Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School has a tradition of displaying religious quotes prior to their football games. Recently, someone suggested that this violates the separation of church and state. The superintendent instructed the school to remove the banners from the stadium. They are allowed to display them outside, but effectively religion has been banned from high school football in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.
Where will it end? Will the players be allowed to pray before the game? Will they be allowed to point to the heavens after a touchdown? Will they be allowed to wear crosses around their necks? Can they still attend church during the regular season, or, as representatives of the high school football team and the school, would this be considered an endorsement of Christian values by an agent of the school district?
America is a Christian nation. We fled religious persecution and founded the American colonies. Now, Christians are persecuting themselves in the name of religious tolerance. The Christians are the tolerant ones. We accept other religions, even when they do not accept ours, even as they undermine the Christian underpinnings of our nation at every turn.
The majority of Americans are Christian. Although the non-Christian minority should not be required to practice Christianity, they should certainly be tolerant of it, just as Christians should be tolerant of belief systems that can coexist with western values.
American values are based on Christianity. Acknowledging the origins of our nation doesn’t undermine the nation, it strengthens it. It reminds us that our values were not always accepted, that we were persecuted, even killed for believing in something that the state did not agree with.
The state is conflicted. Though it was created on Christian principles with Christian references, slogans and symbols, it wants to be neutral to all Americans. At the same time it is ruled by the majority. That majority is Christian.
Proscribing the voluntary display of religious quotations tramples freedom of speech and freedom of religion for the majority of Americans.
