Education Censored

The CENSORING of RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES in PUBLIC SCHOOLS

In Supreme Court decisions rendered in 1962 and 1963, the inclusion of religious activities, such as school prayer and Bible reading, in major activities of daily student life in public schools was struck down.  It was the first time in the history of the United States that any branch of the federal government took such a stand, censoring religious activities long considered and integral part of education.

This sudden restructuring of educational policies was precipitated by the Court’s controversial reinterpretation of the phrase “separation of church and state: as it relates to the First Amendment, which simply states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof.”  The Court decided that the First Amendment includes a prohibition against including religious activities in public affairs, inviting skyrocketing numbers of lawsuits that challenge any presence of religion in public life.  The Court has already delivered far-reaching decisions to:

• Remove student prayer: “Prayer in its public school system breaches the constitution’s wall of separation between Church and State.” Engle v Vitale, 1962
• Remove school Bible readings: “No state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord’s Prayer be recited in the public schools of a state at the beginning of each school day.” Abington v. Schempp, 1963
• Remove the Ten Commandments from view: “If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey the Commandments…this…is not a permissible state objective under the establishment clause.” Stone v. Graham, 1980
• Remove benedictions and invocations from school activities: “Religious invocation…in high school commencement exercises conveyed the message that district had given its endorsement to prayer and religion, so that school district was properly [prohibited] from including invocation in commencement exercise.” Graham v. Central, 1985; Kay v. Douglas,  1986; Jager v. Douglas, 1989; Lee v. Weisman, 1992

The Amercan Patriot’s Bible – Dr. Richard G. Lee, General Editor;  Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2009, pg. 731.

Thomas Jefferson warned of the Supreme Court’s abuse of power:

“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has perceived that the invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Monsieur A. Coray, Oct 31, 1823

Here is a discussion on the current issues present in our school systems as a result:

When we as a nation and its leaders know, pursue and pray for the righteousness that God desires, as modeled by the Founding Fathers of America (i.e. our Godly heritage), then God will respond to our obedience and faith in Him with blessing and exultation for our nation, as He promised.  Psalm 33:12 states: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” and Proverbs 14:34 says: “Righteousness exalts a nation…”

I have a passion to educate American citizens and inspire them to re-establish our country’s foundations with the Biblical principles that God had originally designed for us.  I have prepared an educational presentation intended to ignite a spark in the hearts of fellow believers to remain silent no longer.  I proclaim the truths of America’s Godly heritage and provide action ideas for all ages.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” – Romans 8:31

Blessings, Tom Hughes

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