My hometown has ejected God from the football field.
Orange County, which includes Orlando, made a decision this
season to not allow Christian chaplains to minister to student athletes.
Chaplains, which are a staple on almost every sideline, typically lead players
in voluntary pre- and post-game prayers, and are there for players in time of
crisis.
The public school system went a step further, banning Bible
verses and references to the Bible from campuses.
The decisions came after a threat was made by the Freedom
From Religion organization. The very name of this organization is
unconstitutional. The Bill of Rights guarantees us freedom of religion, not freedom from it. If people do not want religion,
they have freedom from it, but the State cannot infringe upon the rights of
those who do want religion.
Liberals are quick to cry, “Separation of church and State!”
But they fail to see that the line of separation goes both ways. The Founders’
fear was not that the Church would dominate the State, but that the State would
dominate the Church. That is what is happening in Orange County. The school
board cannot make Bible reading mandatory, but it is just as wrong to declare
it offensive.
Groups like Freedom From Religion need to stop seeking to
strip away the religious liberty promised by our founding documents, and
elected leaders need to stop acting like cowards whenever these groups makes
threats. My advice to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, and all other officials in the
area, is to reverse course immediately. This decision is unpopular in Central
Florida, and the voters will make you pay for it.
In the early days of this country our Congress used tax
dollars to print Bibles for the sole purpose of using them as textbooks. The
government’s own printing press produced Bibles for children to read in school.
Teachers led their students in prayer every morning.
One can’t help but wonder, since the Bible and prayer have
been removed from schools, have we become better or worse? The “Greatest
Generation” was raised on prayer and Bible reading; the pot-smoking, free love
hippies were the first generation raised apart from those things.
Since God was expelled from school literacy rates have
plummeted and classroom behavior is horrendous. Schools distribute condoms and
drive girls to abortion clinics without parental consent, but they cannot even
reference the Bible.
Maybe if we let students read the Bible they would grasp
that abstinence works; they don’t need contraception or clinics if they aren’t having
sex. Why is the school system afraid to let kids read the commands to not lie,
cheat, or steal?
School systems pay out great sums of money for anti-bullying
seminars, all the while the Bible gives free anti-bullying advice: “Love your
neighbor as yourself.”
Expelling God from school was a disaster; what will happen
now that He has been ejected from the field?
Comments