In Reply to: What about separation between church and state? posted by BiochemBruin on April 04, 2024 at 10:37:17
I'd like to know how that demand played out. The person was a guest speaker and as such she did not have any force on the attendees. There are probably 15 different ways that part could have played out and half of them would have been just fine, the other half pretty icky.
If some Christian priest or pastor or preacher or clergy or whatever they're called had been the speaker and they said at some point, "let's now bow our heads and pray to lord Jesus" or somesuch, would that really have violated the establishment clause? And if so, would the school have had to tell them they can't do that, and if they'd done that would that not have violated their free speech rights?
At my gut level, if I'm in that room and I am hearing a guest speaker say some something about "let's pray to Jesus", would I feel I am being coerced or that the school is establishing religion? Not likely, I'd probably roll my eyes, not bow my head and let that awkward moment pass without any comment.
Also .... Would that have violated the consitution? Who knows? The Supreme Court already established that a coach gathering players around him at the 50 yard line and giving them a Jesus speech was alright even though as the coach, he is the decision maker as to who plays on the team or not. So I am not sure that a guest speaker saying a prayer to Mother Earth crosses a line that Coach Kennedy hasn't bulldozed over already.
Just to make sure though, that is not what Moon is picking on. He is more concerned about (disgusted with and shocked by) left wing views being allowed to be expressed in public spaces then whether it violates the separation of church and state. Because that's who he is.