The Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act recently passed in Tennessee will, I believe, do nothing but cause more problems in our public schools.
After having read the entire text of the legislation (HB 1547/SB 1793), and the numerous articles and opinion pieces about it, I have concluded that the bill was simply a knee-jerk reaction to one incident in one Tennessee public school. According to the Associated Press: “Sponsors say the legislation was proposed after a 10-year-old student was given an assignment to write about the person she most admires and she chose God. The teacher asked her to choose another subject.”
First, we do not need clarifying legislation to allow a child to publicly admire God. That situation should have been handled at the school level. Neither do we need such legislation to allow student-sponsored religious groups and activities in our public schools. According to a story in the Tennessean, “Court rulings and existing state laws have stated previously that students can exercise their religious beliefs while at school.”
Second, the bill, if it becomes law, could easily be twisted and used against any perceived minority, which could make bullying legally allowable if it’s based on religious beliefs. That’s why the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups and individuals, particularly the LGBT community, oppose the bill, and rightly so.
Other problems that might occur include:
ā¢Schools are in compliance if they use the bill’s stated “model policy” for religious expression. What if they don’t like the model policy? What will the “punishment” be? If the intent was for the model policy to be the dictated policy, the bill should have simply stated that and at least been honest about it.
ā¢The bill is restrictive about which students can be allowed to speak at public forums, such as sporting events, assemblies and pep rallies. Student leaders often are tapped to speak at such events, but the bill narrowly defines who can be chosen except for one group ā “captains of the football team.” Excuse me? Why only the football captains? I know many people joke that football in the South is a religion, but really? That provision is ridiculous. And how likely is it that students belonging to minority religions in Tennessee will be football team captains or hold numerous student leader positions? I would venture to say not likely.
ā¢The bill could also become a nightmare for teachers because of one sentence: “Students may not be penalized or rewarded on account of religious content.” Hypothetically, a student could answer a question as simple as the reason for the colors of the rainbow with a lesson on Noah, and could not be marked incorrect for the answer.
Call me simple, but I’ve always believed that our collective right to freedom of religion, as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was all the law we needed. As for religious expression, I don’t believe the Tennessee legislation would ever have been introduced if the child at the center of it had been denied a desire to write about Buddha, for example.
I also believe the Tennessee bill is just one more sign of the growing intolerance within our society. We seem to have become a society of “haters” who cannot value differing opinions and who believe legislating every possible situation, include religion, morality and alleged family values, is always the correct answer. It’s not, particularly in a country as diverse as the United States.
If we really want to promote religious freedom and demonstrate what I consider to be Christian principles, we need to reopen both our minds and our hearts.
What do you, the students of UTM, think about this issue?
To learn more about theĀ Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act, viewĀ Ā http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/108/Bill/HB1547.pdf
Contact Voice It! at voiceitutm@gmail.com with any suggestions for future blog posts or if you would like to be a guest blogger for Voice It!
We never post comments that contain foul language or material that could be considered libelous.
Featured image courtesy dot429.com.
