I wonder if their testbooks (at this school) for other courses, they have the "30" pages about the religion of peace while ignoring American history and our founding documents as they do in many schools these days.  It seems these liberal wack jobs (including the judge (please go read his findings and you will wonder) are not going to be totally happy until we are truly creating useful idiots who are incapable of anything that requires independent thought or reasoning.  During the last 2 weeks, I have heard we won't be teaching cursive handwritiing since computers are so prominent these days, and someone I know who is a teacher in another state sees no reason to force students to learn math when everyone uses a calculator today anyway.  The problem with both of these suggestions (and the one from earlier that was to wipe out our early.... and most important history) is that we are creating people with no real education past using a machine.  To allow students to do math on a calculator does not require teaching them math; it requires giving them a course on how to use a calculator.  I had an experience with 3 such young people, and it wasn't pretty.  Not teaching young people their history which is the history of this country right from the very beginning and some of the exceptional people that put their lives on the line to ensure our freedom, is they have no allegiance or pride or any idea what makes our country exceptional (I guess that is what the one worlders want?).  I hope this case goes to the high court.

September 16, 2011

After an initial court victory, a high school math teacher lost his battle to keep his “God” banners displayed in his classroom. A federal appeals court ruled on September 13, 2011 that Bradley Johnson’s First Amendment rights were not violated when he was asked by the school district to take down a series of religious banners.

Mr. Johnson had banners hanging in his classroom at Westview High School in San Diego, Calif., for more than 30 years with phrases like “In God We Trust,” “All Men Are Created Equal,” and “They Are Endowed by Their Creator.” Another sign contained the words “In God We Trust,” “One Nation Under God,” “God Bless America,” and “God Shed His Grace On Thee.” Each of these postings is part of America’s religious history, in particular, America’s Christian history.

“In God We Trust” is our nation’s official motto and appears prominently in the House of Representatives and on our currency. That Americans are “endowed by their Creator” is found in the Declaration of Independence. “One Nation under God” is from the Pledge of Allegiance. The phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954 by a joint resolution of Congress. “God Bless America” is a patriotic song originally written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938 because of the rise of Adolf Hitler. Here are the words from the stanza that include the words “God Bless America”:

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

“God Shed His Grace on Thee” is a line from the patriotic song “America the Beautiful.”

In all these examples, America’s religious heritage is evident. The principal of Westview High School did not see it this way. First, he argued that “because they were taken out of context and very large, they became a promotion of a particular viewpoint . . . that might make students who didn’t share that viewpoint uncomfortable.” So when a student pays for his lunch with money that has “In God We Trust” stamped on it, is the phrase “out of context”? Is size now the determining factor when religion is being referenced? If it’s small and out of the way it’s OK? What is its proper context and the proper font size? Who gets to make these decisions?

Are the students ignorant of the Declaration of Independence and its numerous phrases about God? What about the Constitution itself which includes the phrase “Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventieth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven. . .”?

The principal considered their posting in a government school to be a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . .” There is no indication that Congress was involved.

In the original ruling, United States District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez objected to the principal’s position using historical, legal, and logical arguments, methods of inquiry that should be taught in all schools:

May a school district censor a high school teacher’s expression because it refers to Judeo-Christian views, while allowing other teachers to express views on a number of controversial subjects, including religion and anti-religion? On undisputed evidence, this court holds that it may not. . . . It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God. “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”[1] As the Supreme Court has acknowledged, “[t]here is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789.”[2]