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Teacher fights to post Declaration of Independence quote

Principal claims 'endowed by their Creator' is too Judeo-Christian for school

Posted: September 09, 2008
11:05 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A math teacher sued his school district after the principal told him the words "In God We Trust" and "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator" must be removed from his homeroom wall because they convey a Judeo-Christian viewpoint.

In January, Principal Dawn Kastner told Westview High School math teacher Bradley Johnson that a banner he had posted in his classroom for 25 years, and another that was posted for 17 years, needed to come down.

The older banner, measuring 7 feet by 2 feet, contained the words "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God," "God Bless America" and "God Shed His Grace On Thee." The second banner quoted the Declaration of Independence by including the phrase, "All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator."

Even though 4,000 students have passed through Johnson's classroom without a single complaint in 25 years, the principal told Johnson the banners were now impermissible because of their religious content.

The Thomas More Law Center, a not-for-profit law firm dedicated to the defense of religious freedoms, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Johnson against the Poway Unified School District of San Diego, Calif., which includes Westview High School, claiming the order to remove the banners violated Johnson's First Amendment freedom of speech, particularly since the district permits other teachers to hang Buddhist, Islamic, and Tibetan prayer messages on their classroom walls.

Richard Thompson, president of the Law Center, commented, "Many public schools exhibit a knee-jerk hostility towards Christianity and seek to cleanse our nation's classrooms of our religious heritage while promoting atheism or other religions under the guise of cultural diversity."

The school district, in turn, filed to have the lawsuit dismissed. But last week, Federal District Judge Robert T. Benitez denied the request, stating, "Johnson has made out a clear claim for relief for an ongoing violation of his First Amendment free speech rights," and calling the principal's order "an unequivocal case of government hostility" toward the Judeo-Christian viewpoint.

"Judge Benitez's strongly worded opinion sends a clear message to school districts across the country that hostility toward our Nation's religious heritage is contrary to our Constitution," said Rober Muise, the Thomas More Law Center lawyer handling the case.

According to court documents, the school district argued for dismissal, saying that Johnson's banners do not enjoy First Amendment protections "because Johnson is speaking as an educator, not a citizen" and "because Johnson was a teacher, he had no First Amendment protections in his classroom."

Judge Benitez sharply disagreed, claiming the district's argument amounted to saying that Johnson has no free speech rights at all because he is a government employee.

Benitez quoted the 1969 Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, which stated, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. This has been the unmistakable holding of this Court for almost 50 years."

The judge then added, "In the 40 years since, the Supreme Court has neither diminished the force of Tinker for teachers nor in any other way cabined the First Amendment speech of public school teachers."

Benitez then presented a strong rebuttal to the charge that the Declaration of Independence and phrases like "In God We Trust" represent unconstitutional religious establishment.

"The Court does not understand Johnson's banners as communicating a religious Judeo-Christian viewpoint," Benitez wrote in his decision. "Rather, the banners communicated fundamental political messages and celebrate important American shared historical experiences."

Benitez further wrote, "That God places prominently in our nation's history does not create an Establishment Clause problem requiring curettage and disinfectant of Johnson's classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God."

Benitez then quoted a 1952 Supreme Court ruling, Zorach v. Clauson: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being."

The judge concluded his decision with the remarks, "By squelching only Johnson's patriotic expression, the school district does a disservice to the students of Westview High School, and the federal and state constitutions do not permit such one-sided censorship."

CLICK HERE for the North County Times article

While we're not looking ...

Hal Lindsey
Posted: September 05, 2008
1:00 am Eastern
© 2008

One of the earliest and most effective strategies to emerge from the study of warfare was the application of diversionary tactics to misdirect or distract an enemy in order to achieve a tactical advantage.

That all sounds somewhat stuffy.

How about the magician who declares, "Nothing up my sleeve!" to distract his audience away from the real trick? America's attention is focused on the presidential primaries, conventions, debates and the upcoming election. But while we're not looking, our enemies are not resting.

They're taking full advantage of the diversion.

While our attention was distracted, the Russians embarked on what appears to be an effort to rebuild its old empire, by force if necessary, beginning with the Republic of Georgia. The Russians have decided to ignore the terms of the cease-fire signed with Georgia's government and have begun to occupy the country, in defiance of world opinion.

One of Moscow's major complaints against the Georgian government is its close relationship with Israel – particularly its military relationship – and Israel's defiance of Russia's declared arms embargo against Tblisi.

While we weren't paying that much attention, Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Kiev to assure the Ukrainians that the U.S. would support them, should Moscow turn its attention to them. He made similar assurances to the Azerbaijanis while he was in the neighborhood.

