Reasonable Religio-cides Breach the Gate!

Who could imagine the oppression this portrait caused?

If you walk the halls of Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, VA, you might still hear them. The screams, that is. You might catch the last horrified breaths of those poor students. Imagine the horror that parents went through. For thirty-seven (that's 37) years, those eeevil Christianistas imposed their insidious propaganda on the citizens of Bridgeport.

That's how long the portrait above hung on the wall of the Principal's office.

Thanks to the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the familes of Bridgeport High School students may sleep well from now on.

Dimittri Cavelli, writing in the Opinion Journal of the WSJ, has the story (hat tip to Gary Stern's On Religion, a LoHud blog:

The town of Bridgeport, W.Va. (pop. 7,300), recently became the site of the latest skirmish in the culture wars. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the West Virginia chapter of the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two plaintiffs against the county board of education and other local officials. The suit alleged that Bridgeport High School violated the Constitution’s Establishment Clause by hanging a copy of Warner Sallman’s famous portrait, “Head of Christ,” on a wall outside the principal’s office.

The two sides recently settled the case: The school has agreed not to display the portrait but may use textbooks and other curriculum-related materials that reproduce it. Although such a settlement sounds amicable and fair, the case itself remains troubling and illustrates some of the tactics used to push religion out of the public square.

One fact that made the claim of church-state violation so odd in this case was the time-line: The disputed portrait had been hanging in the school for a long time. In 1969, a retiring guidance counselor, who had the portrait in his office, gave it as a farewell gift to the school’s principal (now also retired), who decided to hang it outside his office. Thus students, parents, teachers, employees and visitors to Bridgeport High School apparently suffered from this violation of the First Amendment for 37 years.

But wait! The great defenders of the people may have overlooked another religious symbol! O the humanity! Somebody stop those horribile Buddhaistas!

According to board member Michael Queen, when Mr. Sklar was asked by the principal “to organize an effort to help the school develop a ‘Wall of Great Teachers’ to include other religious figures,” he declined. Mr. Queen believes that both the ACLU and Americans United were being “very selective” about what they considered a violation of the Establishment Clause. He notes that both groups had no objections to a two-foot statue and a portrait of Buddha that remain displayed in two classrooms in the school. (The settlement does not affect these two religious items.) “If they wanted to make it religion-free, why didn’t they go through the entire school?” Mr. Queen asks. It would seem that some religious symbols are bigger violations of the Establishment Clause than others.

My emphasis, of course. And there's a reason for their omission.

Christians are the obstacle. There's no room for Foolish Christians mucking about in the Public Square. The US must become more Reasonable!

Their unfortunate hyperventilating over one painting exposes them again. Any fair-minded person--not to mention Fools--can see the gross overreaction of these committed Religio-cides. They're gonna start asking, "What's your angle?"

Think they'll like it when they discover what it is?

Smile, Fools!