I would bet my next month’s check that a student wishing to do a Wiccan assembly will be denied even if this bill passes. That also means they will now have grounds for a lawsuit. It’s really sad that so many Oklahomans have such little faith in their churches and family religious life that they must keep insisting on using our schools to push their beliefs. My children had no trouble following their faith despite lack of prayer in schools.

Someone needs to remind Rep. Bennett that he wasn’t elected to ram his religion down other people’s throats. A school is not a church. Most of the small towns in Oklahoma have more churches than viable businesses. If people want a church, they can find one. What they can’t find are jobs or a trace of the prosperity that vanished about fifty years ago.

@Logger
He’s not ramming his religion down anyone’s throat. We have the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so we should be able to pray or let it be known whatever religion we have. Also, referring to religion does not mean it’s Christianity, which makes your statement asinine. If school had more religious freedoms not only would it allow others to express their beliefs/ opinions(not ramming their opinions down people’s throats) as Christians, but as Muslims, Bhuddists, Jewish and Hindu people. Why is it that we can express our other opinions and it’s okay? Why is it okay to say you’re an Atheist, and speak of “scientific theories”, but it’s wrong to say you believe in God? Even if it sounds crazy, that it’s “fiction”, suck it up because they think it’s crazy you can’t believe in such an awesome deity. If you guys have the freedom to express your opinions, so do we. That’s the beautiful thing about America. We should all have rights, no matter the race, religion, social standing or any other discrimminating factor.

If what we’re arguing is strictly free speech here, then I’m just curious…is this same “freedom of speech,” going to protect those kids who wish to stand up at school assemblies and say, for instance,”I’m gay and proud and want to take my gay boy (or girl)friend to the prom!?”

Agree with other posters, “free speech” and freedom of religion includes ALL speech and ALL religion. I hope that this actually gives everyone those rights, not just a select group of people. It may not be only about Christianity, @Anonymous, however, how often would the same type of support come for a Muslim child? or a gay child? Probably not.

Quite upsetting.

It’s not a ‘tradition’ to separate church and state, it’s a law. It’s terrifying to think this man is creating new policies when he’s not fully aware of the old policies. And furthermore, since when did ‘religious freedom’ and ‘freedom of speech’ become the same thing? They’re not.

This law will cost the state millions in lawsuits when children, who aren’t Christian of course, ask to do ceremonies and are denied.

I personally, will enlist as many students to do a ‘religious chicken beheading’ and when told no we’ll sue for everything we can — thanks Oklahoma! Free college tuition. C’mon law makers, get you crap together!!!

When I was coming up as a child in school, there was prayer, pledge of allegiance, and so on and so forth, and it seems like the world and society was so much better than now, so I would say YES, to bringing and putting prayer back into schools, and knowing right from wrong, because we all can see the turmoil in the world today and we need more love and prayer.

The best and fairest way a government can respect and promote the religions of its citizens is to have now mention of it whatsoever legally and leave it to the citizens to worship whatever or whom ever they wish or to not worship at all.

The point is that any form of government that promotes any sort of religion is dividing the nation. no promotion of religion promotes unity.

What religion is supported? Wicca? Quaker? Friends? Mennonite? Westboro Baptist Church? Catholic? Scientology? Mormon? Jehovah’s Witness? Church Of Christ, Scientist? Jewish? Orthodox? Episcopal? Native American? Muslim? Sheik? Jain? Southern Baptist? American Baptist? Free Will Baptist? Full Gospel Baptist? Lutheran, Lutheran, Wisconsin Synod? Lutheran, Missouri Synod? Evangelical Lutheran Church of America? Sunni? Shia? Hindu? Methodists? Congregationalists? etc?

The spectrum of faith and belief spans almost as much as their is are adherents to them.

I am sure the intentions are good enough but they fail to realize that while they are the ones in power now that this is simply nothing more than a tyranny of the majority trying to force it’s will on the minority.

And when it comes to religion, we all are in the minority.

This is a superflous bill. If something is STUDENT LED, then it is ALREADY ok for them to mention God. Think of the graduation speech given by the STUCO president (or whoever it may be in that school). A speech is one thing, but what if a student wants to lead the student body in a prayer? Not good. Not fair. My friend lived in Utah and they had prayer in school – MORMON prayer, and she was NOT Mormon.

I think Rep Bennett should try a career in magic, since he likes misdirection so much. First off, students are not being kept from saying personal prayers in school, nor are they virtual religion free zones. Second off, this isn’t about individuals making a personal prayer to whatever god they pray to, this is about using the school as a forum to a captive audience for students to be able to endorse their religion. This is an obvious reaction to the removal of prayer from graduation ceremonies. I’m just wondering, why do Christians get so afraid of not being able to use public forums to endorse their myth?

