Letter: Religious beliefs have no place in public schools

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 10:41 a.m.

In her column of March 2, she laments the fact that although the ACLU opposed the banning of teen magazines from a Long Island School District, Florida schoolteacher Mark Axford, during his Bible as History class, cannot teach creationism as historical fact because of an ACLU lawsuit.

Certainly, this columnist should be aware of the difference between teen magazines providing needed factual information for those teenagers wishing to obtain such information and religious tracts endorsing specific beliefs.

The ACLU acknowledges the profound role religion (not limited to Christianity) has played in our history and we follow that tradition by complying with the wishes of the founders of our country that all religious beliefs be respected by not allowing government to support or endorse any one particular religion. Teaching the creeds of a particular religion in our public schools is a clear governmental endorsement of that religion.

It is a stretch of logic to equate allowing free exercise of every religious belief (and freedom to be free of any religious belief) with "purging our history of its religious content."

Gallagher cites Axford's perplexity when he, as a public schoolteacher, was prohibited from responding to a question concerning "where Cain and Abel came from." If the teacher was an atheist, would Gallagher support the teacher's right to tell the student that Cain and Abel are only imaginary figures? The ACLU would certainly challenge the atheist teacher in that scenario.

Mel Lipman, Nevada ACLU board member