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news
Championing the
First
By Sarah Langford
On-line Forty-Niner
Students participating
in Odyssey 2001 found themselves challenged by a talk given
Monday by Marcia Beauchamp, the religious liberties program
coordinator for the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center.
The center is a
non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Nashville,
Tenn., whose goal is to foster public understanding of and
appreciation for the First Amendment rights and values.
The Odyssey Program invited Beauchamp to Cal State Long Beach
to speak after a member of the steering committee recommended
her, Odyssey coordinator Sharon Olson said.
The conflict surrounding
the function of religion in schools is not a new one, Beauchamp
said. The original public schools in our country included
a Scripture reading and prayer each morning, and used the
King James Version of the Bible to teach students to read.
When Roman Catholics in the country began pressing for their
version of the Bible to be used in schools, Bible burnings
and riots broke out nationwide.
"The role
religion plays in schools has been hotly debated for decades,"
Beachamp said.
As society gradually
became more secular, events like the Scopes Monkey Trial in
the '20s and later, the Supreme Court's ban on prayer in schools
contributed to a shift in focus from religion to science.
Unfortunately, Beauchamp said, schools have almost completely
eliminated all discussion of religion in their attempt to
avoid more nasty debates.
"In light
of recent events, I think it's obvious what a travesty America's
ignorance of world religions is," she said.
So what's the solution?
Do we go back to the time of "sacred schools," when
Protestant Christianity was the only religion acceptable to
teach, or do we live with today's "naked schools,"
in which teachers are afraid to even broach the topic of religion
for fear of offending somebody?
The answer, Beauchamp
said, lies in what she calls the "civic public school."
This school model is based on three main principles: rights,
responsibility, and respect.
"Rights means
that religious liberty is an inalienable right of every person,
and that each of us needs to recognize that in others,"
she said. "It's important to understand that the government
doesn't give us our rights; it merely acknowledges what rights
we already have."
Responsibility,
she said, is slightly more complicated. It is the idea that
each of us is responsible for protecting not just our own
rights, but also the rights of others.
"My rights
to freedom of thought and belief are only as secure as my
ability to stand up for yours," Beauchamp said. "We
are all a minority somewhere. We must take responsibility
for protecting other people's rights if we want and expect
our own rights to be protected."
The third principle
is respect: "The exact opposite of what happens on 'Jerry
Springer,'" Beauchamp said. "Instead of pretending
we don't have differences, we need to acknowledge that there
are certain things that we will never agree upon. But let's
debate those things on the basis of ideas, without demonizing
people."
In her closing
remarks, Beauchamp praised California's diversity and multiculturalism,
but cited areas needing improvement, which she said she feels
are essential to the protection of the First Amendment.
"Somehow during
the time when countless minority groups were finally being
heard, we missed the voice of religion," she said. "It's
time to address this delicate, complicated issue, while remembering
the unifying principles that define what it means to be an
American."
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