Last week, a federal judge issued an important ruling that bears significance for public-school families that take seriously historic Judeo-Christian values.
Detroit federal Judge Gerald Rosen’s ruling upheld the right of a Christian student to express her religious beliefs that countered the one-sided information campaign at her high school’s “Diversity Week.”
As we’ve seen many times, “diversity” is a misleading terms that typically means that those holding Judeo-Christian values are eliminated from so-called public dialogue.
In this case, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm, filed suit on behalf of student Betsy Hansen whose sincerely-held religious views were disallowed at the “Diversity Week” program at Pioneer High School two years ago.
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the law center, praised the ruling, saying, “Judge Rosen displayed judicial courage by refusing to bend to the winds of political correctness, and he decided the case according to the well established law. This is a tremendous victory for the First Amendment rights of Christian students and a tremendous defeat for those who consider public schools as their private platform to advance the homosexual agenda.”
Robert Muise, the law center attorney handling this case, added, “This is a victory for Christian students who desire to speak the truth about homosexuality in their public schools. And it is a warning to public-school officials across this country: Stop silencing the Christian view of homosexuality and stop using the public schools as a forum to promote the homosexual agenda.”
The problem is many public schools have become a haven of weighted information programs that are designed to advance homosexuality as a viable lifestyle. Those promoting these programs don’t want even a hint of opposition. As a result, those students who are raised in families that uphold biblical values are subjected to teachings that radically differ from what they learn at home.
In essence, family values are completely disregarded in order to promote the homosexual agenda. Christian students are deceitfully instructed that those who oppose homosexuality are purveyors of hate. If you disagree with us, Christian students are told, then you hate us.
At Pioneer High School, education officials prohibited Betsy Hansen from expressing her biblically based beliefs at what was called a “Homosexuality and Religion” panel. Apparently, the Bible is objectionable material when discussing religion these days.
In addition, Miss Hansen had planned to give a speech on the topic, “What Diversity Means to Me.” But hip school officials balked at the speech, saying that Betsy’s religious view toward homosexuality was a “negative” message and would “water down” the “positive” religious message being conveyed.
That message – that homosexual behavior is not sinful even though the most significant religious book in history takes a different view – has become a source of indoctrination in these schools, and any view that opposes it simply will not be allowed.
It’s called diversity.
Attorneys at the Thomas More Law Center http://www.thomasmore.org said that school officials at this event handpicked religious leaders who endorsed the school’s pro-homosexual “religious” belief to sit on the panel, and they denied the young student’s request to have a panel member who would express her own belief on homosexuality.
Thankfully, Judge Rosen saw through this “education” charade and issued a 70-page opinion that harshly criticized the school for outlawing a student’s legitimate religious views.
“This case presents the ironic, and unfortunate, paradox of a public high school celebrating ‘diversity’ by refusing to permit the presentation to students of an ‘unwelcomed’ viewpoint on the topic of homosexuality and religion, while actively promoting the competing view,” Rosen wrote. “This practice of ‘one-way diversity,’ unsettling in itself, was rendered still more troubling – both constitutionally and ethically – by the fact that the approved viewpoint was, in one manifestation, presented to students as religious doctrine by six clerics (some in full garb) quoting from religious scripture. In its other manifestation, it resulted in the censorship by school administrators of a student’s speech about ‘what diversity means to me,’ removing that portion of the speech in which the student described the unapproved viewpoint.”
Judge Rosen ruled that the Ann Arbor Public Schools and several of its employees violated the student’s constitutional rights to freedom of speech and the equal protection of the law. He also found that school officials violated the Establishment Clause by inviting the pro-homosexual clergy member to hold a panel on “Homosexuality and Religion.”
This decision is great news for students who are confident enough to challenge school officials who attempt to impose a narrow and misleading campaign promoting homosexuality in the classroom. The ruling should empower these students to boldly stand on the truth of the Bible when confronting social issues at school. I pray that there are thousands of Betsy Hansens across this nation who will not stand idly by while their religious views are trampled on by politically correct school officials.
