0 thoughts on “Teacher punished for showing a GodTube video to his class.”

1. To be honest, I’m somewhat divided on the issue. On one hand, I couldn’t ignore the fact that constitutionally, it would be illegal, due to the “seperation of church & state” & scripture says we are to obey the laws of the land, unless they conflict with God’s laws (which I’m not quite sure where this would stand). However, this “seperation”, in my opinion, is nothing but a piece of official fiction, for the most part. We have schools teaching yoga as part of the ciricculum, teachers have students dress in Islamic garb & being taught about the Koran in the name of “cultural diversity”, yet you are rebuked in a public school for even mentioning the name of our LORD, Jesus Christ.
   I must also say, that while it may not be appropriate for an 8th grade public school health class, I must commend this teacher in sharing with his students, the TRUTH about eternity. People are calling for religious tolerance, but the truth is that the LORD will not be tolerant of other beliefs on the day of judgement. Either you accept His offer of atonement for your sins & will be allowed access to his prescence in eternity, either in the indermediate heaven, when you die, are raptured, or are martyred during the tribulation, or the millenial reign of Christ if you come to faith & survive to the end of the tribulation & finally on the recreated earth. If you reject Him, be you Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, Jew, Hindu, etc. you will spend eternity in a place of torment.

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2. Very well said, Caleb. Thank you for your comment.

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3. While this forum is not the stage for ‘political’ debate, I couldn’t help to comment on the first response from ‘Caleb’. Caleb, I do not know you nor am I stating that you are incorrect in your response, however, I think your comment is incomplete and may be misleading to a certain extent. I certainly don’t question your heart and intenet here so please forgive any misconceptions. I want to respond to a piece of your comment:

   “On one hand, I couldn’t ignore the fact that constitutionally, it would be illegal, due to the “seperation of church & state””,

   this comment is un-true, let’s look at the original writing of the 1st amendment;

   “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

   1st off – the amendment says that “CONGRESS”, shall make no “LAW”, respecting an establishment. It doesn’t say that citizens can’t express there religion! Nor does it give the school district the “inherent” right to abridge the free speech thereof. This is what most people falsely believe it does. Actually, if you read into this amendment, the way that most people do, it actually puts the school district in violation of the amendment, for there actions, not the teacher. Again, Congress is not involved here and no law is being propagated. Context is everything!!!

   2nd off – what most people do…like some in reading scripture, is leave off the complete passage or in this case the rest of the amendment. “OR PROHIBITING the free exercise thereof”. What is happening in actuality is that the disgruntled folks who don’t like Christ are having the government police and force there “un-belief”, which is a belief non the less, on us Christians. After all, it is impossible to believe in “nothing”! Right? This goes in direct violation of what the amendment was written to protect. Me, you and the plumber, in this case, the teacher, from sharing Christ and talking about the Lord.

   This situation above, is in partiality, the reason that the colonists came to America and the intent of the founding fathers in writing the Constitution of our nation to protect. Although my heart and my mind belong to Christ, I am still a citizen (physically) of the USA and this is a hill that is worth standing on and defending. My right to exercise my faith and resist the proud, unsaved, vipers of our day. That is what the Constitution protects and no school, government, etc can stop that as long as that document is where it is and that flag still flys. The flag that represents freedom and liberty to all those who call her ours.

   All the things which we enjoy and espouse are of course by God’s gracious gift and mercies. And, I pray that he will protect and preserve us longer in order that we might see more people saved and that He may be glorified in that cause.

   All I have is Christ, nothing else.
   Bob

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4. Okay… a little history lesson is in order. Originally, the original 10 Amendments to the Constitution applied in a very limited scope. When these were written, they were limitations placed only on the Federal Government only. The First Ammendment did not universally apply to the governments of the States and only limited Congress from establishing or forbidding religion, etc, etc.

   Consequently, states were free to limit and exercise religion and free speech as they saw fit. Up into the 1820s there were many “state churches” in the United States that held an official religion for that state. As an example, Massachusetts did not disestablish its official church until 1833, more than forty years after the ratification of the First Amendment. It should be noted that the state of Massachusetts continued to have official establishments of religion in local areas for many years after that. The Supreme Court upheld this understanding in “Barron v. Baltimore” (1833) which stated that freedoms granted by the Bill of Rights were only restrictions upon the federal government alone (specifically the 5th Ammendment in this case) and that the rights did not restrict state governments.

   This changed after the “Gitlow v. New York” decision (1925) which bound states to the limitations of the Federal Government in the Bill of Rights using the 14th Amendment (which had been ratified in 1868.) These developments effectively overturned “Barron v. Baltimore” and reserved the rights of the Amendments to the state goverments as well. So, the free exercise of religion at the individual level was not a product of the U.S. Constitution, but rather of the 14th Ammendment which became law many decades later.

   How does this apply? Well, if the school is an extension of the US government (state or federal) then its representatives (teachers and staff) cannot establish or promote the exercise of a state religion. Alternatively, if the school is not an extension of the US government, then the school itself has a right to determine what is taught, who may teach, and what they can say. The Bill of Rights extends to the government and not to individual citizens. Just as a Christian school has the right to prevent atheists from teaching, a secular school has the right to prevent Christian teachers from teaching.

   This does not prevent the teacher from exercising his/her religion. It prevents him/her from using their granted authority as a platform to address an otherwise captive audience. Since students under a certain age are required by law to attend public school, a school that teaches or promotes a particular religion is teaching that religion with the weight and authority of civil law.

   This is why government schools are always a bad idea.

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