What part of "freedom" don't you get?

Commentor Anonymous on my post about the atheist litigation in Rhode Island to force a high school to remove a small prayer on a wall mural:

Anonymous said...

Imagine that an atheist principal or teacher made a sign that said "There is no God: discard your outdated religious beliefs and start growing morally and mentally!" Then they hang this sign prominently in a public school.

These is no Constitutional issue. The relevant First Amendment clauses are:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an Establishment of Religion, or prohibiting the Free Exercise thereof..."

The sign is not an Establishment of Religion, which means an official Government Church.

The sign does not interfere with Free Exercise of Religion, because it doesn't prevent anybody from exercising or expressing their own religious belief.

There's no coercion involved. It's just a sign.

Would that be ok with you? Freedom of speech, right? 

I would go the the next school board meeting, and say I didn't like the sign. Not because it broke the law (it didn't), or because it violated my rights (I have no right to be unoffended), but because it's wrong. I don't like wrong stuff on signs in schools.

If the board voted (I like democracy) to leave the sign up, I'd try to get a sign I agreed with put up next to it. If not, I'd tell my kid to ignore it. Good civics lesson for my kid about tolerating things that you don't agree with. It's a free country.

Would you call a Christian student who complained about atheism being pushed by public officials a "little brownshirt"? I somehow doubt it. 

A Christian who dragged another man into court to silence him would be a brownshirt. Brownshirts can be atheists, Christians, etc. Censorship isn't denominationally restricted, although atheists do seem to have an inordinate fondness. I don't like government censorship, and I don't like the use of force to shut people up.

Private speech is protected. But government officials and institutions cannot push their religious views - be it atheism or Christianity - onto their students. This is the law, and it is a good law.

The Free Speech Cause of the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech..."

makes no mention of private, public, government, whatever. It doesn't prohibit speech of any sort. It protects speech. It prohibits laws that abridge freedom of speech. It prohibits the use of government force to shut people up (vide supra).

An example of government force to shut people up would be a federal judge forcing a school to remove a prayer.

And "government officials and institutions push their religious views" all the time and everywhere. Our money invokes God, our Pledge invokes God, every politician who ever lived has invoked God, our national monuments are slathered with God-talk, our military employs chaplains, our legislative bodies employ chaplains who say prayers at legislative sessions, Presidents proclaim Thanksgiving and National Days of Prayer, Presidents say "and God Bless the United States of America" at the end of every State of the Union speech, and Presidents take the oath of office with their hand on a Bible...

Yet you claim that 'it's the law' that "government officials and institutions can't push their religious views?"

What planet are you living on?

The most powerful government officials in American constantly push religious views. And it's entirely Constitutional, because it does not Establish a National Church and because we all have the right, from President to plumber, to Free Exercise of Religion and Freedom of Speech.

What part of "freedom" don't you get?