Opinion: ACLU Intervention

The American Civil Liberties Union has been known to get involved in any situation that involves religion in the public sphere. They are at it again in Mississippi, where a bill involving prayer in schools is in the process of becoming law. The Schoolchildren’s Religious Liberties Act has been discussed for the past several months in the Mississippi House and Senate. There have been two different versions that have been circulating through the House and Senate.Overall, the bill would not reinstate school prayer; it would just give the option to students to either pray or not to pray. Advocates for the bill say that this will “ensure the student’s religious liberties.” Republican Rep. Mark Formby said, “I keep having parents come to me and complain. This would give clarity to the law.” However, the ACLU interim, Bear Atwood, believes that this law would force one student to listen to another’s religious attitudes at public school events, including graduation.The whole point of the education system is to achieve two goals: to pass on knowledge about certain subjects down to children, and to discover new cultures and perspectives on life. That is what college is for as well: discovering new cultures and viewpoints on certain subjects. If the ACLU keeps intervening with religious matters, students and children will never be exposed to other religions. That can harm their perspective on life; being uneducated on certain religions can affect one’s life later. One can make a derogatory statement against someone else’s religion without knowing it. That can happen if that person is not educated properly on religion.Not only would the ACLU limit a child’s perspective, but they are also infringing on the classic First Amendment right of freedom of religion. Someone should be able to express his or her religion freely without repercussions. That is why the founding fathers included it in the Constitution; that is the main reason they left Great Britain in the first place. That freedom should never be disputed. Let Americans express themselves freely.