School Rebuked for Barring Anti-Sodomy Clergy from Event
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
October 11, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Michigan high school is paying a high price for censoring a Catholic student's views against homosexuality during the school's annual "Diversity Week" program.
Last December, Judge Gerald Rosen ruled that Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor violated the United States Constitution's establishment clause by holding a one-sided forum on "Homosexuality and Religion" that only included pro-homosexual clergy members. The school rejected student Betsy Hansen's request to include a panel member who would express her Roman Catholic views against homosexuality.
Judge Rosen recently ordered the school to pay more than $100,000 in attorney fees to the Thomas More Law Center, which represented Hansen. The Center's lead counsel Robert Muise considers the ruling a significant step forward in addressing a widespread problem. "The social engineering that's going on in the public schools needs to stop," he says.
Muise believes the ruling has sent a message that will be noted by government schools nationwide that are pushing a politically correct agenda. "I think this case has taken a giant step towards stemming the tide and, hopefully, getting schools focused on educating the students in the traditional sense and not this political correctness brainwashing that's going on in the public school system," he says.
Pioneer High School officials argued that the Catholic student's views against homosexuality were "negative" and would "water down" the positive religious message the school wanted to convey during Diversity Week -- that homosexuality is consistent with Christianity and homosexual behavior is not immoral or sinful. Hansen objected to the fact that school officials had handpicked clergy who endorsed the school's pro-homosexual agenda.
Judge Rosen ruled in favor of Hansen and gave an opinion that blistered Ann Arbor Schools' "diversity program." In that opinion he pointed out the "ironic, and unfortunate, paradox of a public high school celebrating 'diversity' by refusing to permit the presentation to students of an 'unwelcomed' viewpoint ... while actively promoting the competing view."
Still more unsettling, the judge added, is the fact that the "approved viewpoint" was presented to students as religious doctrine by six clerics, some in religious attire and quoting scripture. The entire case raises many questions, Rosen observed, but he noted unequivocally that "sponsorship of one viewpoint to the exclusion of another hardly seems to further the school's purported objective of 'celebrating diversity.'"
Muise is pleased that the judge ruled in favor of his client, and he gives much of the credit for this First Amendment victory to her character. "It was really because of her courage to stand up and to fight the school that we're able to bring these kinds of lawsuits," he says. "So it's important for Christians to be the light of the world and the salt of the Earth. We can't hide that light under a bushel basket."
The Thomas More attorney commends all young Christians who come forward to challenge their school administrations in these sorts of religious discrimination cases. He says Hansen "needs to be congratulated for that" and adds, "We need to support young students -- those who want to speak out against these sorts of injustices."
Richard Thompson, Thomas More Law Center's president and chief counsel, joined Muise in acknowledging the significance of Judge Rosen's ruling, saying it sends "a clear message to public schools that insidiously attempt to advance the homosexual agenda" using diversity as their "Trojan Horse." Thompson also applauds Hansen's courageous refusal to be silenced, calling her an example to other Christian students facing religious discrimination.
