Why High School Students Can’t Discuss the Bible

The Supreme Court turns down the Lubbock case.

It had all the elements of a major test of freedom of religion, say the Christian Legal Society (CLS) lawyers who invested fatiguing hours to get their argument ready for the U.S. Supreme Court. The court thought otherwise and, without a comment, decided not to hear Lubbock Independent School District v. Lubbock Civil Liberties Union.

The issue was whether high school students could organize a Bible discussion group in the same way they might form a chess club or debating team. Public school officials in Lubbock, Texas, had said they certainly could, as long as the meetings were voluntary. Nobody’s particular set of beliefs was at stake. The issue was seen as freedom of speech, not religion. The ACLU challenged this as unconstitutional, and was upheld in the Fifth Circuit Federal Court. Similar free speech rights were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year for college age students in Widmar v. Vincent, but that decision has not been interpreted to apply to younger students.

Controversy about prayer in schools has been marked by continual misunderstandings of the Supreme Court’s 1962 and 1963 decisions on the issue. Some have alleged that the Court removed God from the classroom, exaggerating the Court’s intent by trying to snuff out all religious expression in schools.

CLS Washington office director Samuel E. Ericsson disputes those who say the Court banished prayer from schoolrooms. What the Court said, Ericsson explains, is that “the state had no business writing official prayers. Second, public school teachers should not be placed in the role of a priest or minister in the classroom.” But the Court did not prohibit student-initiated voluntary groups from organizing prayer groups or Bible study.

The Lubbock decision is an example of how those decisions are being twisted into a virtual ban on any school religious activity, and it may embolden civil liberties groups to challenge such meetings elsewhere around the country. Forest Montgomery, the legal counsel at the National Association of Evangelicals’ Washington office, speculated that “the ACLU may try to intimidate every other school district in the U.S.” The government’s official position toward religion is neutrality, balanced between free exercise and state establishment. Lawyers seeking to appeal the Lubbock case viewed it as replacing state neutrality with court-ordered discrimination against religion.

The Supreme Court kept to itself its reasons for not hearing the case, but a number of factors help explain why. Since two of the nation’s eleven circuit courts of appeals have reached similar conclusions on the issue, Ericsson said the Supreme Court “may want to see it percolate longer in the lower courts.” Usually, the Supreme Court views itself as a court of last resort to settle differences that persist among lower courts. For example, the Court did agree to rule on five abortion cases arising from conflicting decisions by courts in Ohio, Missouri, and Virginia.

The percolating process is happening around the country, with similar controversies heating up in Anderson, South Carolina; Williamsport, Pennsylvania; northern and southern California; Pittsburgh; and Seattle. If one of these is decided in favor of the students, a clear conflict with the Lubbock and New York cases would be likely to compel Supreme Court consideration.

In Williamsport, 40 students who wanted to form a Bible club to meet during a regular activity period at the beginning of the school day were refused permission, and they filed suit last June. Ericsson is optimistic that in one of these cases, the students will win out. “By no stretch of the imagination are we being thrown into the lion’s den” because of the Lubbock outcome.

The Supreme Court also may be biding its time and waiting for a legislated answer to emerge from Congress. Two bills that address the issue are on the runway, including a measure introduced by Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Oreg.) last year. Patterned after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it would make it easier for students to bring suit. Right now, it is very difficult to argue a case for religious free speech in court because it must be derived from broader civil rights precedents. A lawyer in Hatfield’s office explained that a statute to protect religious free speech would give students a narrow “cause of action” to address their complaint. At the same time, the bill would preserve state neutrality by stating that no one in authority may try to influence the content of prayer or discussion.

Sen. Jeremiah Denton (R-Ala) is sponsoring a second “equal access” bill that goes a step further than Hatfield’s by protecting the rights of teachers and other nonstudents, such as off-campus parachurch group leaders. Denton’s bill “goes for the broad sweep,” according to an aide, by addressing the problem at all levels, not just at junior high and high school. Hatfield’s bill is designed to generate the broadest support possible, but Denton’s aide said a compromise will be attempted. “It takes more than a Hatfield and more than a Denton,” he said. “The synergism of the two together can create a stronger effect than either could alone.”

Denton and 22 other U.S. senators joined Hatfield in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the Lubbock case—an unusual move that the Christian Legal Society thought would help persuade the court to consider the appeal.

