{"id":15428,"date":"2012-01-17T01:22:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T04:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=15428"},"modified":"2012-01-17T01:22:15","modified_gmt":"2012-01-17T04:22:15","slug":"cranston-high-school-prayer-banner-banned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/17\/cranston-high-school-prayer-banner-banned\/","title":{"rendered":"Cranston High School Prayer Banner Banned"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now most are probably aware that a Rhode Island federal district court ordered Cranston High School to permanently remove a mural<\/a> hanging in the gymnasium.\u00a0 The mural contained the “School Prayer,” which has hung there since the 1960s.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff in the lawsuit against the high school was atheist student Jessica Ahlquist.\u00a0 Notably, she didn’t even notice the banner until someone pointed it out, and she later publicly stated she wasn’t offended by it, but it violated the Constitution.\u00a0 This was largely the premise of the defense:\u00a0 The plaintiff had no standing to sue because she wasn’t “injured” in any form, as required by law; she merely had a political disagreement.<\/p>\n

The words at issue were apparently these:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Grant us each day the desire to do our best,
\nTo grow mentally and morally as well as physically,
\nTo be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers,
\nTo be honest with ourselves as well as with others,
\nHelp us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win,
\nTeach us the value of true friendship,
\nHelp us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Patently offensive words, naturally.\u00a0 The text was prefaced by the titled “School Prayer,” as well as the first line “Our Heavenly Father,” and the closing “Amen.”<\/p>\n

The prayer was apparently recited by students until 1962, when the US Supreme Court enjoined mandatory prayer in public school.\u00a0 The school’s first graduating class of 1963 presented the mural to the school, and it has been there ever since.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux said<\/p>\n

no amount of debate can make the School Prayer anything other than a prayer, and a Christian one at that.<\/p>\n

The Prayer concludes with the indisputably religious closing: ‘Amen;’ a Hebrew word used by Jews, Christians and Muslims to conclude prayers. In between, the Prayer espouses values of honesty, kindness, friendship and sportsmanship.<\/p>\n

While these goals are commendable, the reliance on God\u2019s intervention as the way to achieve those goals is not consistent with a secular purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lagueux relied on the Lemon test, which analyzes a “governmental practice or legislative act.”\u00a0 It is difficult to see a mural hanging on the wall of a school gym as either.<\/p>\n

The judge also repeatedly, and at length, detailed the hostility from the public the Plaintiff experienced.\u00a0 While notable in certain venues, it is unclear how that is remotely relevant to the government’s relationship to a school mural.\u00a0 To assert that the courts\u00a0are answerable to, or necessarily influenced by, emotional charges and hostility from advocates on either side of the case may pervert the judicial system itself.<\/p>\n

Given the somewhat unusual explanations in the judge’s ruling, it would be interesting to see the US Supreme Court hear this case.\u00a0 Whether it goes that far may be a function of the finances of the school district, however, rather than whether it is right or wrong.<\/p>\n

With reference to the Religion Clause<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now most are probably aware that a Rhode Island federal district court ordered Cranston High School to permanently remove a mural hanging in the gymnasium.\u00a0 The mural contained the “School Prayer,” which has hung there since the 1960s. The plaintiff in the lawsuit against the high school was atheist student Jessica Ahlquist.\u00a0 Notably, she didn’t even notice the banner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,82,2782,19,2783,2785,11,17,10,171,2784,40],"class_list":["post-15428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-christian","tag-constitution","tag-cranston-high-school","tag-government","tag-jessica-ahlquist","tag-lemon-test","tag-prayer","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-ronald-lagueux","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}