In a obvious effort to grab religious attention and votes Donald Trump is moving to undo ANOTHER Obama action…
Expect legal action against this…
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said her department plans to remind schools that students and teachers have a constitutional right to pray in public schools, and that student-led religious organizations should get to access public facilities just like secular ones.
“Our actions today will protect the constitutional rights of students, teachers and faith-based institutions,” DeVos said. “The department’s efforts will level the playing field between religious and nonreligious organizations competing for federal grants, as well as protect First Amendment freedoms on campus and the religious liberty of faith-based institutions. I proudly share President Trump’s commitment to religious freedom and the First Amendment.”
The Education Department also plans to issue guidance that will require local school districts to certify that they have no rules or regulations that conflict with students’ right to pray at school. It will also require states to notify the Education Department if there are complaints against a school district regarding the right to pray. The department does not have similar reporting requirements for states when a school district is accused of other types of discrimination….
I don’t understand how a school can keep someone from silently praying.
Could someone explain this to me?
This is all pure horse manure.;A not subtle at all pandering to the Right Wing evangelicals.
Trump realizes he must keep them stirred up lest their enthusiasm for his distinctly non evangelical persona wane.Always good to remind them that he and only he stands between their interests and “them libruls.”
Yup…..
It’s gonna go to court though…
Of course anyone can silently pray, but they want more than that.
Lots of lawsuits await. And if the religious right wants its “religious liberties”, it better be prepared to allow Muslim or cultish groups to have the same rights to infringe on the rest of society.
Do they have to be silent though? What if a bunch of people want to go to the gym before their first class or gather outside by the flagpole and say a group prayer? Shouldn’t that be ok too?
Should a High School valedictorian be allowed to talk about the role faith plays in their life during a graduation speech without being told to sit down or having the audio cut?
Yeah I’m sure Trumpublicans will be very supportive of Muslim students praying towards Mecca by the flagpole.
What’s good for the goose.
I’d be perfectly ok with it. The law will be the law and will apply to everyone, I am sure the people who work at the Education Department know that.
I could care less about people gathering toward the flagpole to pray provided it is on the student’s time and not while they need to be in class. And I personally could care less about a valedictorian’s speech on prayer. Personally, I don’t believe it belongs in a valedictorian’s speech, but there are some things that government should be silent on.
What I am concerned about are requirements that can be imposed – such as requiring a Jewish person to participate in Christian prayer.
So we basically agree. I don’t think there is any risk for any sort of imposition though.
Some schools are giving a day off for the Muslin holiday of Ede….
Just like the Jewish Holidays and Good Friday, Easter of course Christmas….
This one actually gets complicated….
That’s a decision made by local school districts. (Everyone gets Easter off of school, its a Sunday and Xmas too of course)
Of course it makes sense that Dearborn, Michigan would get different holidays off than where I grew up, because of the likelihood of absences. Even in my area, it varies from district to district in regards to the Jewish Holidays.
So?
One size don’t fit ALL and you can bet the Trump supporters on this will raise this…
I don’t think this issue has anything at all to do with schools being closed on religious holidays.
It COULD be stretched …
No, those are local decisions. Every local district has “flex days” already scheduled to do with them what they want.
As a child, I would have found it hard to believe that there would be schools anywhere in America that did not get Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off. Even my niece’s district does not have those days off now.
I think they can do that now as long as it’s no coercive or disruptive.
I have no problem with that.
I think that is what this is mostly about. It is federally protected, but there have been instances of schools preventing those things or not allowing student led religious groups to be able to use school facilities after hours, while other groups can, etc. I don’t really think this should be a controversial issue, but most things are in America.
Good point.
Something tells me the Evangelicals might not be so tolerant of say the Scientologists.
And again Trump did not win in 2016 as a cultural warrior. Obama/Trump voters aren’t the ones obsessed with school prayer and abortion. Those are the people that always vote Republican.
But if this is the direction Republicans want to pursue I welcome it. It will just mean more suburbs slip from their grasp.
Maybe they will win a few counties with 4000 people in Tennessee or Oklahoma by an extra couple of percentage points. Meanwhile they lose the same percentage in suburban and exurban counties with 100, 200, 500K people. I’ll take that trade.
Trump definitely won (a very close election) because of issues like this and how they relate to the courts, etc
Evangelicals and other religious people, who were otherwise put off by Trump, decided to ignore other things and vote for him precisely because of matters like this and the feeling that religious liberty had been under assault with Obama and would continue with Hillary.
You don’t have to agree with them but you should absolutely understand what their thinking was.
Those evangelicals have been voting solidly Republican for several cycles now.
Yes, and for good reason. Me too though and while I was willing to pass on Trump, so many others did not or felt they could not. They seem to feel the same way this cycle.
Just as Republicans will need to figure out why they are so distrusted by racial minorities, Democrats have to ask themselves the same sorts of questions about faith-based voters.
Democrats receive overwhelming support among “faith based voters” who are Black.
Your analogy to be correct must be “White ” faith based voters.
What you’re really talking about are White religious fundamentalists.
The faith-based white voters used to be the swing voters, especially Catholics.
The Evangelical black voters are likely to be a problem in the primary season for non-male, non-Christian, non-straight candidates, so they have their priorities too of course.
Sure ,but they will vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidate in November,their primary choices notwithstanding.
Despite supposed Black opposition to Buttigieg?If he were to become the nominee, he would receive overwhelming support among Black “faith based voters.”
But in a close state (and I think we agree no Democrat is going to win SC in Nov), it could make the difference.
There were a lot of older Democrats (black, white, and Latino alike, as well as both male and female) that simply did not vote for Hillary because they did not want a woman to be President.
The same issue might be at play in a general election pretty much for anyone other than Biden.
Well, yeah a small minor say wouldn’t vote for Buttigieg because of his sexual orientation maybe.
Then again ,as I previously pointed out in these states where it is within 1% or so, a host of issues can come into play.
Suppose Trump loses a state narrowly because a small minority of White Evangelicals decide that ,despite their agreement with him on the issues, his boorish behavior has just become too much for them?
Yes. They have been and will continue to.
They certainly weren’t going to vote for Hillary.
And as requires constant reiteration,Trumps small victory margin can be explained by all sorts of issues and events.
A whole lot of people who likely never voted for a Democrat for President before did vote for Hillary in 2016 (and as we know for “other” in my case.)
But many religious voters felt they had to overlook their concerns and vote for Trump. That is why Pence proved to be a good choice.
David French is perhaps my favorite writer out there. He is an Evangelical NeverTrumper. I am sure he supports this matter on policy grounds.
These issues have been fought over for almost 70 years now.
They will likely continue to be.
However, Americans continue to desert organized religion.If this trend continues?These issues will slowly ,but steadily ,become less significant except among a continuously shrinking part of the electorate..
70,000+ more votes….
Has to be a good sized EC margin….
THEN….
Lock up the electors from Trump trying to pay some off top pitch to him?
I don’t get that last part at all.
The President of the United State is NOT picked by the popular vote…
The EC college does…
“Faithless electors’ COULD actually pick whoever they want…
Could Trump try to BUY a second term?
So, you are suggesting that Trump will go after faithless electors or you think Democrats should do that as a strategy?
I don’t think either is realistic.
I’m just revealing a thought….
Trump being President wasn’t realistic…
You heard it first here….
It WILL COME BACK if Trump’s behind in the polls come September….
Trumps going to “buy” electors?Is that what we are hearing here “first?”
What foolishness are we going to hear “second?”
He will blackmail them??
(I remember when Bob Beckel suggested that the Kerry people should do this after the 2004 election.)
Yeah but can he outbid Bloomberg?