@Sharon Williams – The Constitution applies to everyone.It only seems like the world and society were better back then. The truth is unless you were white and protestant the world has gotten better. If you are a person of color, a Catholic or Islamic the world is a much friendlier place than it was when you were coming up. It has also gotten better for the spawn of European rooted anti-papists but they are so afraid that their hegemony is crumbling that they can’t see it.

Free speech in school?? Okla. kids have never had “free speech” in school. I know, I had my readend thrashed several times for trying exercise my right to free speech. Personally, I believe this legislation will open the schools up to litigation for discrimination. So, they want to allow kids to give “inspirational messages” right?? What if the student says they get their inspiration from the occult, profanity, obscenity or, heaven forbid, evolution??? Will they be allowed to give their “inspirational messages as well??? Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it..

As a practicing Unitarian , if any Pagan,muslim,mormon,jewish,wiccan,hindu, even voodoo or any other religion in existance services are denied you better bet there will be lawsuits filed and won if this act is passed. Ps: The legal funds are already set aside in trust accounts for the cost.

If I remember correctly, Representative Bennett was instrumental in the establishment of an “anti-terrorism task force” by the state government, because he is afraid that radical Muslims will try to establish Sharia law here. Evidently he isn’t worried about the possibility of instituting mandatory Christianity in publicly-funded schools.

Oh the lies, they just never stop. And the misinformation. WHAT SCHOOLS send kids to the principal’s office for referring to god one time? Site an example, please. And the Declaration is NOT A GOVERNING DOCUMENT! And it mentions NATURE’S “God” once and a “creator” once. That’s a total of two, not four.

Sharon Williams says: “When I was coming up as a child in school, there was prayer, pledge of allegiance, and so on and so forth, and it seems like the world and society was so much better than now…” Better? By whose standards? We all have nostalgia for our youth. I think you’re confusing these two. Things are better now. As each day passes, we learn more science. Facts. And the more facts we learn in science, the more we step away from the myth that is some guy floating in space who wants us to love him or we don’t get into his magic kingdom. If there was a god, and he did not prevent the starvation and murder of children in third world countries, then he is a vengeful and stupid and evil god. It’s much better to understand that there is none, and that we are responsible for ourselves, and those kids in this Oklahoma town need an education, not fairy tales, to get them successfully through life.

The declaration of independence may reference God, but the constitution, the basis for our laws and system of government does not. Again a case of cherry picking history to suit a political agenda.

This just makes me angry. Let’s stop wasting each others time with this kind of stuff because we are just getting sidetracked and further divided by politicians who have forgotten what they were elected for to begin with. Freedom of religion means freedom to choose a religion not practice it in school. Kids are there to learn not pray.

We should just call this bill by the results it will produce: “The Redistribution of wealth to atheist parents through the courts Bill”

Just going to laugh when the bill passes and the satanists demand their time. Allowing prayer is going to cause more problems than it solves. I graduated a few years ago and we had a minute of silence to get your praying out of the way. Nobody had to hear and nobody had to be any the wiser about what somebody had to say to their personal deity. I have no doubt that this bill is to allow the Christian god back into schools and it has nothing to do with any other religion. Just sad to see that law makers are trying to pass laws that infringe on our most basic of rights.

. . . I believe this will be the greatest ‘Can of Worms’ that any overly righteous group has EVER opened . . . EVERY group and religion will now have the ability to prosthelytize . . . Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Scientologist, satanist and Even Atheists will be able to speak . . . As well as marriage equality and Groups that believe women have the right to do what ever they want to their bodies, and Pro choice groups. Kids N E E D to hear other opinions . . . This might be a good thing . . .

Good, now my kids can speak about atheism in their school assemblies and demonstrate how their education was better without the chains of a bronze age myth holding them back. If they aren’t allowed to make their speeches the resulting lawsuit will hopefully pay their way through collage.

Everything in this country has gotten worse since the Baiji River Dolphin went extinct in 2006. If they hadn’t gone extinct, then we wouldn’t have stupid atheists and gays trying to get equal rights, and we’d have prayer and the Christian god still being pushed onto all our youth, regardless of their belief, like it well should be. And do you know that the school shootings began to increased just about the same time as the artificial heart was successfully used in the 1980′s?? And don’t get me started on all the stuff that went wrong when the dodo went extinct! Just look how the crime rate has gone up since then! Cause and effect! If they had had prayer in schools all that time, all this stuff wouldn’t have happened! Oh, wait…

In VA. Falwell got a policy of not sending religious fliers via the child’s “backpack mail” changed in order to send home fliers to parents about upcoming church events. A group of Pagans took advantage of this (as was their right according to the new policy). When Christian parents saw these fliers, they were outraged. How dare the school try to poison the mind of children with this filth!!! Christian parents tried to get the vile Pagan fliers stopped. One mother even said (paraphrasing) that this was the exact reason we need to bring religion to school. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the definition of hypocrisy.

