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Religious freedom needed
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2001 Some members of the Citrus County School Board have been out of school so long they apparently have forgotten a key premise of the U.S. Constitution: The rights of an individual are just as important as the rights of the majority. Moreover, the board, lacking in its knowledge of recent history, is flaunting federal court rulings that forbid government from endorsing religion. For the past four months the School Board has been immersed in a controversy about how its members should pray before board meetings, and whether a student religious group, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, stepped over the line during a Christmas-time meeting held at Inverness Middle School. The debate began when an insightful and sensitive board member (and Catholic), Carol Snyder, questioned the propriety of board members addressing the invocation to a specific deity. Praying to Jesus, Snyder reasoned, excludes people of other faiths whose tax dollars should carry just as much weight as those in the Christian majority. At the same time, Snyder cited concerns that adult youth ministers may have put undue pressure on youngsters to convert to Christianity during an FCA meeting that lured some there because it was a sanctioned excuse to leave class. She also objected to the timing of the FCA meeting. Clearly, no taxpayer or student should be forced to listen to an authority figure diminish his or her religious belief or culture. But that concept apparently is beyond the ken of the other board members. The result of Snyder's observations has been an unnecessarily drawn-out and ugly debate that, because of the religious bent and political cowardice of her colleagues, has divided the community, exploited the emotions of students and overshadowed more pressing school district business. More than 500 people turned out for a board workshop in late February that amounted to a staged revival presided over by Chairwoman Patience Nave, who has defiantly refused to separate her fundamentalist religious convictions from her duty as an elected official. The rancor has waned somewhat since the board meeting on March 6, but the board still refuses to make the opening prayer inclusive of all faiths, choosing instead to ridicule Snyder and the news media for daring to question its decision. So, nothing has changed, and the next time someone stands up to the religious right, the holy war will begin anew. Like much of rural and suburban Florida, Citrus County is a largely conservative community. Similar debates about religion have taken place in other communities, and in most instances the less-vocal majority of voters has expressed overwhelming disapproval at the polls. For example, witness the downfall of an extremist Christian troika that took over the Lake County School Board in 1992 and was relieved of public service in the next election cycle. One day, broad-minded people who agree that government should not endorse one religion over another may exercise that option in Citrus County. That day cannot come soon enough.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Opinion page |
