Religion & Law

An Object Lesson In the Constitution

By John Pieret

I've mentioned John Freshwater before. He is a middle school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio, who has refused to remove his personal Bible from view on his classroom desk. That is, in and of itself, arguably not a violation of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. However, that is only the tip of the iceberg of contempt Freshwater shows for our foundational principles, as where he holds that separation of church and state "is a fraud." He has been busily trying to breach that separation by posting the Ten Commandments on the door of his classroom and teaching his students about the "holes in evolution" and intelligent design.

Now those actions have come home to roost:

Beth Murdoch, whose daughter attends the middle school, is one of the parents who has expressed concerns about the sometimes hostile environment at the middle school.

?You?re either for Mr. Freshwater or you?re against Mr. Freshwater. There?s no in between,? Murdoch said. ?In the kids? minds, I think, it is just the Bible issue. And who is going to go against the Bible? Nobody. But it seems like the ?Christians? are using that as an excuse to gang up on the ?atheists.?

?My daughter Arie told me about a Jewish child who brought his Torah to school when other students brought Bibles in support of Freshwater,? she continued. ?He thought he was supporting freedom of religious expression, and the other kids just ripped him apart. ?What are you doing?? they asked. ?You can?t support Mr. Freshwater, you?re Jewish.? So they don?t get it.

?This whole thing has divided the community,? Hamilton added. ?I think a lot of kids who don?t blindly support Freshwater have decided, ?Boy, friends that we thought we had, are not friends.? It?s even coming out on the soccer field. ... This is the United States of America. You?re supposed to accept everybody for who they are, and none of this is supposed to matter. That is very frustrating to me. As a Christian, you shouldn?t judge anybody. ... We all believe in different things. I personally might not agree with the way you believe or the way you practice, but we can still be friends.?

Full post as published by Thoughts in a Haystack on May 08, 2008 (boomark / email).