A flawed prayer for religious liberty
The “Florida Student and School PersonnelReligious LibertyAct” is heading to the governor’s desk cloaked in the garb of religious freedom.
It cleared the pertinent legislative committees without a single “No” vote and received nearly the same enthusiastic reception in both theHouse and Senate with mostly Democrats in opposition.
Why? What liberties does this bill protect that aren’t protected by the Civil RightsAct of 1964 and the EqualAccessAct, which schools must uphold or face a loss of federal funding? Even the “StudentsAttired for EducationAct,” whose principal target is clothing deemed offensive, carved out space for religious images.
If redundancywas the only problem with SenateBill 436, criticswould probably grouse mildly and find another issue to oppose. But SB 436 does more. It swings wide the schoolhouse door and lets in the religious zealot.
It empowers teachers to impose their religious views on students, students to turn the stamp club into a prayer club, parents to hijack the PTAmeeting. Supporters dismiss those concerns as unrealistic hypotheticals. Perhaps so, but the art of writing laws should reduce the opportunity for the hypotheticals to become realities.
Consider the provision that allows religious activities “to the same extent as secular” activities. Public schools typically hold scores of secular activities, fromthe chess club to a pre-game pep rally. That opens to door to an awful lot of prayer.
Another provision places everyday clothing, jewelry and symbolic images on par with religious garb. Blouse to burka? Baseball cap to yarmulke?
Rep. Richard Stark, D-Weston, is one of the bill’s opponents. He sees it as a bill teeming with unintended consequences.
“If I’m a teacher andwant to expressmy religious views in class, this bill allows that,” he says. “If Iwant to make a religious statement at the Friday night pep rally, I’m free to do so.’’
The irony is, he says, “This billwon’t pass constitutional muster.”
The Florida Anti-Defamation League is another opponent and a powerful one given theADL’s sterling First Amendment credentials.
SB 436 empowers “students, teachers and parents to impose their faith on students in captive audience settings,” theADLargues.
The bill will “subject children to religious coercion, divide public schools along religious lines and result in costly legislation,” it said in a call to arms addressed to opponents.
Some of us pray together. Some of us pray alone. Some of us don’t pray at all. Whatever our belief, it is ours and ours alone to embrace aswe see fit— or not.
Whenever government starts mucking around in areas as personal as prayer, bad things can happen. Somehowthe framers of our Constitution understood that, listened to the people and added the First Amendment to the Constitution.
“Congress shall make no lawrespecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercising thereof,” it said. Simple. Clear. Unambiguous.
It has guided uswell for almost 250 years. The Florida Legislature should heed its words. AndGov. Rick Scott should veto this ill-considered effort to tinker.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The EditorialBoard consists of Editorial Page EditorRosemary O’Hara, AndrewAbramson, Elana Simms, Gary Stein and Editor-in-ChiefHoward Saltz.