all that she wanted to..

 

I never did, I learned to sing this old Hebrew chant though. We literally had no idea what we were singing, because Mr. Johnson did not CARE enough to tell us what it translated into.

 

as long as the teacher is not pushing any religion on people, I have no issue with it, sadly many teachers would do just that

when a Christian child comes home and is singing a Muslim song in their house, I have a feeling many Christians would be outraged

the reason religion is banned from schools is Christian infighting, that was just the version of Christianity pushed, now imagine differing religions

like I said many times... I am for all or none.. Most choose none vs all

 

Really? There wasn't a problem when we sang a kwansaa song, two jewish songs and I can even recall something 'indian' /native American one year. parents would be pissed if the only song of a religious nature was muslem, with a lengthy lecture on the beauties of Islam, but if it is surrounded by songs that aren't, and there is no proselytizing then there is no sense of a religious agenda.

My two choir teachers, basically answered questions if we asked one about what something meant, but they were not 'pushing faith' so much as leading us on an exploration of different styles, and cultures. Its what should happen in a class on the /english novel, , or art appreciation class too. They should not waste time and energy counting the number of paintings with Christ, Moses or the Garden of Eden, and then counting the ones without to see if the percentages work.

 

A Christian, Jew, or Muslim thanking God for His role in guiding and shaping their lives doesn’t qualify as that.

 

Please note that if a passionate Christian finishes first in her class, as opposed to fifth for instance, she is probably convinced that God made sure she finished first, maybe by giving the person in second a runny nose so she lost 3 points on an exam.
She is also pretty sure that if she doesn't mention God in that speech God will punish her by making her less successful in college.

 

but how and who defines a "religious nut sort of way"???

 

Oh look, we got us a mindreader. Tell me what I'm thinking?

 

oh, it most certainly can be nutty.

 

depends on how they do it, we do not know what this girl is doing for sure yet

" "I'm grateful I will be able to share my faith with my classmates, and I pray that God uses this situation to advance His kingdom."…"

 

we can all tell em when we see em, if she is trying to preach and convert other peoples children, she is a religious nut - if she just says something like "God bless the class of 2021", that is nothing I am concerned with