Sunday, April 26, 2009

Missing the Point

You've got to feel for those maligned Christians in Irving, Texas. Here they are, being discriminated against by their school district by being forced to wear their shirts tucked into their pants. A second grader(!) complained and asked for permission to violate the school's dress code, because she felt like she was being "persecuted for being a Christian," according to this article from Religion Clause Blog.

I can see it now, all those athiests, Muslims, and Buddhists on the school board gathered together in a dimly lit room, scheming of ways to persecute those minority Christians by making them tuck their shirts in. Can't you hear the evil, maniacal laughter coming from the bowels of the district? Yet, here comes this Crusader! She knows she's been maligned, and that her faith is under assault - she won't go down without a fight! She knows as well as anyone that if she doesn't take a stand on this CLEAR attempt to foil her faith, then all hope for Christianity in this nation are lost.

Of course, this is absurd. The policy was not made to "persecute" anyone, particularly not a 2nd grader who wouldn't know that word unless her parents fed it to her. No, the policy had a legitimate secular interest, did not have the primary (or, arguably ANY) effect of promoting or inhibiting religion, and doesn't even come close to entangling religion and government. In other words - it has no bearing on religion whatsoever. It's applied across the board - except for this 2nd grader, that is.

I wonder what's going to happen now in that district if a Muslim student insists on wearing her hijab - the school board clearly can't deny her that right. The district created a whole new problem, as they're going to have to answer every challenge to their dress code based on religious concerns.

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