Religious freedom is hugely popular in America—until, of course, it's applied to unpopular groups.
Consider North Windy Ridge Intermediate School in Buncombe County, N.C. In December, school officials arranged for students to come by the office during break to pick up Bibles donated by the Gideons.
In the view of many people in the community (especially those of the majority faith), outside groups such as the Gideons should have a religious-liberty right to distribute Bibles in public schools.
But then Ginger Strivelli, a parent with a child in the school, brought pagan spell books for the school to make available in the same way—and, poof, the distribution policy disappeared.
Strivelli didn't actually want the school to give out religious material of any kind. But after her complaints about Bible distribution were rebuffed, she decided to test the school district's commitment to equal treatment.
According to a story in the Asheville Citizen-Times, the school's principal was all for fair play in December: "If another group wishes to do the same," she said at the time, "I plan on handling that the same way as I have handled this."
By January, however, the school district had decided that maybe the whole distribution thing wasn't such a good idea after all.
MORE: http://gazettextra.com/news/2012/jan/12/pagans-atheists-christians-and-battle-equal-treatm/
Consider North Windy Ridge Intermediate School in Buncombe County, N.C. In December, school officials arranged for students to come by the office during break to pick up Bibles donated by the Gideons.
In the view of many people in the community (especially those of the majority faith), outside groups such as the Gideons should have a religious-liberty right to distribute Bibles in public schools.
But then Ginger Strivelli, a parent with a child in the school, brought pagan spell books for the school to make available in the same way—and, poof, the distribution policy disappeared.
Strivelli didn't actually want the school to give out religious material of any kind. But after her complaints about Bible distribution were rebuffed, she decided to test the school district's commitment to equal treatment.
According to a story in the Asheville Citizen-Times, the school's principal was all for fair play in December: "If another group wishes to do the same," she said at the time, "I plan on handling that the same way as I have handled this."
By January, however, the school district had decided that maybe the whole distribution thing wasn't such a good idea after all.
MORE: http://gazettextra.com/news/2012/jan/12/pagans-atheists-christians-and-battle-equal-treatm/
