ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702210006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VICKI SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS
A stack of Bibles on a table in a West Virginia school is ground zero in the latest legal battle over separation of church and state.
They're making a federal case over the Bibles, which were donated by businesses to be provided free to schoolchildren in Buckhannon, W.Va. Opponents say it could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Bible giveaway is the work of the Rev. J. Edward McDaniels, who remembers that when he was in the fifth grade the Gideons came into his classroom handing out Bibles to anyone who wanted one.
Between McDaniels' childhood and adulthood, federal courts in Indiana and New Jersey ruled it is unconstitutional to distribute Bibles in public schools. The rulings are not binding in every state, but many school districts abide by them.
``I object to the fact that the Gideons are not allowed to do that, but that's a fight that's bigger than me,'' McDaniels says.
So McDaniels, pastor of Christian Fellowship Church in Buckhannon and a health and physical education teacher at Buckhannon-Upshur High School, recruited businesses to donate the books, then asked the Upshur County School Board for permission to set up an unstaffed table providing free religious material. Students would be free to stop or pass on by.
McDaniels saw it as a logical compromise. In December 1994, the School Board agreed.
But Jeannie O'Halloran of Buckhannon was among those who objected.
``I was appalled. It just didn't feel right,'' she says. ``I don't think Bibles need to be distributed in school.''
O'Halloran is a Quaker and her children get their religion at home.
``Religion definitely should start at home, not in the schools,'' she says.
She and others turned to the American Civil Liberties Union chapter in West Virginia, and plaintiffs were recruited for a lawsuit to stop the giveaway.
U.S. District Judge Irene Keeley in Clarksburg, W.Va., ruled last September that Bibles could be given out on school property provided they were not forced on students. School officials had to post a disclaimer saying they didn't endorse the practice of religion.
It was the first time a federal court had upheld the distribution of Bibles in a public school during school hours.
Last fall, children in 12 schools took home about 1,800 Bibles.
The giveaway touched off a legal battle that has been fought in other courtrooms around the country. This time it could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
``It definitely has the potential,'' says Steve Green, legal director for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State in Washington, D.C., a 50,000-member group that opposes religious activities in schools.
``The earlier cases were a lot clearer. This is hazier and a closer question. And those are the kinds the court takes.''
But first, there will be a decision this spring in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, binding on West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and North and South Carolina.
``Many school administrators would see this as a middle ground, a way to get people off their backs without crossing the line,'' Green says.
``Line-drawing is what we're all about. Where we feel the line should be drawn is the front door of the schools.''
Americans United is among three national organizations that filed friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union last month in Richmond, where the appeals court is located.
``They had businesses who donated Bibles and wanted to distribute them. And they had students who wanted them. Great. Put them together,'' says Hilary Chiz, director of the West Virginia Civil Liberties Union.
``But don't do it in the schools. Use the churches. There are more churches than schools in Upshur County, anyway.''
The dispute pits two constitutional rights against each other: the right to practice religion and speak freely of it, and the mandatory separation of church and state. In this case, the schools are the extension of government.
Siding with the school district are the conservative American Center for Law and Justice of Richmond, Va., and the Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va.
The Rutherford Institute is a private, nonprofit organization formed in 1982 to defend religious freedom of expression. It takes on cases around the world, defending the rights of Christians, Muslims and Jews, to name a few, to practice their religions without discrimination or oppression. It receives donations from about 65,000 individuals and groups a year.
Institute attorney David Melton says the courts have ruled that school officials cannot participate in or sanction Bible giveaways.
``This is a closer question,'' he said of the Upshur case. ``The school wanted to be neutral.''
Melton says the plaintiffs' goal is to remove all traces of religion from public schools.
``The purpose of the Constitution is to place restraints on government, not the individual,'' he says. ``The ACLU is trying to silence the religious community. They, in this case, are the ones who are attempting to ban a book.''
Federal courts have ruled that students can give Bibles and religious literature to each other. And anyone can legally distribute materials in public areas such as malls, parking lots or the sidewalks outside schools.
McDaniels says he could have found another way to get Bibles to the children if Keeley had overruled his plan. For example, students could have been recruited from churches to give the books to classmates. But McDaniels believes that would have created unnecessary hostility.
``I could just picture two kids fighting over a Bible and someone ripping it up. Can you imagine? Fighting over the word of God,'' he says.
McDaniels says he also declined to pass out the books from the sidewalk, which the civil liberties group had offered to defend.
``That's far more evangelistic proselytizing than having a generic table in the school with no one pressuring them,'' he says.
Mary Pat Peck, a taxpayer with no children in the schools, is a plaintiff in the case. A lector in a Roman Catholic church, she is deeply religious but equally committed to the separation of church and state.
``We have plenty of evidence around the world about how disastrous it is when government does take a role in religion,'' she says. ``Look at the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Bosnia.
``If you go back and read the Scriptures, read them with an open mind. God has said over and over to us, `It's bad to entangle religion with politics.'''
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. The Rev. J. Edward McDaniels, a teacher atby CNBBuckhannon-Upshur High School, set up an unstaffed table at the
school to provide free religious materials.|