Another reason for the Supreme Court’s reluctance to accept the Lubbock case to set precedent, according to Ericsson, could be a history of conflict over religion in Lubbock schools. During the 1970s, student volunteers read a prayer over the school’s public address system each morning. Evangelical speakers at all-school assemblies would sometimes give invitations to receive Christ. This led to charges by the ACLU that the activities amounted to state-sponsored revival meetings. Before the suit came to trial then, Lubbock schools substituted the current policy, confining religious activities on school grounds to voluntary student-led groups meeting before or after class. But civil liberties lawyers called this a facade behind which the previous activities might continue.

Even though their request for a Supreme Court hearing was denied, CLS lawyers succeeded in raising the conciousness of Christians about the need to protect religious free speech. They obtained friend-of-the-court briefs from the National Council of Churches, Pat Robertson’s Freedom Council, NAE, Christian Educators Association, and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, as well as the 24 senators. They had retained the legal services of noted Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski, who died shortly after all the petitions in the case were filed.

For students who are still caught in the tangle of legal maneuvering, Ericsson’s advice is to keep meeting for informal, voluntary religious discussions. “I maintain that even the ACLU would come to the defense of students who sit together in a school cafeteria or on the lawn, study the gospel of Matthew, and are suspended for it,” he says.

Top High School Students Hold Religion Dear

Religion plays a prominent role in the lives of high school students who earn top grades and participate in extracurricular activities, a recent poll reports. The poll by Educational Communications, which compiles and publishes Who’s Who Among American High School Students, surveyed 55,000 juniors and seniors with better-than-average grades from 22,000 public, private, and parochial high schools across the nation. The survey provides an insight into factors that contribute to the development of high achievers.

Home environment emerges as possibly the most important factor. The survey shows that 85 percent of high achievers are reared in homes in which both natural parents live and formal religion is practiced. Nearly 45 percent live in rural communities. By an 84-percent margin, high achievers favor traditional marriages and reject the use of cigarettes and illegal drugs. Only 4 percent have used marijuana, and 89 percent have never smoked cigarettes. Another 7 percent have tried smoking and quit, leaving only 4 percent that smoke on a regular basis. Although they hold conservative political views, these students overwhelmingly reject racial segregation and discrimination of every kind and oppose the practice of banning “objectionable” books from school and public libraries.

The young people surveyed were among 363,000 listed in the latest edition of Who’s Who Among American High School Students, a directory of pupils with outstanding records in academics, community service, and extracurricular activities.

“This is not a poll of average high school students. These teenagers will be tomorrow’s leaders,” said Tari Marshall, project spokeswoman. She said the poll, which is the thirteenth conducted by Educational Communications, sought for the first time to elicit a profile of high achievers, their personal backgrounds, family lives, and attitudes on both moral and political issues. She said the results agree with the finding of a number of scientific studies conducted by sociologists and psychologists. Those studies also concluded that most Christian religions and Judaism foster positive attitudes towards life and responsibility and that a stable home provides children with the self-confidence needed for high achievement.

RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE

Christian Book Publisher Loses Tax Exemption

The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company (PRPC) has lost its tax-exempt status. In addition, it owes the Internal Revenue Service at least $75,000 in back taxes because of the federal tax court’s decision, according to Bryce Craig, general manager of the publishing company.

The battle took five-and-a-half years. Craig said no decision has been made on an appeal because that could take an additional two years, PRPC, which has headquarters in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, was founded in 1931 and sells 750,000 books per year. It sells mainly to seminary students and pastors in the Reformed tradition.

The IRS claimed that the publishing company “increasingly adopted a commercial method of operation” and was “engaged in business activity which is similar to a commercial enterprise.” The case started in 1977 when an IRS agent notified the PRPCthat it had too large a surplus.

Craig, who called the long legal fight “discouraging,” said the publishing company had argued that it used volunteer labor; that the nature of its books made it a distinct ministry, since it published books other publishing companies wouldn’t print; that many of its authors didn’t get a royalty; and that it sold books at discounts to students.

The bottom line is that “we feel we’re less commercial than most publishers.” Craig said. “My father worked for nothing from 1955 until his retirement in 1980. He donated his time and the use of his home, which was his office.” Craig said many religious publishers are tax exempt. “Most denominations have a publishing house; they’re a nonprofit ministry. We got singled out because we’re not under the umbrella of another ministry,” he said.

