D'oh!

So you support school sponsored religious persecution? And what about my daughter's situation. Was it "wrong" for us to ask the school to provide a non-hostile environment for her education?

This issue is one of the funnest ones to drop on my unsuspecting American Heritage students. I like to play Devil's Advocate from time to time to show two sides of an issue when students can't fathom anybody believing an opposing viewpoint. I mention the case where prayers at school events were outlawed, and ask how many disagree with that decision. Most hands go up-- we're at BYU, after all. Then I mention that two families were plaintiffs in the case; one of them was Catholic (I ask again how many disagree, and one or two hands go down). Then I tell them that the other one was Mormon. I ask again, about half the class drops out, suddenly very uncertain of the ground they stand on. I then explain the nature of the prayers-- among other things, that they asked that Mormons, Catholics, et cetera would have their eyes opened so they could escape eternal damnation. I ask one last time, and one or two brave souls will still keep their hand in the air.

A wonderful demonstration of the fact that there are two sides to every argument, and an answer that seems obvious to one party and not to the other is, in all likelihood, not so obvious.

Over/Under on Tex's willingness to answer this question directly? I say no way in hell (that place we don't have).

Tex, does the Constitution support government favoritism of one religion over another? I'm not against religious expression in school. But I can't understand why you'd support a school policy that officially discriminated against some religions, including ours. The LDS kid wasn't allowed to pray while anti Mormon prayers were allowed. It's one thing if that happens in a private setting, naturally. It's totally another if it's a public school.

FWIW, I remember back in the mid-nineties when we were living in Utah there was big to-do about one of the SLC high schools singing church songs / hymns in one of their programs and a Jewish girl at the school felt left out / ostracized because of it.

Just as wrong IMO. Just because you are the majority doesn't make stuff like this okay.

I totally agree. The Bill of Rights is there to make sure minorities, like ours don't get their rights trampled on just because it might be popular to do so. The majority will usually get their rights respected anyway because they will win elections. If you wanted to, you could use the same argument for the LDS and Catholic students in the Texas case that the religious right uses, namely the "free exercise" of religion. The Catholic and LDS kids were denied the right to pray at a school event because the evangelicals didn't want them to, but the evangelicals were allowed to pray themselves. I don't see how anyone who respects the First Amendment could find that to be acceptable.