I was all set to say somebody should form a Freedom from the Freedom from Religion Foundation Foundation when I saw that somebody has — on Facebook. Prompting the thought was the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s censorship of prayers at Hamilton County Schools sporting events.
Targets are plentiful if you want to lay blame for this fresh outburst of secularist pouting. There’s the Supreme Court that substitutes wishful thinking for the text of the Constitution in rulings undercutting religious liberty. There’s the schools administration, tripping over itself to surrender at the first gripe funneled through some busybody special interest.
And there’s the special interest itself, the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Ruminating on its taffy-footed rationales for silencing prayer is fruitful — assuming you first step through the looking glass. Here are my favorite attempted arguments by one Annie Laurie Gaylor, director of the foundation:
* “Students are a captive audience; they’re required to go to school,” quoth Gaylor. “When there is a violation like a prayer at a school, they’re really vulnerable; it’s a violation of their civil rights.”
Memo from reality: Football games fall into a category of occurrences known as “extracurricular activities.” One standard dictionary definition of “extracurricular” is “not part of the required curriculum.” What part of “not required” don’t the aggrieved atheists at the Freedom from Religion Foundation get?