District's Clampdown on Religious Music Criticized as Unconstitutional
by Jim Brown
December 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - - A pro-family law firm has filed an appeal against a New Jersey school district that banned instrumental Christmas music. The Thomas More Law Center is asking the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to end the South Orange/Maplewood School District's ban on religious music. The ban was implemented last year to prevent the use of Christmas music at year-end celebrations in the district.
Rob Muise, the attorney handling the case for the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Law Center, argues the district is violating the Establishment Clause, found in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Muise contends there are "plenty" of court cases that, under the Constitution, it is perfectly permissible to have religious instrumental and choral music in schools during the Christmas holiday time.
"So when these school districts claim [they are] doing this because of separation of church and state or so forth, that's just not true," the attorney explains. "It really is just a way for them to mask what their true, illicit purpose is, which is to keep Christmas out of the public school and take it out of the public domain."
In fact, says Law Center chief counsel Richard Thompson, it is a "blatant anti-religious policy" that serves as an example of a "total and militant hostility that many public schools exhibit towards the celebration of Christmas."
According to Muise, the New Jersey school district is relying on a policy drafted nearly 15 years ago that stated religious music has to be tied to a school's curriculum. He explains that even though the district had permitted Christmas music to be played in schools in the past, it decided in 2004 to re-institute that old policy and to enforce a complete ban on religious music.
But the attorney notes that "since we filed this lawsuit and filed the appeal, they rewrote their policy, which looks very ... similar to the policy that they had in 1991."
Muise says the South Orange/Maplewood School District needs to adopt an inclusive and tolerant view of religion. Right now, he says, the district is hiding under a "mantle of 'tolerance'" to promote intolerance toward Christians.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