Should The Fcc Have Closed Its Books On The Ptl Case?

Christian television show host James Bakker and his associates at the PTL religious network were breathing easier in December when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dropped its three-year-old investigation of money-raising practices. The FCC also permitted Bakker to turn his indebted Canton, Ohio, television station over to a new owner.

Now, however, the FCC’S action is being challenged by a national office of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and a minority rights group. Part of what troubles the UCC’S Office of Communications is that the new owner of the Canton station WJAN-TV has no base in Canton. The David Livingstone Missionary Foundation, which now has the station, was established in 1970 as the missionary arm of the anti-Communist preacher Billy James Hargis and his Church of the Christian Crusade. The Livingstone Foundation is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hargis has not been connected with it since 1980.

The national United Church of Christ and a UCC congregation in Canton have filed a petition with the FCC to get the case reopened. The National Black Media Coalition of Washington, D.C., has also filed a petition.

The FCC commissioners were sharply divided four to three when they voted to end their investigation of PTL and approve the Canton station transfer. The commissioners did, however, send their file on PTL to the Justice Department without saying why. It is not known what the Justice Department plans to do.

The United Church of Christ is not as upset about who the new owner of the Canton station is as it is that the FCC allowed the transfer to be made.

The commission’s action was called “a knee-jerk, rubber-stamp decision” by Donna Demac, staff attorney of the UCC Office of Communication. The FCC action “is illegal, it is irrational, and it cannot withstand judicial review,” contended David Honig, research director of the National Black Media Coalition. He said the commission had never before approved a license transfer from an owner that was being investigated.

Under the so-called distress-sale policy, Honig said, a licensee under investigation may sell its license to minority groups for no more than 75 percent of the fair market value, “PTL had indicated that if there were a hearing, it would go the distress-sale route,” but the FCC approval of the license transfer closed the door to that possibility, he said. Honig, who is a professor of communications policy at Howard University, said that “the only effect that this can have is to keep WJAN-TV from winding up in minority-owned hands.”

He said the coalition had “no grudge against PTL,” and that it viewed the Livingstone Foundation as “an innocent third party” in the dispute over the FCC action. According to Honig, the filing of the motion for stay meant that PTL continues to hold the station’s license because the two parties “did not effectuate the transaction.”

A spokesman for the FCC in Washington said that the agency was taking the charges against PTL seriously. “We felt the allegations were fairly serious,” said FCC spokesman Bill Russell. “Through the testimony and investigation, we felt they were serious enough to refer to the Justice Department. This is not an exoneration of anybody.”

When the FCC order was announced in December, commissioners Joseph R. Fogarty and Henry M. Rivera issued a stinging dissent. They charged that the commission’s action “does heavy violence to applicable law and precedent and is a rude and cynical insult to this commission’s jurisdiction and processes.” They declared that “the majority has short-circuited proper process with no explanation, thereby clearly signifying it lacks the courage of whatever convictions have led it to this malodorous result.” In a separate dissent, Commissioner Anne P. Jones asserted that “permitting this transfer to Livingstone establishes an entirely new policy that a licensee under a cloud can derail commission enforcement processes merely by transferring his license to any qualified successor.”

During the 1970s, Livingstone was the target of charges similar to those made about PTL—that it solicited funds for missionary work but used them for operating expenses. In 1974, Reader’s Digest cited the Livingstone Foundation as one of several charities using questionable procedures in an article entitled, “Charities: Which Ones Are Worth Giving to?”

RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE

World Scene

Pope John Paul II signed a new Code of Canon Law for the Roman Catholic church last month. The first revision of the church’s basic rules in 66 years—which will become effective on November 27, the first Sunday in Advent—formalizes change instituted by the Second Vatican Council. Some of the changes: reduction of the annual holy days of obligation from 10 to 2; reduction of the grounds for automatic ex-communication from 37 to 7 (abortion is still included); permission for Catholics to marry non-Catholics if local bishops approve; prohibition of priests and nuns holding public office and engaging in union and political activities; and termination of an experiment in the U.S. and Australia that reduced the average time required to obtain annulment of a marriage.

