School's Religious Pictures Come Down ... Churches' Petition Goes Out
by Jim Brown
September 27, 2005
(AgapePress) - A coalition of churches in a small Illinois county is protesting a decision by a local junior high school to confiscate pictures of Jesus and The Lord's Supper.Citing legal liability concerns, the Anna School Board decided to remove the three religious pictures -- two portraits of Christ and a reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" -- from the walls of Anna Junior High School, where they had hung for half a century. The move comes after the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State called on the district to remove the pictures, calling their presence in the school "grossly unconstitutional." Upon advice from its legal counsel, the district complied.
Local churches outraged over the decision are now circulating a petition to get the pictures re-hung. Pastor Al Campbell is president of the Union County Alliance of Churches. "It's time to draw a line in the sand, so to speak, and we are going to do everything we can to get those pictures re-hung," the Methodist pastor says.
School superintendent Bob O'Dell expressed to The Southern Illinoisan his belief that many people in the district were fine with their presence, but that it was obvious someone was not and contacted Americans United, which does not have a state chapter. "Those pictures have been up there 50 years at least," O'Dell said. "We felt the community wanted those pictures to be there."
As for Pastor Campbell, he believes ignorance of the Constitution and anti-Christian bigotry are at play. "There's a misunderstanding around the nation as to the separation of church and state," he asserts. "Separation of church and state was never meant to be used in the way it is being used now. But I do feel like the people that forced this action probably are anti-Christian or atheist."
It is not clear, he adds, whether the letter from Americans United came from someone who is a member of the district or someone who does not even live in the area. "[W]e don't know because they still have never signed the letter," he says, "so we don't know who they are."
Campbell says the Alliance of Churches will present the petition to the Anna School Board at its October 18 meeting.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