While we were mesmerized by Barack Obama at his convention, the Russians threatened Poland with a nuclear strike against the U.S. missile shield Poland agreed to allow deployed along its borders – in defiance of the Kremlin.

The Iranians haven't gone on vacation while America's attention is distracted by the speeches and convention-goers and demonstrators and spin doctors, either.

Instead, the Iranians have been planting mines in the Persian Gulf in preparation for war. According to intelligence reports from the region, the U.S. is preparing to deploy at least one additional strike carrier group to the region some time around mid September.

While we listening to the candidates argue over whether or not we should remain in Iraq, the Iranian Republican Guard has stepped up its weapons and supply transfers to Iraq's Mahdi Army.

A report authored by Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Iran has been supplying rockets, mortars, explosively formed projectiles and other weapons to Shiite militias. CSIS said the Mahdi Army, believed to have up to 40,000 fighters, contains Iranian advisers in an effort to model the militia after Iran's other puppet army, Hezbollah.

The Mahdi Army was said to be equipped with AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, bombs, mortars and Katyusha rockets. The report said Mahdi has increased the size of its bombs to overcome the military's Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle.

And while we're looking forward to November's election, Israel is wondering if it will survive long enough to find out who wins.

Israel's former "peace partner" Fatah has all but crumbled as Jordan, Egypt and other regional governments have started to open up new diplomatic channels with Hamas.

Twenty-five centuries ago, the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel predicted the rise of a vast, Russian-led Islamic alliance cryptically called "Gog and Magog."

Ezekiel's Gog corresponds with modern-day Russia. Ezekiel's Magog corresponds to modern Georgia and parts of Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Leading the Islamic alliance under Gog-Magog's direction, according to this 25 centuries old prophecy, will be "Persia" – the name by which Iran was known from Ezekiel's day until 1925.

According to the prophet Ezekiel, the alliance will include stateless actors ("and many people with thee") that will participate in an invasion effort against Israel. Iran is currently arming the Mahdi Army, Hamas and Hezbollah in preparation for a promised Islamic conflict against Israel, using nuclear weapons created via Russian-supplied reactors.

(If you want to find out how it turns out, read Ezekiel Chapter 38. Ezekiel hasn't missed anything so far – there's no reason to think he'll suddenly start getting it wrong now.)

If there was ever a time when America should be paying attention, it's now. But, that is why diversionary tactics work so well in the first place.

Evangelicals rally behind Palin after pregnancy news

Before you read this article, I want to add that what sticks out in my mind the most is the fact that Obama sees an unexpected pregnancy out of wedlock as a punishment. That statement in itself speaks volumes to the true core of his soul...

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Key evangelical leaders rallied to Sarah Palin's support Monday amid news that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was having a child.

"Before, they were excited about her, with the Down syndrome baby," conservative, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said. "But now with this, they are over the moon. It reinforces the fact that this family lives its pro-life values."

Palin and John McCain oppose abortion and have supported promoting abstinence in schools, which would seem to make Bristol Palin's pregnancy an inconveniently timed development.

But she is keeping the child, a fact that could make the Alaska governor -- whose candidacy has been enthusiastically embraced by evangelicals who regard her as one of their own -- even more popular among that key GOP voting bloc.

"Fortunately, Bristol is following her mother and father's example of choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation," Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said. "We are committed to praying for Bristol and her husband-to-be and the entire Palin family as they walk through a very private matter in the eyes of the public."

Evangelical leader Richard Land also backed Palin completely.

"This is the pro-life choice. The fact that people will criticize her for this shows the astounding extent to which the secular critics of the pro-life movement just don't get it," Land said in a statement.

"Those who criticize the Palin family don't understand that we don't see babies as a punishment but as a blessing. Barack Obama said that if one of his daughters made a mistake and got pregnant out of wedlock, he wouldn't want her to be punished with a child. Pro-lifers don't see a child as punishment."

The immediate support of these major figures, who offered universal praise for the Palins' actions after learning their daughter was pregnant, provides the filter through which conservative Christian voters will process the development. iReport.com: What are your thoughts on Palin?

Most important for Palin, an elder statesman of the movement, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, released a statement lauding the Palins for acting in keeping with the group's policies and practices:

"We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I'm sure the Palins have," Dobson said.

Some evangelicals gathered in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, for the Republican convention speculated that the news would pose more of a problem for Democrats than for the GOP ticket.

Speculation by some on blogs that Palin's son Trig was actually Bristol's child had led to outrage among conservatives.

Any comment by Democrats that is viewed as remotely critical could make both Sarah and Bristol Palin appear to be sympathetic victims of a political vendetta.

By Monday afternoon, evangelical leaders were circling the wagons.

"The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a 'hypocrite,' but all it really means is that she and her family are human," Dobson said. "They are in my prayers and those of millions of Americans."