Apr

18

That Evil Teacher Has a Bible On His Desk

April 18, 2008 |

Stop him. Don’t worry about the gangs, drugs and parents poor preparation of their children to be educated. Don’t worry about the rise in sexually transmitted diseases in this relativistic culture. DO WORRY when a teacher intimidates students not in words but with the presence of a Bible on the Desk. It should be the book of Darwin if he wants his job.

Ohio teacher in trouble for keeping Bible on desk

I don’t know if this case has been covered yet on the Shotgun. John Freshwater, a science teacher at a public school in Ohio, is in trouble with his school district for keeping a Bible on top of his desk in the classroom.

Link here. There’s a little more to the story. Up until recently, Freshwater had posters with Bible verses and a whole stack of Bibles on a shelf in his classroom. After parents complained, he agreed to take down the posters and remove all other items except for the Bible on his desk. But Freshwater is willing to go to court to keep that one in the classroom.

Freshwater has said, “The removal of it from my desk would be nothing short of an infringement on my own deeply held personal religious beliefs granted by God and guaranteed under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

I’ve read nothing that indicates Freshwater has proselytized to his students in any way. According to one area newspaper, the teacher has criticized evolution and taught students about intelligent design. Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), an activist group, has seized on that fact (if it is a fact) as an indictment of Freshwater as some kind of religious fanatic.

AU, which really should know better, is using Freshwater’s alleged criticism of evolution to imply that having a Bible on his desk must be an illegal endorsement of Christianity. Think about it: if Freshwater were an atheist who chose to keep a Bible on his desk for some reason, would AU and other liberal organizations be so quick to claim that the act was illegitimately bringing religion into the classroom?


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Mercedes on April 21, 2008 12:24 pm

    If the man is not reading to the students from the Bible, then I can’t see any reason why anyone would have a problem with it just sitting on the desk. Are they afraid the students will learn from it through osmosis or something? I think the whole separation of church and state is getting out of hand. If Freshwater believes in God and wants to keep HIS Bible on HIS desk for HIS personal reading, then I see no problem. If just LOOKING at a Bible is causing someone so much discomfort that they have to complain or bring a lawsuit, then maybe they are in need of a Bible themselves. Also, KUDOS to the children who brought their own Bibles and wore T-shirts to show support for this man.

  2. Matt on April 21, 2008 1:51 pm

    It is a matter of District policy not a matter of personal choice. Policies are up for debate however, it should be done through the proper chain of command. Here is a copy of Mount Vernon’s policy and it states that the district does not allow “devotional exercises or displays of a religious character,”. You really can not challenge the stance of the superintendent. Question; if the teacher feels so strong about the Bible being on his desk, why not everything else? He took down all of the other things he had up…hmmm

  3. gmsc on April 22, 2008 6:56 pm

    Shouldn’t we also worry when that same teacher is burning crosses into students’ forearms against their will?

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