Letter submitted for posting with Santa Rosa Press Gazette

This Community Continues to Amaze Me

This community never ceases to amaze me. Everyone wants to refer to this area as a Christian Community. Yet what do I see? I see a community not only endorsing but encouraging their children to openly violate the civil rights of other citizens in this area thus violating the law and violating school board policy. So is this what it is to be a Christian? I just don’t see it. You ask yourselves, “What would Jesus do?” So, you think Jesus would advocate violating the law of the land? I guess then it is safe to say that you know a different Jesus than I do.
Are these acts of open public practicing of religious rites, namely praying, at public school sponsored events supposed to glorify God? Sorry, but they don’t. All they do is glorify those who perform these stage acts for their attending audiences. God is not glorified there. The God I know wants personal, private relationships with his followers. That is why he instructed his followers to pray to him in private. A personal and private conversation and relationship with his children is found in this manner. He taught us in the book of Matthew that those who pray as a public performance, such as these prayers being performed by these students at these public school sponsored events, have already received their reward. That reward being the grand rounds of applause and admiration of their public audiences. Sorry, but I don’t believe that you would find Jesus participating in an act designed to show disobedience to and disrespect of the law of the land. Like it or not these acts are hurtful to others. So, are these then the acts of Christians glorifying the Lord? No, I think not. So, that means they are simply acts of rebellion being staged against a lawsuit brought against the school board, schools and their faculty and staff, by certain students through the ACLU, and the ruling on this case by the United States Federal Court. These are acts then, which not only violate certain laws of the land, but also violate the teachings of Jesus. What a wonderful thing to teach and encourage our young people to do!
Is it, in a Christian community, considered fair and right that you force others to endure you practicing of your religious rites in a public forum? Is it fair and right to force some of your fellow graduating classmates to endure your arrogance, in order to participate in their own graduation ceremony, which they earned as much as you? Sorry but this attitude of, “if they don’t want to listen then don’t attend”, isn’t right, nor is it fair. It also doesn’t sound like the attitude that Jesus would adopt in this matter either.
The Jesus I came to know by reading the bible was a considerably different person than that which I see being put forth in the actions of those who now call themselves Christians. The Jesus I came to know didn’t go around endorsing violating the law of the land. I also don’t believe that if he disagreed with some particular law that he would advocate violating it to show your objections to it. I believe he would instead suggest that you go about seeking the change in that law that you desire, by using the procedures provided to do so in a lawful manner. Jesus was not a militant man as best I can tell and it seems to me that before he began his ministry he was a carpenter. He was a constructive man, not a destructive man. He was a peaceful, constructive, law abiding man. He wasn’t concerned with whether or not you could stand on a public stage and deliver a performance by praying before an audience. He didn’t try to force a captive audience into listening to his teachings. He wanted, or wants personal and private relationships with his willing followers. He traveled around the country side, teaching any who wanted to come to him and listen. This is the way he instructed his apostles as well. No captive audiences there like you have in a public school setting. You only had willing people interested in and desiring to hear their teachings. And these teachings were being held in a lawful manner and place.
I do not believe that it was the intent of the student’s who brought their lawsuit, to take away the rights of Christians. It would seem to me that they were only taking those steps necessary to protect their own rights. The Christian Community does not have the right to force others to endure their open, public practicing of their religious rites. Especially not at a state sponsored venue. A public high school graduation, being what it is, should also always be held as a public school sponsored event and therefore be free of having any one particular religious group’s rites being performed openly.
Pace may be a predominately Christian community. But that does not mean, nor does it give said Christian community the right to try to make a public school a Christian venue of worship and praise. If the Christian community desires a school that allows and encourages the practice of religious rites on campus then they should come together and build one. Well, I hope that I have given people something to think about here today. Only time will tell.