Certainly our heartfelt concern has
been heightened by the reports of devastation by multiple tornadoes in
Oklahoma. These horrific “acts of God”
have caused us to only hear the bad news
of death and destruction in Oklahoma.
And perhaps for this reason, we may have missed a piece of good news coming from a small Oklahoma
town who decided to draw a line in the sand and fight back against a national
association of atheist and agnostics who want displays of the Ten Commandments
removed from local schools.
The controversy surrounds Ten
Commandment plaques that are posted in a number of classrooms at Muldrow
High School. It’s unclear when the plaques
were installed. Ron Flanagan, the superintendent of the local school district,
told Fox News they had received a
complaint about the Ten Commandments from the Freedom From Religion Foundation – an organization that has a long
history of targeting displays of the Christian faith in public schools. The complaint was allegedly filed by an ‘anonymous’
member of the community. “If the facts are as presented to us, and the Ten
Commandments are on display throughout Muldrow Public Schools, the displays must
be removed immediately,” wrote FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott, in a letter to
the school district.
The FFRF said the displays are a
“flagrant violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Any student will view a Ten Commandments
display in school as being endorsed by the school,” Elliott wrote. “Muldrow Public Schools promotion of the
Judeo-Christian Bible and religion over non-religion impermissibly turns any
non-Christian or nonbelieving student, parent or staff member into an
outsider.”
Flanagan would not say whether or not
the school district would comply with their demands. He referred all questions
to the district’s attorney. Meanwhile, hundreds
of students have decided to stand up and defend the plaques by launching
petitions and raising awareness on social networking sites. And lots of folks around town are wondering
why a Wisconsin-based organization is concerned about the affairs of Muldrow, OK.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” student Chase
Howard told television station KHOG. “One person kind of put it out there on
Twitter. A couple of us hash tagged it and
asked people to get it trending. After
that it just caught on.” Benjamin Hill,
18, is one of the students who signed the petition. He said he understands why non-Christians
might be upset over the display, but he said students should have the right to
express their faith. Parent Denise Armer
told KHOG she supports the students’
efforts to save the Ten Commandment plaques. “If other kids don’t want to read the Ten Commandments,
then they don’t have to,” she said. “But
that doesn’t mean that they have to make everyone else do what they want.”
Pastor Josh Moore of the First Baptist
Church of Muldrow, OK said it’s not surprising that the Christian faith is
coming under such a fierce attack. “It’s
promised in Scripture,” he said. “As
believers and followers, it’s a matter of recognizing that and responding in an
appropriate manner.” The ministerial
association also said they supported school leadership. “It’s tough for them,” Moore told Fox News. “Their hands are tied from a legal
perspective. We’re supporting them and
ministering to them. We don’t want to
alienate them or throw them under the bus.”
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
No comments:
Post a Comment