Alexandria Echo Press.  Jan 1st, 2023.  Religious Freedom of Students & The History of Religion in the Schools.

 

In terms of religion, all students generally have the equal right to pray, distribute religious literature and form religious clubs. The key is that it must be voluntary, non-disruptive, and cannot involve harassment or discrimination.

The history of religion in public schools is fascinating because it's a history of how the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants (WASPs) dealt with the white ethnoreligious minorities, such as Catholic and Jewish immigrants.

When religion was taught in public schools, it was almost always the majoritarian Protestant religion, to the exclusion of all other religions. Laws generally didn't exist or weren't followed, to protect ethnoreligious minority students from harassment and discrimination. This prompted the rise of more private schools affiliated with a particular minority religion.

The WASP response to these private schools was to propose banning public funding of such schools and restricting Catholic and Jewish immigration. Much of the prejudice directed at white, ethnoreligious minorities did not really decline until after World War II. The war mobilized WASPs as well as white ethnoreligious minorities behind a common enemy — fascism.

The rise of fascism pushed Congress and the courts to protect human rights of white ethnoreligious minorities.

Today, the conflict is less one of "native born" Protestants versus "foreign born" ethnoreligious minorities and more of an ideological conflict between culturally conservative people of faith and people of faith with more liberal cultural values.

While we've seen spikes in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim prejudice, even bias-motivated crimes, the diverse, multicultural heritage of America is the freest and fairest that it has ever been and, arguably, better than any other nation.

That's something Americans of all faiths and no faith can be proud of.

LET US PROTECT BOTH RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND LGBTQ RIGHTS.  ECHO PRESS.  2022.  MARCH 02.

A small-time web page designer refused to make a page for a gay couple planning their wedding, in violation of Colorado's nondiscrimination law. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will decide if the designer should be granted a faith-based exemption. While I fully support the right of all Americans to determine for themselves the sex that they want to date, marry and live as religious freedom is a fundamental right and the high court should protect it.

I harbor no prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) people. I'm a person of sincere faith, Jewish, who believes that everyone is created in the image of God, irrespective of their sexual orientation. I have family and friends who are a part of the LGBT community. I co-founded the Prairie Equality Initiative to fight the isolation that LGBT people often face in rural west-central Minnesota. Yet, I also support the entire Bill of Rights, including religious liberty.

We have a long history in this nation of making faith-based accommodations and exemptions to rules and, while we are not anarchists, it would be easy to exempt self-employed and small-time businesses from having to contract with any gay or straight couple planning their special day. These accommodations would not harm public health or safety and would apply equally to all couples.

More pressing challenges face the LGBT community than not getting your first choice for a wedding web page designer. Federally, civil rights laws do not expressly cover LGBT Americans. Locally, LGBT youth often lack a basic support network for coming out and there are still nations that actively work to persecute LGBT people.

Going to court against a small-minded web page designer shouldn't be the priority for the LGBT community. Let us work together to protect both religious liberty and LGBT rights.