Letter: Justices value religious rights

Friday, June 29, 2001 | 4:28 a.m.

The June 25 Sun carried a column by Charles Levendosky, "Bad news for religious freedom." In the piece he expressed his displeasure with the U.S. Supreme Court and its ruling allowing a church group to use public school facilities. As he put it, because a church group's after-school message is "evangelical religious worship," it should not be allowed in a school building.

No one was being forced to attend the meetings -- they attended voluntarily. Plus, a foundational tenet of evangelical Christian worship is proselytizing. As a matter of fact, it is a strong recommendation from Jesus himself.

I know of no less than six schools in our community that allow churches to use their facility for worship services. Is Levendosky saying that this should not be allowed? Is he saying that churches whose message is designed to ask others to join, or be proselytized, as he appropriately called it, should not be allowed to use school buildings?

While opinions like Levendosky's are protected by the First Amendment, let's be glad the Supreme Court judges had a better idea.

MIKE MILLER