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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20909
[Civil]
Date Posted:
7/15/2009
6:24:41 pm EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 2,568
RSS: 16,196
Comments: 6
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New Ariz. Law Affirms Students' Religious Liberties
Author: Associated Press, First Amendment Center Online staff Source: First Amendment Center Online
Title: NEW ARIZ. LAW AFFIRMS STUDENTS' RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES
Arizona public school students may have new rights to express religious views under a bill signed by Gov. Jan Brewer last week.
The Students’ Religious Liberties Act (H.B. 2357) prohibits schools from discriminating against students or parents on the basis of religious viewpoint or expression. It requires that schools not “penalize or reward” students for including religious content or views in a classroom assignment.
The bill also requires that prayer and other religious activities be permitted "to the same extent that students may engage in nonreligious activities or expression."
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Community Thoughts: There are 6 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Good For Them! | Jul 17th. at 3:06:45 pm EDT
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Cwydd ap Gwydion (Hudson, New York) - Email Me
It's good to see progress like this within the walls of schools. When I read a story like this, I think of Tempest Smith and her ordeal.
My soon-to-be wife, is an Arizona pagan... I'll have to get her take on this when I get home from work tonight!
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| One Small Step For Minority Religions! | Jul 16th. at 2:12:17 pm EDT
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Fayte Ravencraft (Texarkana, Texas) - Email Me
It's about time that someone does something to allow a small bit of protection for Pagan students. I know from first-hand experience how schools can greatly discriminate against non-christians. Hopefully we will have laws like this in EVERY state before too long.
---Brightest Blessings,---
Fayte Ravencraft
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| I See That The | Jul 16th. at 8:50:18 am EDT
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Grumpy Raven (Eagle, Colorado) - Email Me
bill mandates that "prayer or religious expression" be allowed to the same extent as non-religious expression. I wonder to what extent the schools allow political expression by students: could the students organize a Noam Chomsky study group? Start an IWW support chapter?
I do hope that non-Christian students take full advantage of this law to express themselves, hoisting the sponsors by their own petard, as another poster put it.
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| ADF - Clarification... | Jul 16th. at 2:34:28 am EDT
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Gemfyr or Knightwolf (Phoenix, Arizona) - Email Me
Just so other viewers know, the ADF referred to in the previous comment is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian ultra-conservative think tank based in Arizona.
They have NO connection or affiliation to the other ADF - Ar nDraiocht Fein - A Druid Fellowship, a well-known Neo-Pagan Druid organization founded by Isaac Bonewits and going on its 26th year in existence. Thank goodness www.adf.org was already spoken for!
I usually make it a habit to clarify this to anyone who refers to the Alliance Defense Fund as ADF, ever since I discovered the existence of this group. Unfortunately, Ar nDraiocht Fein does not have a copyright of "ADF" and I don't think has plans to do so in the future.
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| ... | Jul 16th. at 1:17:57 am EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
Any AZ Pagans want to test the law?
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| Clarifying The Rules? | Jul 15th. at 11:40:38 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me - Web
Given that this Bill sets some basic standards of fair play in the state that became home to two current and one defunct RRR legal thuggery corporation of litigious, pro-bible thumpery predators (NFLF, then CDC & ADF) , it could protect some schools to have a clear set of rules that force informal conferences before court actions, and define to some extent when substituting bible thumping for class work is out of line.
Let's see.... science classes..... The teacher is fully entitled to flunk kids or treat them in classrooms as frauds, or as pitching psychotic delusions, if they substitute creationism/ID for evolution, astronomy, genetics, etc, to the same extent other psychotic delusions, sophomoric or SciFi fantasies, and irrational non-science, might be treated as the bunk it is.
Then it gets trickier.... Last I knew the Service of Mankind Church (S&M Church, at darkside-goddess.org ) didn't admit teens, but there are other pagan groups that are pretty friendly to BDSM as an energy practice within some Eastern and Western pagan paths. But, move into heavy blood sports, snuff, literal crucifixion as some VERY heavy fetishists try, etc, and you've got the equivalents of many Jesus portrayals.
In and of themselves neither the bloody, post-violence Jesus depictions nor those from BDSM amount to religious images, unless they're linked to underlying deeply held philosophy or core values of specific individuals (which as private thoughts are none of school officials' business to be told, or demand students explain) . However, in either case, this new law could be taken to protect or cover administrator's actions tolerating or restricting necklaces or pictures of immolated ex-philosopher king Jewish street bums to exactly the same extent as any other grade level appropriate gruesome depictions, or practices if anyone cares to set up a BDSM worship post bondage shrine opposite a bunch of "pole people" students tacking fellow student pictures to a pole in effigy (nailing to a cross, or burning in the fagot fires of old) .
Whether colorful states of Kali portrayals, or roll your own religious seriousness heavy BDSM, a few serious and intense parents and teens with the stomach for litigation or politics could help to teach the RRR factions behind this law some hard lessons on being hoisted by one's own petard.
Equitably enforced, such a law could be a good thing. Bastardized and twisted as promoters likely intend, the ACLU chapter is correct that instead of curing a discrimination problem, it could set religion apart from other protected rights issues of ethnic culture, political ideology, sexual orientation and relationship preferences, etc. However, given the "content and viewpoint neutral manner" language in Section F (1) , perhaps the final Bill does address some of the ACLU's legitimate concerns.
[Web LINK]
Properly enforced, this law could both set some level playing field standards for the school day, and ban the fraud of pretending that "nonsectarian" prayers at school events are anything but Protestant (sect oriented stone temple pilot) religion, even if generic lite versions thereof. After all, Section "E" can easily be read to ban the school from scheduling any staff or student led prayer or religious activities, at any mandatory or expected attendance school event, including but not limited to graduation, sports events, locker rooms, classrooms or assemblies, etc.
If we learn to use this law well, Freedom From Religion Foundation may not like it, but pagans in an RRR dominated school could benefit from the standards here created as we listen to RRR petards repeatedly going bang.
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Note: history lesson - anyone not familiar with the above analogy based on real medieval history might care to look here: [Web LINK]
Find More info -- HERE
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