THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412150014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
What a sour note for Suffolk to sound at Christmas: Student groups, such as choruses, can no longer perform as part of religious services.
The Suffolk School Board attorney and the Virginia School Boards Association are afraid somebody might someday raise the ``Lemon Test.'' That's one yardstick for measuring the legality of a public-school activity which involves church and state: If it promotes religion or suggests ``entanglement'' in a religious activity, it's verboten.
No one in Suffolk had complained. In fact, students and teachers are complaining about the new policy. They ought to.
They can start with its vagueness. What's a religious service? A regularly scheduled Saturday or Sunday morning congregation of like believers? A holiday evening carolfest? Any assembly of three people who mention Moses, Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed? A slide show on the history of Santeria in the assembly room at the Young Men's Christian Association? How does a school chorus singing ``O Holy Night'' constitute religious promotion? Is a once-, twice-a-year performance ``entanglement''?
Silly? You bet. But bet your bippy that somebody will now complain, and the School Board will find itself in the business of defining every permissible and impermissible contact between public-school students and anything remotely resembling a religious activity.
Silliness is, in fact, the main fault of this school policy. This is a holiday season - a holy day season. It is a time of celebration for any number of believers in any number of creeds in a society that strives to respect and tolerate them all. That respect, that tolerance are precisely at odds with an increasing and worrisome mind-set in this nation, and not just regarding school choruses singing in church services: that the discomfort of any one person can prohibit the voluntary participation of many. Suffolk's old policy required no one to participate, no one to spectate, no one to profess belief or disbelief; in short, no establishment of religion. The old policy required only an appreciation of Christmas music, and a desire to share the joy it can bring.
Suffolk schools' new policy separates not only church and state to an unnecessary degree; its premise presumes that allowing students to join Christian celebrants - this is a major Christian holiday, after all - or Kwanzaa celebrants in joyful noise or Johann Sebastian Bach or litanies, poetry and dance must taint or offend.
On the contrary, the more familiar all Americans are with religious creeds and rituals that provide solace, sustenance, guidance and inspiration to millions of Americans, the more tolerant the nation can be. And maybe the more solaced, sustained, well-guided and inspired. by CNB