OK, not really. But they evidently have something against Christians, or at least Christians who are RAs and want to lead a bible study. What is the UW system afraid of? The Associate Director of Housing and Residence Life at UW Eau Claire, Deborah Newman, explains her concerns in an e-mail to the RA. Apparently, having an RA lead a bible study might put undo pressure on other residents, might cause the RA to not be available, and might otherwise conflict with RA duties.
Of course, the key word there is might. It seems to me that if any of those problems do occur, they can be handled on a case by case basis rather than enacting a pre-preemptive ban. Let's look a little more closely at some of Ms. Newman's e-mail.
As an RA you need to be available to your residents both in reality and from their perspective.
Someone please explain to me how leading a bible study in your own dorm room makes you any less available than if you were leading a study group, or any other such activity that is common in a dorm. The answer is that it doesn't. If the RA is needed, the bible study can be interrupted just as easily as any other study.
As a "leader" of a Bible study, one of the roles is to gather and encourage people to attend. These two roles have a strong possibility to conflict in your hall.
Then deal with that if it actually happens. The fact of the matter is that no one is going to feel any more pressured to attend a bible study if it is lead by the RA than if it is lead by someone else on the floor.
I just want to make sure we don't put ourselves in a position where we fail to meet the needs of all of our students, either on purpose or by accident!
Again, then deal with it if it happens. In my experience in living in dorms, the RA basically just keeps the peace and makes sure no one is doing anything blatantly illegal in their rooms. Sometimes, there may be a student having some issues that the RA may need to deal with, but for the most part they just keep some semblance of order. Leading a bible study is not going to interfere with this.
In the end, this is just another example of a school system violating someone's first amendment rights. They are so afraid of violating the establishment clause in some subtle way, but have no qualms about violating the "free expression thereof".
Update: According to a news report I saw on TV regarding this, the ACLU has weighed in on this, and suprise, suprise, they are on the school's side, even though the school is clearly violating the RA's civil rights (specifically, his right to freely express his religious beliefs).
7 comments:
11 06 05
Hey Stuffle:
Great post! You really hit upon the commie takeover in education nowadays. I know it sounds McCarthian, but they are trying to remove GOD from our vocabularies. They are trying to bar our right to assemble and our right to free expression. They bastardize the Establishment Clause to the extent that we can't even have the Ten Commandments (arguably upon which many of our laws are based) displayed in the courthouse as ancient legal documents! There is a real problem here and if we don't watch out, it will soon become illegal to practice your own religion, own private property and raise hell against the STATE. This is bothersome and I believe it to be largely from the LEFT. Everytime the Repubs want to do something to protect our intellectual property, the DEMS want it to be taken away so we can share it with terrorists around the world. This is quite disturbing. Great post and thx for visiting.
It is interesting how selectivly people's rights are protected, also. I am willing to bet that if this kid was a Muslim who was leading other Muslims in their daily prayers from his room, the school would say nothing. Further, if the school did say something, I am willing to bet that the ACLU would side with protecting the kid's rights in that case (and would be right to do so). In this case, however, they side with the UW system.
Plus their whole argument that the RA leading a bible study will put pressure on other students is just stupid.
People don't look up to their RA. They don't look to impress their RA, or gain points with their RA. To most people, the RA is just the guy who tells them to turn their stereo down at 2am, and informs them that if they are underage, they better have their door shut when they are having a beer...
I have been enjoying your comments as I've noticed them on other people's blogs. I completely agreed with your comment today on Mahndisa's blog. I am greatly in favor of vouchers.
One of my guys posted a piece a month or so ago about a Muslim girl who fought for her rights to pray at school. Of course, she won, with the ACLU on her side. There's your evidence.
To be fair, the RA can pray at school. He can even attend bible studies led by other students on his floor, even if said studies are in the dorm rooms. He just cannot lead his own bible study in his room.
A good paralell would be the ACLU fighting on the side of a Muslim student who wanted to lead daily prayer in his or her room. I don't know the details of the case you are talking about, so I don't know it is a good paralell to this case or not.
Anyhow, those are just details. The UW system is still wrong, regardless. I just thought I should clarify that.
11 09 05
The update is scary and shows the inherent hypocrisy of their position. I can't commnt on the current post because I am too ignorant about the topic! Thx for the comments on the blog btw:)
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