School Prayers, Guns, &
The Dangers of the Religious Left

By Chris Brugman
Host of Brugman on the Bay
Bay Talk 1690 WMDM AM

Warning, this article contains explicit language and may be unsuitable for young readers. All vulgarity and misspellings are those of the person to whom the quotations are attributed.

A few weeks ago, a student at Northern High School in Calvert County, MD, Nick Becker, decided to walk out of his high school graduation because members of the audience numbering in the thousands decided to stand up and recite the Lord’s Prayer.

According to accounts, prayer had been a routine part of graduation ceremonies at Northern High School for several years, apparently without objection. This year’s Valedictorian, Julie Schenk, 17, planned to deliver an invocation at her high school graduation ceremony held at the Equestrian Center in Prince George's County, until Becker, her 18-year-old classmate, objected.

Becker claimed that prayer didn't belong in a public ceremony. The "public" ceremony was held on private property. The Washington Post reported, "Becker is well-known at school for his independent streak. In his junior year, he was forced by school officials to wash his hair in a sink because he came to school with his brown hair sculpted into "Liberty spikes" that resemble the Statue of Liberty's crown. Last fall, he refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and was singled out for disciplinary action until the ACLU intervened on his behalf."

Ms. Schenk was told prior to the ceremonies by school officials, who acted only after a complaint was received from Becker, that she could no longer deliver her invocation. As a compromise, Schenk agreed to change her prayer to a moment of silence. But when she asked for 30 seconds of silence, thousands of people in the audience rose to recite the Lord’s Prayer.

This act apparently "offended" Mr. Becker and prompted him to walk out of his own graduation ceremony. In the weeks following, Mr. Becker has been held up as some sort of modern day hero, a martyr of the left, for standing up to those viscous Christians who dared to acknowledge a code of right and wrong. One person out of 4,000 in attendance objected and caused yet another national debate in the culture war.

Julie Schenk is not alone in having her First Amendment rights violated. This trend is picking up steam all across the country as more and more young people are turning to religion to rescue them from a decaying society that the "if it feels good do it" baby boomer generation has handed down to them.

Just outside of Sacramento, California, Oroville High School’s valedictorian, with four years of straight A's behind him and a grade-point average above 4.0, was not permitted to give his prepared address.

As reported in Nando News and the Sacramento Bee, this winter, Jason Niemeyer, a varsity golf player active in student government and Oroville's Church of the Nazarene, learned he had the highest GPA in his class, earning him the honor of valedictorian. But soon afterward, school officials told the family's attorney, "Tell Jason he doesn't need to plan on writing a speech, because he probably won't be giving it."

Just the year before, Jason’s brother Chris, also the school’s valedictorian, was barred from giving his speech because he planned on mentioning God. The Niemeyer family sued, and the lawsuit is still being reviewed by the courts.

And what do the students at Oroville High think about Jason? In interviews published in the Sacramento Bee, several students offered support for him.

"I think freedom of speech is something that should be taken seriously. The speech may offend some people, but you still should have the freedom of speech," said sophomore Stephen Daniel.

"He deserves to give the speech. He's a really good kid, a good worker," said classmate Kyle Horn. "I think if someone wants to say thanks to God, if that's what helped get them through, he should be able to do it."

Students said the school's student newspaper, Eyes of the Tiger, had planned to run the speech, but the principal pulled it from publication.

The Mercury-Register, a local newspaper, also was the focus of some controversy when they recently failed to print Jason's name and picture in a special graduation section honoring graduates and their valedictorians and salutatorians.

The high school principal said the paper was at fault for the omission but the paper said the school failed to provide the information. After readers complained, editors finally ran Jason's picture.

Examples like Julie Schenk and Jason Niemeyer can be found more and more often all over the country. In most cases, the community and students overwhelmingly support the right of students to include their religious beliefs in their speeches. In the case in Calvert County, they actually participated!

One of my local political heroes, Linda Kelley, president of the Board of Calvert County Commissioners, courageously told the Washington Post, "This is a churchgoing community, and no one in Annapolis or Washington, D.C., is going to tell us when and where we can pray." Atta girl!

