Public schools may be free to distribute condoms—but not Bibles.
According to a federal judge in my home state of Louisiana, the Loranger Middle School violated the so-called “Separation of Church and State” by inviting the Gideons to visit the school for a Bible giveaway. Although Principal Andre Pellerin notified the teachers in advance and stressed to them that “students DO NOT have to get a Bible,” an anonymous family partnered with the ACLU and sued the district.
They claimed that their fifth-grade daughter felt pressured to take the Bible even though she’s not a Christian. In the summary, Judge Carl Barbier wrote that the “distribution of Bibles is a religious activity without a secular purpose.”
Regardless of the legal spin, it took great courage for Pellerin to invite the Gideons to Loranger, especially given educators’ hypersensitivity to religion. We commend him for trying to counter the public schools’ unconstitutional message and expose more kids to the life-changing truth of Scripture.
Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council. This item is excerpted from the update that he compiles for the FRC.
