According to an article published by The Salt Lake Tribune, Sen. Todd Weiler (R-Woods Cross), is drafting a bill that adapts language proposed in the Mississippi legislation, SB 2633, the “Mississippi Student Religious Liberties Act of 2013.” The rhetoric proposed by this approved statute sounds nice on the surface, but the stated purpose of this bill is simply “to provide for voluntary student expression of religious viewpoints in public schools.” However, after a closer look, this act will show its true disempowering nature.
Truth is not subject to debate and the democratic process. We can, for example, both by inductive and deductive reasoning prove that the Earth is round. Then what of the people whose religious or philosophical leanings contradict this clearly proven maxim, such as members of the Flat Earth Society? Should their opinion hold equal weight as those who subscribe to evidence that doesn’t involve global conspiracy theories? It is unfair to students who study the evidence and arrive at conclusions befitting an academic institution to be treated on par with those who appeal to a divine authority for answers. It is a low bar being set if the scientific process is given the same weight as “because God said so.”
A public school ought to be a secular institution for a reason. Failing to recognize one’s god is significantly less offensive than recognizing one god over another, or at least it should be. This bill affords students opportunities to proselytize at sporting events, graduations and even morning announcements. A public school simply is neither the appropriate time nor place for students to preach to other students. Granted, this law protects secular students, but that should be the mainstay. Secularism is not about excluding religions, but rather providing a neutral ground wherein everyone is allowed an equal opportunity to participate in discussion by making arguments that are universally appealing. Furthermore, absent from this bill is language protecting antitheist views, which are neither secular nor religious. Therefore, who is to defend the student who preaches against the various gods to which people of different faiths adhere to?
One must further inquire as to whose religious rights are being trampled on. Already, Mormon students in Utah are allowed a free period in which they receive religious instruction. To be fair, this freedom is extended to other students of other faiths as well. My own graduation ceremony began with a prayer. Was I to simply accept that the school allowed a student on my behalf, an atheist, to seek out God to approve my completion of school? I don’t believe God put as much effort into my graduation as I did.
The bill being drafted by Todd Weiler will open up religious discussion where it ought not to be. It will disenfranchise those in the minority by forcing them to accept proselytization by the majority. Schools will no longer be able to hold each student to a uniform academic standard, unfair to those who abide by evidence and reason. Secularism is in place for a reason, and stripping it away only demeans and disenfranchises its adherents. If God wants you to have a blessed day, then feel free to express it in your church, your home or the appropriate public forum. But please keep it out of our schools.