The “inner exodus” in the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden appears to be spreading to the Church of Norway. Those making plans to affiliate with a new, separate and conservative synod in Norway are those disturbed by the abortion issue, and are said to have links to both “the low church Association for Bible and Confession … and the high church Church Renewal” groups. In Sweden, meanwhile, a fourth diaconate has been formed, made up of members who object to the ordination of women, the inclusion of nonbaptized persons on church membership roles, and to powers the government holds over the church in some matters.

East Germany is bracing itself for a massive influx of foreign tourists to celebrate the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s birth. The (Lutheran) Evangelical Federation has extended official invitations to 600 Western church officials, and the total number of North American visitors should surpass 300,000. Church-sponsored celebrations will commence officially at the Wartburg in Eisenach on May 4, concluding on November 13 in Leipzig. During the summer, seven regional church conferences (Kirchentage) will be held. The largest one, in Dresden during July, should attract 80,000 participants. The Wittenberg church conference in September will be devoted entirely to the study of Luther. The Marxist German Democratic Republic has also fielded a Luther committee, chaired by none other than Erich Honecker, head of both party and state. The main government-sponsered Luther commemoration is scheduled for November 9 in East Berlin.

Soviet believers in registered churches have opened 205 new churches over the past five years. The general secretary of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Alexei Bychkov, made this report during a visit to Britain last month as part of a 12-man Christian delegation. This contrasts with the Russian Orthodox church, which has managed to open only a handful during the same time span. Bychkov attributed the difference to the more direct appeal of simple worship and clear preaching.

Soviet authorities are raising the student quotas at the Roman Catholic seminaries in Lithuania and Latvia for the first time since World War II. The Council of Religious Affairs has agreed to the admission of 32 new theology students for the winter semester in Lithuania, and of 19 in Latvia. The seminary at Kaunas, Lithuania, had 150 students in 1946, had been reduced to 62 students by 1979, and now has 97. The former Baltic States are the only part of the USSR that traditionally were predominantly Roman Catholic.

South African government defense and security officials have met with the leadership of the Dutch Reformed church and urged it to steer away from growing isolation to help counter an “onslaught” against the dominant Afrikaner state-and-church combination in South Africa. According to a report by Hennie Serfontein in the Cape Times, their secret advice included proposals that the denomination retain its membership in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and that it join the South African Council of Churches.

The church in northern Mozambique isvigorous and growing in spite of having been cut off from direct missionary contact for 20 years, reports the Africa Evangelical Fellowship. The 450 congregations are short of Portuguese-language Bibles and hymnbooks, but they have some 44,000 members.

Kenya’s president has warned that his government may be forced to cancel the licenses of religious sects involved in leadership squabbles. Daniel arap Moi’s remarks followed an incident at the Nairobi church of the Gospel Furthering Fellowship in which an American missionary locked the church gates in order to preclude the holding of a service led by a rival Kenyan pastor. Local government officials intervened to order the gates opened.

Ethiopia’s usual winter rains did not materialize this year, leading to drought and famine. Ethiopian officials have appealed to governments and voluntary agencies for massive supplies of grain to stave off starvation for as many as 5 million Ethiopians, whose livelihood is based on an agricultural economy. Protestant missions and relief agencies are among those targeting aid to the country, which suffered a major famine in 1974 and 1975.

A “sensational” archaeological find has been made in a buried hillside cave opposite Mount Zion. Tel Aviv University archaeologist Gabriel Barkay leads a team that discovered nearly 1,000 artifacts in a tomb dating from the seventh century B.C. A cave-in of the tomb roof apparently protected the treasure trove from grave robbers. One notable find: an almost pure silver scroll inscribed with the classical Hebrew spelling of God’s name Yahweh (or Jehovah). Barkay said, “It’s the first time in 150 years of archaeological excavations in Jerusalem that the name of the Lord has been found.”

What is the refugee situation in Southeast Asia now? Although eight camps have been closed in Thailand, 169,000 refugees were still there in six remaining camps at the beginning of the year. That is down from 193,000 a year earlier. A recent census revealed that 10,000 new refugees had illicitly entered the largest camp, Khao I Dang. But 9,000 voluntarily returned to Kampuchea (Cambodia), 1,000 to Laos, and 33,000 were resettled overseas—19,000 of them in the U.S. and 2,000 in Canada.

