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Student wins case against high school prayer banner.

William Hamby's photo
Atlanta Progressive Examiner

Jessica Ahlquist, a student at at Rhode Island’s Cranston High School West, has won her lawsuit against the school's display of a sectarian prayer. (LINK)  Her victory is another in a growing tide of cases being brought by young secularists.  

The prayer is displayed on a banner hanging inside the school.  It reads:

Our Heavenly Father.
 
Grant us each day the desire to do our best.
To grow mentally and morally as well as physically.
To be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers.
To be honest with ourselves as well as with others.
Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win.
Teach us the value of true friendship.
Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.
 
Amen.
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In the 40 page verdict, the court noted:
While all agree that some traditions should be honored, others must be put to rest as our national values and notions of tolerance and diversity evolve. At any rate, no amount of history and tradition can cure a constitutional infraction. 
 
This is a powerful ruling on many levels.  It emphatically and explicitly places constitutionality above tradition.  It continues a legal trend of enforcing a separation of church and state.  It reinforces the idea that minors are deserving of the same secular treatment as adults.  Finally, it implicitly recognizes the canard of invoking non-sectarian prayers as an end-around to merge religion with public institutions.  
 
Some Christians have argued that if a prayer doesn't explicity mention Jesus, or if it references only a vague god-figure that it is acceptable in a public setting.  This prayer is a great example of the failure of this line of defense.  Close examination reveals it to be anything but non-sectarian.
  • Our Heavenly Father - this phrase excludes all female deities, all deities not viewed as fathers, and pretty much every polytheistic or non-theistic religion.  So off the bat, we've narrowed our focus to monotheistic religions with a father god.  By my count, that's Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
  • Amen - This little word excludes every religion not of Hebrew origin.  It further isolates this prayer as belonging to one of the "Big Three" mono religions.  
  • Finally, the various requests implicitly denote a religion in which a god figure answers prayers, and values the kinds of things asked for.  In other words, one of the Big Three.  And since we all know that it isn't Islam, that leaves Judaism and Christianity.  And since Christianity claims Judaic tradition as the foundation of its current beliefs... well... how can we view this as anything but sectarian?

Of course, all of this is icing on the legal case, since any prayer whatsoever is exclusionary to students who do not believe in prayer.  Congratulations to Jessica.  To any students who are feeling singled out or excluded because of a religious intrusion into your school, take Jessica's victory as encouragement to speak up.  The tide is turning.  Secularists are winning.  Don't be afraid to go against the grain to do what's right.  There is a large secular community that will get your back.

Speaking of which, there's a paypal fund started by the Friendly Atheist to help Jessica attend a college worthy of her considerable abilities.  If you'd like to donate, you can DO SO HERE.

Jessica Ahlquist's victory is encouraging for young people across the country.
Jessica Ahlquist's victory is encouraging for young people across the country.
Photo credit: 
features.rr.com

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, Atlanta Progressive Examiner

William Hamby is a longtime blogger and advocate for secular and progressive values. He maintains a blog at http://livinglifewithoutanet.wordpress.com/ which covers topics from religion to politics to human nature.

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