In a January 17 editorial (“Religious liberty inside the schoolhouse”) promoting the observance of Religious Freedom Day on January 16, The Gazette of Colorado Springs noted that, according to the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), “the U.S. Constitution guarantees students religious freedom and freedom of speech because these are God-given rights, not privileges permitted or bestowed by the state.” In fact, the United States Constitution never mentions God or any other supernatural entity aside from a mention in describing the date on which it was completed.
God is not mentioned in any of the substantive sections of the Constitution, only at the end, when the Constitution notes that it was "[d]one in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth."
The Washington, D.C.-based ACLJ that The Gazette cites describes itself as specializing in constitutional law and states it is “specifically dedicated to the ideal that religious freedom and freedom of speech are inalienable, God-given rights.” The organization, which was founded by 700 Club creator Pat Robertson, also has been active regarding such other issues as passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, protecting displays of the Ten Commandments by public entities, and protecting the right of free speech by those "opposing the radical homosexual agenda."
From the editorial “Religious liberty inside the schoolhouse,” in the January 17 edition of The Gazette of Colorado Springs:
Many people celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday Monday, recognizing the religious leader who led a faith-based campaign against racial discrimination. Yet few noticed that Tuesday was Religious Freedom Day, created to celebrate the constitutional right, which 300 million of us still enjoy.
In his proclamation to note the observance, President Bush called on all Americans to “commemorate this day with appropriate events and activities in their schools, place of worship, neighborhoods and homes.”
In their schools? Yes.
As the Supreme Court noted in 1969, public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Despite what you might have heard about “separation of church and state,” the expression of religious beliefs remains a constitutionally protected right, even in public schools. Many school officials need an education on this point.
Just last month, for example, school officials told an Illinois high-school senior that the statement she wanted in the yearbook was too religious to be published. Also recently, a highschool senior in Washington state wanted to write a religious children's book for a project, but was denied because the school's policy requires projects be secular, not religious. And we recall the controversies last year when school officials tried to stifle religious-tinged graduation speeches.
In the Illinois and Washington cases, school officials reversed their position after attorneys from the American Center for Law and Justice sent letters to the schools, explaining that the U.S. Constitution guarantees students religious freedom and freedom of speech because these are God-given rights, not privileges permitted or bestowed by the state.