7,000 European Youth Convene For Missions Conference

Asked to describe the church in Switzerland, an elderly Swiss pastor tipped his head to one side, rested it on his folded hands, and whimsically replied, “Sie shlaft” (She’s sleeping). But the activity just a few blocks from where the pastor stood was proof enough that the church in Europe is not dead. In fact, Mission ’83, a missions conference for European youths, had some overtones of revival.

During the 1982 Christmas holiday season, more than 7,000 young people from about 30 European nations met at the site of the landmark 1974 Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. The conference was organized by TEMA (The European Missionary Association). The purpose was to think, learn, and pray about world missions.

Switzerland had the largest delegation, with 1,603 representatives. Germany was second with 1,069. Some were pleasantly surprised that Portugal (387), Italy (285), and Yugoslavia (131) had significant representation.

Mission ’83 has been described as “Europe’s Urbana” by those fond of likening it to Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship’s biggest missions conference. But conference organizers shun the comparison. “It is a youth conference rather than a student conference,” explains Luc Verlinden, assistant director of TEMA. “Also it must take into account the national preferences and differences of all the European nations represented.” Unlike Urbana, conference leaders did not ask for a public commitment and a head count of mission volunteers. Said Verlinden, “A difference between the U.S. and Europe is that we do not like numbers or statistics. Were we to announce those, many Europeans would be upset.”

Urbana director John Kyle, who attended Mission ’83 as an observer, agrees the conference was different. “It’s a more stupendous task than Urbana,” Kyle said. “I am impressed with the unity in bringing together so many nations and languages. It must surely impress not only the skeptical world looking on but the church in Western Europe.”

Efficient translators, polished organization, and thousands of headphone sets combined to unify what could have been another Tower of Babel at Mission ’83. As messages were delivered, they were translated into 12 languages—more than 3,000 headphones were distributed for each meeting.

Twenty-five national committees recruited young people in their own countries, and planned and promoted Mission ’83. More than 250 booths were manned by some 650 missionaries and representatives for European-based missions. All these groups faced the formidable task of translating their messages into at least seven languages. Those who gave slide/tape presentations provided individual earphones for each language group.

Although the European press tends to ignore evangelical functions, TEMA director Eric Gay, a Swiss pastor, was interviewed on a Lausanne news program. Local newspapers gave broad coverage, though sometimes with tongue in cheek. One headline read, “Mission ’83, Somewhere Between Show Business and Spirituality.”

The conference was the third of its kind. More than 2,500 attended Mission ’76, which spawned TEMA, and nearly 7,000 attended Mission ’80. Mainline reform churches declined active participation in Mission ’83, partly because, according to some, they fear TEMA will become another dead institution. To counteract this fear and to promote missions interest among local churches, Mission ’83 offered a concurrent pastors conference for the first time. More than 600 pastors and missionaries attended.

Asked if he thought Mission ’83 was a sign of awakening, Verlinden replied, “I can’t really say. But it is certainly evident that something is happening in some areas of Europe today. And it could be the beginning of a revival.” A TEMA spokesman commented, “There is no doubt that among European youths there is a new wave of interest in missionary work. They get up early and go to bed late. The days are spent in Bible study, prayer, singing, and getting to know what is going on in the world.”

Others have made similar observations, concerned that the church in Europe, as it is, could never support a massive missions movement among its youth.

LORRY LUTZ

Methodist Church Employees Vote To Unionize

In an unprecedented development, more than 200 general staff workers of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries (BOGM) have voted to join the United Auto Workers. This marks the first time church workers have joined a major American labor union.

Union organizers and BOGM management agreed that the major issue was not money. La Verne Booker, a member of the union organizing committee, said the workers objected, among other things, to the merit system of promotion and salary increases, which, she said, is “based solely on evaluation by immediate supervisors.” A press representative said that workers believe the union “would give them a voice.”

District 65 organizer Karen Ackerman reasoned that since the BOGM has historically supported struggling workers, it should be more willing to hear the voices of its own people. Prior to the vote, the board’s general secretary, Randolph Nugent, sent a letter to staff members in which he stated that management “neither supports nor opposes a union.” He added, “We support your right to decide for yourselves.”

Nugent’s letter questioned required payment of union dues, the possibility that all employees must join the union, and its ability to pay strike benefits.

Ackerman said the letter was “skewed” and critical of unions. She claimed the letter “definitely discouraged workers and had all the elements of antiunion propaganda we see from hostile management, even though the language was more flowery.”

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