I, like so many others, understand the argument about the separation of church and state. And, unlike the radical left, we support our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in their entireties. We don’t pick and choose which parts we like and trample on the rest, as the left does with the Second Amendment. So let us examine what the First Amendment actually states:

"CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAWS RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF; OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS; OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEFULLY TO ASSEMBLE, AND TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES."

It is perfectly clear that the First Amendment was written to prevent our government from choosing a religion and forcing people to worship that religion under order of law. I agree with this completely. But the left would have us believe that an individual student giving a speech is somehow a government mandated religion when in fact it is the personal religion and the personal expression of that individual.

The fact is that neither the school nor the government made any laws establishing religion in either of these cases. The point can be made, however, that both these Valedictorians had their First Amendment rights violated by the school administrators and the government because certainly they were "prohibited the free exercise of religion thereof."

Where this debate derails is when one examines the hypocrisy of the radical left when applied to our public schools. For example, the radical left frequently bashes the "religious right," or the Christian Coalition, or any other form of organized religion, for "attempting to force their morality and values on others." We’ve all heard this before.

But why is it that the radical left is permitted to impose their morality and values on us? Liberals, although they won’t admit it, are guilty of the very same thing they criticize conservatives and the "religious right" of doing, only they disguise it as a government program intended to rescue society of all its ills.

An example of radical left-wingers imposing their morals on unsuspecting people can be found in our public schools.

Justin Torres, senior staff writer for Conservative News Service (CNS) and Washington Correspondent for Brugman on the Bay (Bay Talk 1690 AM) , recently dropped a bombshell that should have every parent in the country up in arms, but the "mainstream media" chose to ignore this story.

Justin’s June 8th story, "‘It's Elementary’ Hits the Airwaves", exposes the National Endowment of the Arts and the pubic school system regarding a strong-armed homosexual agenda being pushed on children in public schools as early as kindergarten and first grade.

This article includes (Real Video) statements made by teachers that overtly admit their intention to take away parental authority when it comes to raising children. In some instances, religious opposition to homosexuality is equated with the holocaust and racism.

A quote from CNS’ article reads: "While the video's pretense is to promote diversity, it shows scenes in which teachers are refusing to allow for perspectives that disagree with homosexuality. One scene depicts a meeting of the faculty at Cambridge Friends School, a school in Cambridge, MA. When one teacher remarks that she hopes that any student who might feel that homosexuality "was wrong" would have that belief respected, a teacher answers that "we are asking kids to believe it's right. Not as a matter of moral principle, but as a matter of – we're educating them and this is part of what we consider to be a healthy education."

First of all, why are teachers discussing homosexuality with four, five and six year olds in the first place? What gives them a right to impose state-sanctioned religion in the classroom? This is not religion, you say? Well how about morals and values? Is that not the left’s very argument against the so-called religious right?

To prove my point, CNS’s article presents video evidence of the principal of Cambridge Friends School trying to impose government-mandated religion. The principal stated that he felt that it was "not appropriate that values only be taught at home. There are social values as well, there are community values..." Perhaps the most terrifying part of this story is how the taxpayer-funded, government-produced video concludes. The left’s attempt to subvert parental authority over our children can be found in the lyrics of the closing song in the video, a video that the National Education Association (NEA) wants to expose to all of our children:

Your children are not your children; They come through you, but they are not from you. And though they are with you, they belong not to you. You can house their bodies but not their soul. For their souls dwell in a place of tomorrow, Which you cannot visit, you cannot visit, you cannot visit, Not even in your dreams.

While these so-called "defenders" of the First Amendment have succeeded in removing the Ten Commandments from our classrooms, they have, over time, replaced it with their morality and values, their sense of right and wrong. Instead of math and science, our children are being taught how to slip condoms on and our 5 year-olds are being brainwashed with homosexual-driven education.

Am I alone in saying that I fear the religious left far more than the religious right? The religious right advocates parental rights, parental authority, more freedom, more rights, and just plain more sense.

The religious left is anti-parent, anti-life, anti-freedom, anti-family, and anti-church. What scares you more, losing control over your own children, or hearing the word God mentioned in a simple high school speech?

