Liberal Free Speech Suppression

Of course, no one is surprised that speaking about Christianity or personal Christian beliefs is suppressed. And there's no surprise that the American Criminal Liberties Union supports suppression of Christianity.

She knew her speech as valedictorian of Foothill High School would be cut short, but Brittany McComb was determined to tell her fellow graduates what was on her mind and in her heart.

But before she could get to the word in her speech that meant the most to her — Christ — her microphone went dead.

Before she delivered her commencement speech, McComb met with Foothill administrators, who edited her remarks. It's standard district practice to have graduation speeches vetted before they are read publicly.

School officials removed from McComb's speech some biblical references and the only reference to Christ.

But even though administrators warned McComb that her speech would get cut short if she deviated from the language approved by the school, she said it all boiled down to her fundamental right to free speech.

That's why, for what she said was the first time in her life, the valedictorian who graduated with a 4.7 GPA rebelled against authority.

"I went through four years of school at Foothill and they taught me logic and they taught me freedom of speech," McComb said. "God's the biggest part of my life. Just like other valedictorians thank their parents, I wanted to thank my lord and savior."

In the 750-word unedited version of McComb's speech, she made two references to the lord, nine mentions of God and one mention of Christ.

In the version approved by school officials, six of those words were omitted along with two biblical references. Also deleted from her speech was a reference to God's love being so great that he gave his only son to suffer an excruciated death in order to cover everyone's shortcomings and forge a path to heaven.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU of Nevada, had read the unedited version of McComb's speech and said district officials did the right thing by cutting McComb's speech short because her commentary promoted religion.

"There should be no controversy here," Lichtenstein said. "It's important for people to understand that a student was given a school-sponsored forum by a school and therefore, in essence, it was a school-sponsored speech."

Now imagine if this had been a Muslim student extolling the praises of Mohammad and how the Religion of Peace (TM) had been an inspriation to him/her in being able to become validictorian? If the microphone had been cut off then the ACLU would be suing everybody in sight based on psycho-sexual-racist-bigoted-Republican descrimination.

June 20, 2006 - Posted by coloradoright | American Criminal Liberties Union, War on Christianity

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“Of course, no one is surprised that speaking about Christianity or personal Christian beliefs is suppressed.”

No one? Really? I am surprised. This Christian “persecution in America” complex is simply beyond, well, belief. Number of American presidents that have publically avowed Christianity? 42 out of 44. The 112th Congress, like the U.S. public, is majority Protestant and about a quarter Catholic. Christian churches can be found on every other block across our great land. Christian faith-based cable channels fill the airways. Evangelical preaches witness for Christ on our street corners. Southern Baptists have recently opened a megachurch in San Francisco, possibly the most liberal city in the U.S. Christian themed movies appear in our Cinemas (for instance “Courageous”). A quick search on Google finds 134,000,000 websites associated with the term “Christianity.” Left leaning bookstores dedicate considerable shelf space to bibles and Christianity. Christian missionaries knock at our doors. As for the ACLU, that allegedly anti-Christian organization, it recently came to the defense of Terry Jones, the Christian Pastor who burned the Quran in front of a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. Face it: there is no persecution of Christians in America. There is, however, on ongoing movement to restrict all religion in the public sphere. And that movement has, in some instances, gone too far.

For instance, in the case of Brittany McComb, the 9th District Court and school officials were wrong. Brittany should have been permitted to say whatever she wanted to say. Public officials have a duty to uphold the separation of church and state; students do not. And that includes valedictorians at graduation.

However, valedictorians who use that freedom to speak foul language, demean people of a certain demographic, or witness for Christ, Allah, the Great Spaghetti Monster or gay rights don’t deserve our respect, they deserve our comdemnation (which is why I’m posting this). To act in such a manner is tone deaf: it reveals a lack of grace. There is a time and a place to witness for religion or athiesm or gay rights; that time and place is not when families of various beliefs and backgrounds gather to celebrate the educational triumphs of their children in a public school.

Many people in the audience yelled with joy when Brittany spoke about her faith. This is not surprising. Many Americans are evangelical Chrisitans, and Brittany affirmed their faith. However, I wonder how other, quieter members of the audience felt? Did they share her faith? Were the Jews, Hindus, Moslems, Agnostics, or Athiests intimidated by the fact that the hitherto secular ceremony had become a pep rally for Christ?

If I, an agnostic, had been there as a parent wanting to celebrate the accomplishments of my child on graduation day, I would not have been drawn to Christ by her words and the boistrous yelling. Far from it: I would have felt a deep resentment. I may have approached Brittany afterward and said, “I came here to support my child on this day, to specifically celebrate his education and the benefits it brings. Not to hear hear witnessing for Jesus. You, unfortunately, made this day about you and your religion.”

It’s Brittany’s free speech right to evangelize during her valedictorian speech; it’s my free speech right to say that she was very insensitive to do so

A separate point: If Brittany felt so strongly that only a speech that emphasized her relationship with God or Jesus Christ would do, why did she not simply refuse to give the edited speech? She could have filed a law suit later. Instead she lied. She agreed to give the edited speech, and instead gave the original version. Not very ethical, that, whether or not God was standing by her side at the podium.

Comment by Cynthia C | January 23, 2012 | Reply