Monday School: No prayer banners allowed in school

Greetings and welcome to Monday School!

Our motto: A rational corrective to all that nonsense you learned yesterday!

All classes are free! All can be attended while you remain in the comfort of your own home or cyber café! And all classes encourage open discussion of all issues raised!

Well, let’s get started with today’s lesson: Today we are going to talk about an outspoken atheist in Cranston, Rhode Island named Jessica Ahlquist.

She’s been in the news a lot lately regarding the issue of the separation of Church and State. The ACLU filed a suit against a Cranston high school on Jessica’s behalf because her school had a banner that sponsored religion, which is a big no-no because public schools are not allowed to endorse religion. The banner starts with ‘Our heavenly father’ and ends with ‘amen’ and as far as I’m concerned that makes it a prayer and it has no place in her school.

(This is Jessica, speaking with her lawyer about the ACLU suit…)

A month ago, a federal judge ruled that the banner’s presence at Cranston High School West was unconstitutional, concluding that it violated the principle of government neutrality in religion. The banner has been hanging in this Rhode Island school for almost 50 years and the locals didn’t take the decision by the courts that well. In the weeks since, residents of the city have crowded school board meetings to demand that they appeal the decision to a higher court. Jessica (who is only 16) has been receiving online threats to the point where she has required a police escort to school. Again we see the expression of perfect Christian love!

Not only is Jessica receiving threats, there was an incident that occurred when an Atheist organization tried to send Jessica flowers to congratulate her for her victory in court. An organization based out of Wisconsin called the florist in her town and tried to order flowers to be delivered to her home. Tried being the key word because every florist in the heavily Roman Catholic city refused to deliver flowers to Jessica because they didn’t agree with her and what she did in court. The Atheist group had to get flowers delivered from Connecticut because not a single florist in town wanted to service anyone who wanted to order flowers for Jessica. The florists that refused to deliver her roses now face a complaint with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights.

(The banner that started it all…)

Even the State Representative, Peter G. Palumbo, from Cranston called Jessica “an evil little thing” on a popular talk radio show. I am extremely disappointed in Palumbo’s comments, especially considering this man is a democrat! You would expect this kind of religious pandering from the GOP, but not from the other side! His statement that she’s evil just for protecting her constructional rights is garbage, and he should apologize to her immediately for being such an asshat on a popular radio show.

Despite the protests calling on the school board to appeal, what many residents don’t realize is that because the city lost the case… they are on the hook to cover all leagal fees on both sides. The ACLU has already sent a bill to the school board, and it’s almost two hundred thousand dollars. Do the taxpayers realize this? The ACLU was more than aware of this, and waited six months before filing suit, giving the school a chance to save themselves and the school a lot of money by just complying with their request to have the banner taken down. The school refused and the ACLU took them to court. Now the school has to pay their fees, and they take this to a higher court, the fees are only going to get higher and the school will have to pay those as well if they lose again which is what will likely happen. It’s in the school’s best interest to cut their loses and take the banner down or the school and the board are going to find themselves in deep financial trouble because of this lawsuit.

Based on that fact and the other actions taken listed above, the people of Cranston should be ashamed of themselves. Threatening a little girl that exercised rights to protest that everyone is capable of doing is not grounds to threaten harm to her because it was the right thing to do. You may overlook the fellow schoolmate’s comments, but the adults like Palumbo should hang their heads in shame. Didn’t Jesus preach to love your neighbour and enemy?

It seems many “Christians” in Rhode Island are choosing to ignore the central message of their religion. Do they not even know what their religion stands for? When asked of she empathizes in any way with members of her community who want the prayer to stay, Jessica said the following:

“It’s almost like making a child get a shot even though they don’t want to. It’s for their own good. I feel like they might see it as a very negative thing right now, but I’m defending their Constitution, too.”

Only 16 years old, and she understands the constitution better than most Republicans and at least one Democrat.