Two weeks ago in this column, I wrote about students who had been suspended from their high school for passing out candy canes because a Christian message was attached, and I also told readers about a preacher who was banned from praying before a state legislature because his prayer mentioned Jesus.
Numerous e-mails from readers posed interesting questions: What if the notes attached to the candy canes had a verse from the Koran? What then would have been the school's reaction? What if the preacher had been a Muslim or a Buddhist?
In other words, was the bias against religious speech in general – or against Christianity in particular? This question begs to be answered considering the recent attempts to punish and censor Secretary of Education Rod Paige over his recent remarks in an interview with the Baptist Press.
The interviewer, Todd Starnes, asked Secretary Paige: "Given the choice between private and Christian – or private and public universities – what do you think, who do you think has the best deal?"
Paige's response: "That's a judgment, too, that would vary because each of them have real strong points and some of them have some vulnerabilities. But, you know, all things being equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school where there's a strong appreciation of values, the kind of values that I think are associated with the Christian communities, and so that child can be brought up in an environment that teaches them to have strong faith and to understand that there is a force greater than them personally."
An all-too-familiar firestorm ensued. , everyone from AthiestParents.org to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to Ameena Jandali, a member of the board of the Islamic Networks Group of San Jose, Calif., to members of the U.S. Congress condemned the secretary, called for a retraction or, failing that, a resignation, and delivered an all-around slam against such "religious bigotry."
Never mind that Paige wasn't talking about public schools – he was asked about universities. Never mind that he wasn't suggesting everyone attend Christian schools – he merely expressed an opinion that universities appreciative of Christian values seem to him to do a better job of educating students.
(By the way, on the whole, Christian schools do, in fact, educate their students more effectively than public schools. Their students routinely score better on standardized achievement tests despite lower per-pupil expenditures, lower teacher salaries and far less spent on school construction, "diversity appreciation," and other initiatives that help policymakers look "concerned" about education but, in fact, do little to improve it. But I digress.)
Continued...