Delicious Backpack Irony

I am taking a certain pleasure in this little story, which Blog from the Capital aptly titled "The Shoe on the Other Foot..."

Let me take you back to September 28, when a local central Virginia news web site called The Hook, which bills itself as "Charlottesville's home page," carried this little story.

A letter from the Jerry Falwell-linked Liberty Counsel has prompted the Albemarle County School Board to change its policy. The Board will now allow religious organizations to send home fliers with school children in backpack mail.

Liberty Counsel, which, according to its website, is "dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family," wrote the Albemarle County school system that its policy banning distribution of religious materials was unconstitutional.

This summer, Hollymead Elementary twins Gabriel and Joshua Rakoski wanted to distribute fliers about their church's vacation bible school. When their teacher refused, their father, Ray Rakoski, contacted the school and was advised of the county's policy that prohibited "distribution of literature that is for partisan, sectarian, religious or political purposes."

Rakoski sicced the Liberty Counsel on the county, and the new policy that opens up so-called "backpack mail" to religious nonprofits could be voted in by the School Board September 28.

"We're pleased the school changed its policy so quickly and correctly," says Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman. "The law is clear-- when schools allow the distribution of secular material, they must accommodate religious material."

Staver refers to a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a Good News Club's right to distribute fliers in Montgomery County schools in Maryland.

School have two choices, says Kent Willis, director of the ACLU of Virginia: prohibit any distribution of material by outside nonprofits or allow all materials to be distributed.

"The real issue is viewpoint discrimination," he explains. For instance, schools can't allow YMCA basketball league to send home fliers but refuse one for Bible school or the gay-straight alliance. NEWS- Frequent fliers: Albemarle okays religious mail

OK, we know Liberty Counsel, they were the Falwell-connected legal team who represented the anti-MCPS suers last year, here in Montgomery County. Now they're down in Albemarle County, Virginia, doing the same kind of thing. This is not surprising, somehow.

So now kids down there are going to be getting Chick Publications and Watchtowers in their backpacks. Great.

And I wouldn't want to leave out this part:

"I think it would be unconstitutional to prohibit political material," says Liberty Counsel's Staver, who isn't worried about schools being inundated. "They're not required to accept everything," he says, citing exemptions for libelous, obscene or pornographic material. Nor does he object if Muslim or Jewish groups want to distribute information about their events in schools. "The First Amendment is not just for the Liberty Counsel," he says. "You can't just pick and choose."

Even nonprofits that often oppose Liberty Counsel-- for example, Planned Parenthood-- should be allowed to use the schools to get their messages out, Staver says. "You can't transport kids to an abortion clinic," he stipulates, "but you can send material home and let parents make a decision."

And if the Aryan Nation is having a family event? "You can always think of a hard example," concedes Staver. "I haven't seen the Aryan Nation come up with outreach to kids with picnics or lessons."

(But Straight Nation, aka PFOX, will ...)

Flash forward to the ironic moment, relayed to us by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This article was written by Rob Boston, who spoke at our great religious forum last month. I missed it, but I think we will have a transcription of Mr. Boston's talk soon, which I hope to post here -- everybody says it was really inspirational and informative.

A group of Pagans in Albemarle County, Va., was recently given permission to advertise their multi-cultural holiday program to public school children – and they have the Rev. Jerry Falwell to thank for it.
...
Some local Pagans who attend Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, a Unitarian-Universalist congregation in Charlottesville, decided to take advantage of the new forum as well. They created a one-page flier advertising a Dec. 9 event celebrating the December holidays with a Pagan twist and used the backpack system to invite the entire school community.

“Have you ever wondered what ‘Holidays’ refers to?” reads the flier. “Everyone knows about Christmas – but what else are people celebrating in December? Why do we celebrate the way we do?”

The flier invites people to “an educational program for children of all ages (and their adults), where we’ll explore the traditions of December and their origins, followed by a Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule.”

It concludes, “Come for one or both parts and bring your curiosity.” Falwell’s Flub: Jerry-Rigged Policy Opens Door For Pagan Proselytizing In Virginia Public School

Hmm, I think I like this.

Find out about the holidays.

Like, can somebody please show me the passage in the New Testament that says, "Thou shalt decorate the evergreen in thy homes, and lay gifts thereunder"? No, that would have been a pagan tradition, would it not? This wouldn't be the practice that was condemned in Jeremiah 10:2-4, because of its pagan origins ... would it?

And how about that Santa? Please open your Bibles to verse, uh, where was that again? A guy in a flying sled with a white beard, all in red? And where was that?

Hey, and those reindeer? Weren't there reindeer in the manger? No? There weren't? So don't tell me those came from some Teutonic pagan practice ... oh, they did?

Turns out, Christmas is the "most Magickal time of the year," as the song says.

Well, c'mon, you have to see the humor in it. The religious right wanted to stuff their nutty stuff into kids' backpacks, but it turned out they'll have to share the space.

Here's the fun part:

Suddenly not everyone was pleased by the open forum. Jeff Riddle, pastor of Jefferson Park Baptist Church in Charlottesville, wrote on his personal blog, “If the school allows the Baptist or Methodist church to send home a note to its students about Vacation Bible School, it also has to allow the Unitarian Church to send home a note about its ‘Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule’….This kind of note adds weight to the argument that it is high time for Christians to leave public schools for reasonable alternatives (homeschooling and private Christian schools).”

Another conservative Christian blogger in the county complained about finding the flier in her child’s folder. Apparently unaware of Falwell’s role in bringing it about, the blogger who goes by the name Cathy, noted disclaimer language at the bottom of the flier noting that the event is not connected to the school and wrote, “They [the school officials] aren’t endorsing or sponsoring this? Then it shouldn’t have been included in the Friday folders. The Friday folders have never been used for any thing other than school work and school board and/or County sanctioned/sponsored programs.”

She then fumed that a “pagan ritual” is “an educational experience my children don’t need.”

Well, Cathy and Jeff, it’s a new day. Your pals Falwell and Staver have opened up this forum, and now everyone gets to use it. Isn’t that what you wanted all along – freedom of religion? That freedom means all religions – even ones you don’t happen to like.

Oooch, that shoe-on-the-other-foot thing can hurt.