Distributing Bibles Ruled 'Unconstitutional'
CBNNews.com
January 10, 2008
CBNNews.com - A federal judge ruled that distributing Bibles in a rural school district in Annapolis, Mo., is "unconstitutional."
It was announced Wednesday that an appeal against the injunction banning Bible distribution will be appealed on behalf of South Iron School District in southeastern Missouri.
Watch the CBN News report and Pat Robertson's comments on the goals of the ACLU.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit for four sets of parents two years ago, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision last August to keep Bibles from being handed out.
The school district had changed its policy, permitting Gideons and others to give away Bibles before or after school or during lunch - not in classrooms. But U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry delivered the decision on Tuesday that both practices were in violation of the law.
She then granted a permanent injunction against any Bible distributors.
Perry held that both practices constitute "the promotion of Christianity by distributing Bibles to elementary school students."
She wrote, "The policy has the principle or primary effect of advancing religion by conveying a message of endorsement to elementary school children."
The decision was not accepted by the opposing side.
"I think the current policy creates an open forum that allows secular as well as religious persons or groups to access the forum to distribute information," said Matthew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a Christian law group representing the district. "The court has clearly misread the First Amendment and the cases regarding free speech."
The ACLU has filed numerous lawsuits in recent years to stop Gideons International from reaching children in public schools. Gideons International is a Nashville-based Bible publisher distributing the Gospel in more than 80 languages and 180 nations.
Sources: The Associated Press, Liberty Counsel
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