FAYETTEVILLE — School officials in Cumberland and Harnett counties who have banned organizations from offering Bibles to elementary students may want to beef up their studies of Constitutional case law and reconsider their decisions.
"In their efforts to appease the American Civil Liberties Union, these eastern North Carolina school systems are violating citizens' First Amendment rights to free speech and failing to acknowledge a 2001 Supreme Court ruling," said Christian Action League Executive Director Rev. Mark Creech.
The Cumberland County Public Schools notified elementary principals Nov. 19 to prohibit Bibles or other "poselytizing texts" from being handed out, citing a 1998 federal case (Peck v. the Upshur County Board of Education). The board's decision followed a nearly identical ruling by the adjacent Harnett County Schools earlier in November. Both were in response to legal threats from the ACLU, which reported complaints about Bibles being made available for students by The Gideons International, an evangelistic group known for its Scripture sharing efforts.
Both boards cited fears that the Gideon Bibles (actually, New Testaments which are typically placed on tables in a classroom for students who may choose to pick one up) would be misconstrued as the school's endorsement of a specific religion and violate the Establishment Clause.
Fear and intimidation are the reasons that schools are buckling-under to ACLU demands. As parents, we need to support our schools and fight these clowns who think that they can strip away the things that have made this country great. It's a misinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution that is being used as a club to force schools to ban good people from trying to reach the children in your school who probably aren't getting any exposure to the Holy Bible in their homes.
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