I wrote a few weeks ago about a lawsuit in the Doniphan school district in Missouri. The ACLU filed suit after finding out that the school was holding mandatory school assemblies with teachers leading prayer. The judge in the case has granted an injunction in the case as part of a negotiated settlement. In August, the Liberty Counsel had offered to represent the school in fighting the suit, but as Agape Press reports, even some religious right legal groups recognized that this was a clear cut case and told the school not to fight it.
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Let's see, even if the class is all Christian there are still problems, which version of the Lord's prayer. Roman Catholic, protestant or... and from Matthew or Luke? I'm just tired of a sectarian Christian point of view forced on Christians and non-christians who don't believe that particular Christianist view.
After spending the British equivalent of K-12 in schools with daily mandatory morning assemblies of the Christian variety I can tell you that they can be quite effective in turning kids away from religion. Mumbled hymns, rote prayers, teenagers stumbling over Bible readings... not exactly inspiring stuff.
I still wonder if there is a concerted effort to wear down the secularists -- and I am definitely one -- by repeated offenses that have to be fought and suits brought in so many different jurisdictions that there will be fewer and fewer lawyers left with time and resources to fight them.
I don't think it's concerted effort to wear down "secularists." Like it or not, these cases occurr in school districts where religion tends to be part of the cultural landscape. We're talking about the "Bible-belt" and rural areas, at that. When I read about cases like Pontatoc, Miss. Indian River, Del., and Doniphan I'm more surprised that there was someone willing to defy the majority than I am by the fact that school officials thought they could get away with flaunting the Constitution. These cases are probably more a grassroots reflection of these communities than they are a game plan concocted in Lynchburg, Virginia or Colorado Springs.