Religion and Public Schools and Seattle

Now this is how you write an attention-grabbing lede:

An evangelical organization again is offering after-school Bible clubs in two Seattle elementary schools this year, part of its statewide push to convert young children to Christianity.

The comments over at the Save Seattle Schools blog are interesting; there's also a diversity of opinion to be found on the Times website.

This is also an issue at the collegiate level, as the US Supreme Court will be hearing a case soon as to whether colleges can deny recognition to religious clubs that don't allow (not just discourage--flatly don't allow) members of different beliefs. From Education Week:

“We think it’s a common-sense proposition that religious groups should be able to choose that their members and leaders will agree with their religious viewpoints,” said Kimberlee Wood Colby, a lawyer with the Center for Law and Religious Freedom, the society’s legal arm. The society has some 90 student chapters at universities across the country, most at law schools.

I agree with his common-sense proposition, but not when public money vis-a-vis tuition and student fees is involved.

I expect we'll still be having these arguments 50 years from now.

Read more here, if any.

It's a New World

From USA Today:

A high school principal in Dearborn, Mich., has dismissed a longtime wrestling coach after complaints from Muslim parents that the coach's former assistant — an evangelical Christian pastor — was trying to convert Muslim students into Christians.
But the pastor, Trey Hancock, head of Dearborn Assembly of God, said today that he never mixed his religion with sports. And the coach, Jerry Marszalek, said that Hancock "never did that ... he knew the difference between church and state."

Imad Fadlallah, head of Fordson High School, decided this month not to renew the contract of Marszalek, who has coached wrestling at Fordson for 35 years. Marszalek is an at-will employee and so the principal has the right not to extend his contract, said David Mustonen, spokesman for Dearborn Public Schools.

Fadlallah, the first Muslim principal at Fordson, heads a high school where more than 80% of the students are of Arab descent, a majority of them Muslim. In recent years, parents and students have complained that Hancock was using his position on the wrestling team to convert Muslims – a claim Hancock strongly denies.

Watching this one wind it's way through the court system should be fun.

I hope they had fairly strong evidence to justify firing the head coach for the actions of the assistant; otherwise, it feels like the principal might have just stepped into a religious minefield.

Read more here, if any.