Howie Luvzus

Stories like the one below are really problematic for me. Christian parents sued a school district because a teacher encouraged students to pretend to be Muslims for three weeks. I’ve written on this issue several times, but this case provides a real example of why my Baptist brothers and sisters need to make a stand for the separation of church and state. Debates about whether or not we are a “Christian nation” are really irrelevant to this discussion. The fact is that in theory, we live in a democracy. I’m not getting real technical here for a reason. Anyway, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. In fact, nearly 80 percent of the more than 1,200 mosques in the U.S. have been built in the past 12 years. What happens if there become certain areas in this country where the dominant religion is Islam? Can Muslims in that area impose their religion on the “minority” religions?

I think the answer to this problem is to listen to the teaching of Jesus (go figure). Remember Matthew 7:12? “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Seems so easy for me. I know that some Christians would be outraged at the story below. Their children should not be forced to act out another religion! Why is it OK for Christians to do that to others?

SAN FRANCISCO - Christian students and parents cannot sue a school district where some seventh-graders pretended to be Muslims for three weeks during a course in world history, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the role-playing game was not a religious exercise that violated anybody’s constitutional rights.

The decision was issued one day after the U.S. House of Representatives chastised the 9th Circuit for ruling earlier this month that parents can’t sue public schools for providing information about sex. That decision “deplorably infringed on parental rights,” said the House resolution.
Thursday’s decision came down in an unpublished memorandum, indicating the judges considered it routine.

They reviewed the method used by one teacher in Byron, Contra Costa County, four years ago to teach the unit on Muslim history, culture and religion that is part of the state’s seventh-grade history curriculum.

Brooke Carlin encouraged her students to play at being Muslims - adopt Muslim names, recite a line from a prayer and give up candy or television to simulate fasting, for example. Students were permitted to opt out. On the final exam they were asked to critique elements of Muslim culture.

Jonas and Tiffany Eklund sued, along with their children. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed the suit two years ago, saying Carlin was merely teaching and not indoctrinating. Hamilton found that the students did not engage in actual religious exercises.

The 9th Circuit upheld her decision in a five-sentence ruling, saying only that the activities weren’t “overt religious exercises” that would raise concerns under the First Amendment prohibition of “establishment of religion.”

Senior Circuit Judge Dorothy Nelson of Pasadena and Circuit Judges Johnnie Rawlinson of Las Vegas and Carlos Bea of San Francisco signed the decision.

The unpublished memo format indicates the appellate judges did not believe they were breaking legal ground. Unpublished decisions cannot be cited in future cases.

But Edward White, who represents the Eklunds on behalf of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., called the ruling “an opinion without any precedent.”

He said the judges overlooked arguments he made about parental rights and freedom to exercise the religion one chooses.

Thanks to Stop the ACLU for this story!

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