Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993 TAG: 9301220219
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOLIDAY-NAME COMBATANTS SEEK COMMON GROUND
MONTGOMERY COUNTY RESIDENTS still are talking about a flap over whether to name school breaks for the seasons, shared by all, or religious holidays, shared by most. On Thursday, people on both sides got together and talked.
Two men stood side by side on the stage near the front of Tried-Stone Christian Center. The tall man with dark hair was speaking; the shorter one, with gray hair, was nodding, saying softly: Amen.
A scene not so odd perhaps, in a church, until you consider the two men. The taller one, in the suit, was Daniel Schneck, the beleaguered former chairman of the Montgomery County School Board who resigned after a flap over the names of holiday vacations.
The shorter man, in a turtleneck and plaid shirt, was John LeDoux, chairman of the Christian Coalition, which helped mobilize opposition to the county's use of secular names.
LeDoux had invited Schneck to the monthly meeting of the coalition to give him a chance to explain his views.
What prompted him? "All of this controversy," LeDoux said. "I thought everybody needed to see both sides."
The two men, both Virginia Tech professors, had talked at length last week, LeDoux said. "We have the same objectives. We both want to improve our schools. We both want morality in our schools."
It is over this names controversy that they disagree. Schneck had suggested to the School Board months ago that the employees' calendar be made consistent with the school calendar, which had referred to secular holidays for years.
The School Board had agreed unanimously, after a brief discussion.
But somehow, Schneck was portrayed as the bad guy. He received phone calls. People referred to him as an atheist, an antichrist.
The Board of Supervisors disagreed with the School Board and passed a resolution saying so. Schneck resigned.
LeDoux supported the use of religious names, fearing that the secular names represented a deeper effort to remove all signs of religion from the schools. Said LeDoux: "I've gotten a couple of crazy phone calls, too."
And so it was that Schneck stood at the front of this religious group, representing some 30 churches, saying that he thought religion had a place in the schools. He just wanted, he said, for religions to have equal access. His goal was inclusion, he said, not exclusion.
"I was shaving today and I looked in the mirror and I said to myself, `Schneck, why are you doing this? You're not on the School Board anymore. You're not in public life.' I'm here for the same reason you all are here. We share in common a caring and a concern for our community."
And he worries, he said, about a moral decline.
Schneck, who grew up in a Jewish household in Brooklyn, N.Y., was given school time growing up to go to his synagogue and learn. His classmates, he said, were given that same time to go to church or, perhaps, to mosque. It would not be a bad idea for Montgomery County, he said, for students to learn about many religions.
"We can all learn a lot from one another," he said. "We all want the operative words to be peace, love, tolerance and responsibility."
The rest of the state is watching Montgomery County, he said. "Montgomery County can step in front of the nation and say, `We have this figured out.' Schneck's speech lasted 30 minutes.
At the end, there was applause.
People said, "We needed to hear you."
And then added, "But you need to hear us, too." There were still concerns.
What about satanism? If schools had to allow access to religions, what about the evil ones, what about the cults?
What about homosexuality? How could the parents keep that out of the curriculum?
Why wasn't it simpler just to add names of the other religious holidays next to the words "Christmas Break"?
There were answers to some of the questions, answers, Schneck said, in finding a happy medium, if that were possible.
To find that medium, people needed to talk.
In his opening prayer, Vince Guerra, pastor of this church, asked for guidance, "a spirit of love . . . and openness."
Perhaps he got that. And perhaps, in the rain that fell on this town Thursday, there fell a few drops, also, of understanding.