A belief in a god has no place in an institution of knowledge. Faith is not knowledge, it’s arrogance parading as humility. Faith is the pathway to ignorance. Besides, kids can pray in school now, they have that freedom of speech. What they cannot do is have the school organize or sanction a religious ceremony. This would violate the very FIRST part of the FIRST sentence in the FIRST Amendment, which reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Stop trying to bully your ignorant beliefs on people who want to gain knowledge!

Uh, separating church and state is also in the Constitution… Also, the Declaration of Independence refers to Nature’s god, which Thomas Jefferson preferred over the Abrahamic god. Thomas Jefferson was a deist, not a Christian. What an uneducated fool leading poor children astray from their education.

The Declaration of Independence is not a legal document of the United States of America.
How many times was any ‘god’ mentioned in the Constitution???
ZERO. Did the our Founding Fathers simple forget to mention a ‘god’ ?? Hmmmmm
You can also look up the Treaty of Tripoli from 1797 where Article 11 clearly states: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;….”
So if you allow ONE ‘god’ in… you have to allow them ALL. That means a Satanist has to be given equal time, etc…
Keep this mythical crap out of our schools.

This bill does nothing but allow the overwhelming majority to silence the minority through numbers. Additionally, there is a tacit implication that the school approves the messages that are presented to students in school assemblies since the students are forced to attend them. Unless students are given the option to opt out of those assemblies then this will be nothing more than an invasion of the school system to make converts of children. Religion should be kept private.

“The legislation would give student volunteers organizing the assembly the authority to determine the content of a message and who will deliver it.”

By this measure, the child of a Pastor could organize an assembly and then decide that their father or other outside speaker is who they want to speak. This opens doors for direct proselytization in schools.

I have no issue with an anthropological class called “World Religions” as an elective for high-school students. But this legislation would further harm the already tenuous nature of children’s school life. School should be a place for facts. Not political or religious crusades. Keep religion in the churches where it belongs.

School children are a captive audience and should not be required or forced to listen to private opinions on religion. They are at school to get an education not to be indoctrinated. Religion has no place in government sponsored functions or the public square and in my opinion belong only with the individual in their churches or private homes.

John Bennett is mistaken in stating that the Declaration of Independence refers to God four times. It refers to “Natures God”, “their Creator”, “Supreme Judge of the World”, and “divine Providence”. While all of these titles can be applied to the Christian God, they can also all be applied to several other deities from other religions. I’m sorry Rep. John Bennett, but you are a narrow minded idiot. By defining it strictly according to your viewpoint of the Christian god, you are stating that the only religion recognized is the Christian faith. While I do not think a student should be penalized for speaking about god and their religion to their fellow students when they are not in class (ie lunch time maybe or between class discussions, after or before school starts) I do not believe that religion should be involved in addresses to the school body itself. There is a difference between a private conversation and a lecture. What Rep John Bennett is talking about is giving room for religious lectures pure and simple. And that is NOT a separation of church and state.

@Anonymous on February 20, 2013 @ 4:17 pm – A wise man once said: “The beautiful thing about science is that it works whether you believe in it or not.”

logger said – “If people want a church, they can find one. What they can’t find are jobs or a trace of the prosperity that vanished about fifty years ago.” @Anonymous – See that? That’s called simple, straightforward logic. You want free expression of religion? You want public assembly to express the beliefs of you and your ilk? You already have it, go have fun doing so in those tax-exempt, designated locations.

There are enough unnecessary distraction going on for kids in school that keeps them from concentrating on the fundamentals of what’s important, the reason they are in school. They do not need daily theological influence added on to that.

I’m especially amused at the addled use of quotations for “scientific theories”.

“The Declaration of Independence refers to God four times”? Well, the Constitution–the supreme law of the land–doesn’t refer to God at all.

I can’t wait to hear non-Christian students start school days with prayer: Wiccans, Muslims, Buddhists, Scientologists. Then maybe Rep. John Bennett will finally see the value of church-state separation. It protects everyone from unnecessary religious proselytizing. Keep prayer in the church/synagogue/mosque.

If free speech is aloud in school even stuff that dont have no reason to be in schools as wrong as it maybe be then kids should have the same right to rip on how stupid religion is talking bush anyone? Or better yet why does god kill babies?