When thinking about the answer to this question, consider the students mentioned above in this article. I did a little research and found Nick Becker’s own personal web page. Nick Becker, if you will remember, is the student who walked out of his high school graduation because he was "offended" by the Lord’s Prayer.

The left would have us believe that this is a nice kid; very smart, independent, and college-bound. They hold him up as some brave soul that is willing to stand up to religion. Nick Becker is someone we should be proud of and hold up as an example for all children.

But before you draw this conclusion, consider a few words from Nick Becker’s own personal diary posted on his web site:

**Warning** These entries contain obscene language that may "offend" some people. I wanted the vulgarity to remain because I think it paints a clearer picture of the point I am trying to make.

Diary Entry: May 27th, titled Life in Hell "Jesus. I hate orginized religion, I really really do. It causes so many expletive problems. It breeds hate and prejudice under a false persona of love and forgiveness. It oppresses anyone who disagrees. I know this is all trite and been said many times before, but it's expletive. The world would be a much better place without religion, organized religion at least."

Diary Entry: Saturday, May 29th, titled Bigger Than Jesus "This thing has gone insane. I made the front page of the post and countless other papers ranging from the Calvert Recorder to The Seattle Times as well as local and national news TV and Radio. Just look at where all the people in my guestbook are from. This is way out of hand. Good Morning America wanted to have me on Monday. They said that would pay for me to come to New York or they could send a camera crew to whereever I am. At this rate, I’ll soon be bigger than Jesus!"

Diary Entry: May 5th, titled I Lost The Will To Walk "I stayed home from school today. I wasn't really sick or anything, i've just become sick of it. We don't do anything anymore, just review for that i already know. I'm thuroughly bored with it and i usually spend half the day these days sleeping."

"Howard Stern was right. Lesbians = Ratings. It really makes me sick how so many guys hold this ridiculous double standard that lesbians are ok but ‘fags’ are wrong. I mean, jesus. Ugh, homophobia."

This message was posted at the top of Nick Becker’s Diary page: "Sadly this diary will need to be censored to some extent because I never know when my parents are reading this at work so I'll have to leave certain things out and change certain names. I know it sucks, but I've worked hard to keep their noses out of my life and I want to keep it that way."

The following are statements made by Nick Becker in an "e-mail" interview with the Northern High School newspaper: "All forms of organized religion are either man’s attempts to explain the universe or the ruling class’s way of keeping the commoners in line, or a little of both. If you had to categorize my beliefs, I’d call it "pessimistic agnosticism.’’

"I think it was all worth it because I doubt that there will ever be any school endorsed prayer in graduation ceremonies in Calvert County again. They will probably even drop the "moment of reflection" from now on due to the actions of the my incredibly insolent detractors. I hope you enjoyed saying your lord’s prayer, all you did was ruin it for yourselves." When asked what his response was to his detractors, Nick Becker says, "Talk is cheap. If you think I’m wrong, sue the school. Do something about it. You’ll lose of course, because you’re wrong, but at least try. If you believe strongly that prayer should be allowed you should fight tooth and nail, through the legal system, to reinstate it. Causing rude disruptions such as saying the lord’s prayer during a moment of SILENCE do nothing but make you look foolish and immature."

Nick Becker is the hero of the left. He is someone to be looked up to. This 18 year-old is praised and glorified as a bright and promising kid, a rising star of the left. Becker is invited to appear on national television, all expenses paid, while bright-minded, promising religious kids, like Julie Schenk and Jason Niemeyer, are censored! No front page stories on the Washington Post about these promising kids, no mention of them on the nightly news, no invitations to morning television talk shows, only silence and censorship.

These are the same folks who now are grandstanding and using the massacre at Columbine High School to rid us of guns and our Second Amendment. These are the same people who won’t let a simple religious memorial stand erected on public property to honor those fallen students at Columbine. These are the same people who want to teach our five year-olds homosexual education. These are the same people who want to take our parental authority away from us and raise our children according to their morals and their values.

These people, my friends, are the religious left. Except their religion isn’t religion at all. It is a form of guilt free self-indulgence that has no rights and no wrongs. The thought of a society based on a fundamental belief and practice of right and wrong is what they fear the most. Are you scared? Are you frightened? YOU SHOULD BE!!!