Bill aims to put God-related mottoes in schools

[RPankn]

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Julie Carr Smyth

Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus

Ohio schoolchildren could take tests, eat lunch and watch assemblies under "God," if a bill up for a House committee vote next week becomes law.

The legislation calls for the state and national mottoes respectively, "With God All Things Are Possible" and "In God We Trust" to hang in every classroom, cafeteria and auditorium of every public and charter school in the state.

State Rep. Keith Faber of Celina, the bill's Republican sponsor, said the mandate would not apply unless the signs were donated.

Faber said that the intent was to inspire "a historical context discussion with regard to the founding fathers and these mottoes" and that placing them liberally around schools would assure "they aren't stuck in some obscure corner."

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2001 that Ohio's motto is constitutional because it is too vague to be seen as endorsing one religion over another.

The U.S. motto has also been upheld as constitutional.

But American Civil Liberties Union-Ohio staff lawyer Carrie Davis, whose organization fought Ohio's motto, said the bill remains alarming.

"The courts have ruled that the mottoes themselves don't violate the Constitution, but posting anything religious in a state building does," she said.

Faber argued: "Nothing in the bill says my God is right and your God is wrong."

The bill's fate may hinge on the U.S. Supreme Court's much-awaited decision on the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, expected by fall.

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© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.


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[karpomrx]

It dazzles me that The Almighty needs so much protection from the forces of darkness down here.
It must comfort Him to know that the ever vigilant forces of righteousness are on the job, ever watchful lest some form of denial of His sovereignty slip by.

[Moses]

This is another one of those suspicious paradoxes that fits w/ the neo-con agenda. These are supposedly the anti-communist, anti-State Power people, and yet they propose laws that have the State indoctrinating children w/o consent of parents in matters that should, in a free country, in the United States, be fiercely guarded as a parental, and not a State, perogative.

[POA]

karpomrx said:

It dazzles me that The Almighty needs so much protection from the forces of darkness down here.
It must comfort Him to know that the ever vigilant forces of righteousness are on the job, ever watchful lest some form of denial of His sovereignty slip by.

Yes, well, it's not every omnipotent omnipresent being that's harmed by the thoughts of children making up their own minds.

[Moses]

I was reading w/ horror today that this Scaiffe/Bradley/Olin/Ahmanson foundations-funded org that is attempting to seize control of all the major protestant churches has condemned my particular Protestant sect (due to its pacifism) for "withholding baptism from children".

Their aim is to destroy religion, but to control its assets and institutions as a political force domestically and abroad, through the foreign missions.

These are, of course, the former John Birchers, etc. (and the Roman Catholics-- the Board is comprised almost completely of Roman Catholics and "FAther Neuhaus" a German-Canadian has stated that it is time for the Roman Catholic Church to impose "order" on America. (by making the Protestant Churches adopt the Roman Catholic agenda).