Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 6, 1994 TAG: 9404060056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BRISTOL LENGTH: Short
Morgan, chairman of the Bristol School Board, said the board agreed Monday to back off a week-old plan to use the Bible as a high school textbook because it feared a costly lawsuit.
"We can't afford to fight the case," Morgan said. "I've got an IQ higher than a lawn mower. I know when you can fight something and when you're whipped."
The American Civil Liberties Union warned that the plan was a clear violation of the separation of church and state. An attorney for the Virginia School Boards Association consulted by Bristol school officials also called the proposal unconstitutional.
In 1983, a federal lawsuit forced the city of 18,400 to halt Bible classes for elementary school students. Most of the city's predominantly Baptist population supported the Bible program.
Morgan was mayor at the time and vowed to revisit the fight.
He took the new Bible proposal to the School Board last week and won support from four of its five members.
"Eventually, [prayer is] coming back. By the turn of the century, when the schools look like prisons . . . then the silent majority will say, `Hey, we need to do something.' "
by CNB