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Where will DeMent strike next?
When and where will the ACLU or Judge DeMent strike Alabama next?Judge Ira DeMent has spoken! Citizens, parents and children of DeKalb Count are answerable to Judge DeMent. Each school has been told what books are required to be placed In its library. Other policies must be approved by the judge. A spy group approved by Judge DeMent to visit our schools and to report directly to Judge DeMent is forthcoming.
However, Judge DeMent stated that schoolchildren are allowed to wear clothing of their choice. Parents, be careful. If you encourage your child to not act according to Judge DeMent's liking, you could be held in contempt.
Principals are commanded to punish children if the judge's opinions are not completely adhered to. The best part is DeMent requires the taxpayers of Alabama and DeKalb county to pay the fees needed to carry out this injunction.
No taxpayer voted for or against Judge DeMent. Parents, children or principals had no opportunity to face their accuser in a court of law. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Complaints filed and financed by the ACLU led to this injunction. I wonder why?
What was this awful crime? It was not teen-age drinking, drug use drop-out rate, illiteracy or pornography. I suppose these issues are not considered worthy of being addressed by the federal courts. After all, the federal courts have upheld Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler magazines as works of art and free speech. I pray these magazines are not the next books required for our school libraries.
What about our congressmen, governor, state legislators and other elected officials? Why do we even vote? I suppose they can carry out the "trivial" matters that the federal courts do not want to deal with.
I was raised in a poor but proud country home. I was taught to vote, obey the law, live by the Golden Rule, pay taxes and respect the men who fought for freedom. I remember watching young men participate in athletic events; later, the same young men were fighting for our country in Vietnam. Some never made it home alive.
I do not believe it was for federal judges, who sponsored the right political groups and flirted with the press to get appointed, to lord over other Americans.
All this is being done in the name of the Constitution.
The Congress and people of America are talking about human rights in China. China knows who its ruler is. They make little pretense of rule without representation. I wonder about the rights of the people in Alabama and DeKalb County. Who is their ruler?
When and where will the ACLU or Judge DeMent strike Alabama next?
Gary Carlyle, principal
Sylvania High School
P.O. Box 20
Sylvania
The Birmingham Post-Herald, Thursday November 20, 1997
Baptists decry prayer ruling
ASSOCIATED PRESSHUNTSVILLE — The Alabama Baptist State Convention overwhelmingly opposed a judge's order on school prayer Wednesday as it aligned itself with politicians appealing the decision.
Christians have been quiet for too long as religious principles eroded from public life, said supporters of a resolution criticizing the ruling by U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent.
"When I was in school the teachers would pray and read the Bible," said Jack Sharbutt, of Tuscaloosa. "We did not have the metal detectors and trouble we have in schools today. It's time we Christians stand up and be counted."
The Rev. James Tisdale of Stevenson said pastors were warned they may be violating DeMent's order this week as they counseled and prayed with students following a fatal wreck near North Jackson High School.
"This person representing the government has offended, deeply offended, the people in my part of the state," he said. "This is a personal thing."
Opponents of the resolution, however, said the denomination — with 1.1 million members in Alabama — had not business aligning itself with the state's legal fight, which is being led by Gov. Fob James and Attorney General Bill Pryor. James has denounced the judge and said issues of religion in public schools are not the business of federal courts; Pryor is appealing parts of DeMent's order.
"I think we need to be very careful that in defending our own liberties we do not tread on the liberties of others, said attorney Chriss Doss of Vestavia Hills.
Ora Parr, a retired teacher from Huntsville, said she used to minister to students by visiting them in their homes and inviting them to church. "I think we need to get on with spreading the Gospel instead of resoluting," she said....
The Montgomery Advertiser, Thursday November 20, 1997
Baptists rip ruling on prayer
By KRISTEN CAMPELL
Religion ReporterHUNTSVILLE — Alabama Baptists concluded their two-day state convention here by heaping figurative coals of fire on U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent's order setting guidelines for religious expression in public schools.
Messengers — the term Alabama Baptist Convention uses to refer to its delegates — adopted a resolution that mentioned DeMent by name in censuring his October order. Religious and social conservatives have criticized the Montgomery judge's order as an infringement on their religious freedom. The state Baptists met Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.
The Baptist resolution expresses "support and appreciation to the leaders of the State of Alabama for the appeal challenging the over-broad and objectionable portions of the order."
Gov. Fob James has denounced the judge and said issues of religion in public schools are not the business of federal courts. Attorney General bill Pryor is appealing parts of DeMent's order that blocked vocal prayer in schools, classroom devotionals, graduation at school-sponsored events and the distribution of Bibles near schools by members of Gideons International.
The Baptist resolution also calls upon churches, associations and the state convention to "provide training opportunities for our youth to instruct them in their constitutional rights and the expression of their Christian witness at school in appropriate ways."
It's unusual for such resolutions to mention people by name, said convention president Leon Ballard of York, Ala., who was re-elected for a second term during the meeting.
"We have always dealt with issues and not personalities," said Ballard. "I would have preferred that we had not brought the name into it."
But messengers to the convention, he said, chose otherwise.
In discussion preceding the vote, some Baptists said they took DeMent's ruling personally, and therefore believed that he should be named.
The Mobile Register, Thursday November 20, 1997
Gingrich backs school prayer, amendment on religious liberties
By Rose Livingston
News staff writerOXFORD — Newt Gingrich, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Wednesday sided with Alabamians who are outraged at a recent federal injunction restricting school prayer.
"I really believe it is very important to re-establish the right to pray in school," Gingrich said during a fund-raising luncheon for U.S. Rep. Bob Riley, R-Ashland.
"It is clearly in the context of what the founding fathers meant by religious liberty. It is impossible to argue that it is not a part of our original heritage and I think the (U.S.) Supreme Court frankly made a mistake in outlawing it."
Gingrich, who said he supports passage of a religious liberties amendment to the U.S. Constitution echoed the sentiments of many Alabamians when he added that schools were safer, happier and more productive places before school prayer was banned in 1962....
The Birmingham News, Thursday November 20, 1997
ACLU lawyer: Politicians playing with prayer
By Stan Bailey
News staff writerMONTGOMERY — An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer has filed documents with the federal court accusing the attorney general, the governor and other state officials of playing politics with the school prayer issue.
Pamela Sumners asked U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent not to delay enforcement of his far-reaching injunction against school-sponsored religious activities in DeKalb County schools.
"Undeniably, deliberate misreading of the injunction has engendered popular hysteria," Ms. Sumners said in documents filed with the court. But, she added, "It was not the plaintiffs who injected political divisiveness into these proceedings. It is not the plaintiffs who have exploited it. That role has been played by state officials, both in DeKalb County and in the state capital."
Ms. Sumners represents Michael Chandler, the teacher and assistant principal at Valley Head High School who filed suit challenging religious activities in DeKalb County schools....
The Birmingham News, Thursday November 20, 1997
AG's prayer request criticized
By Sandee Richardson
MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER"Pure politics" is behind Attorney General Bill Pryor's request to delay a federal court order that would prohibit school-sponsored religious activities in public schools, a counter motion claims.
The 42-page motion was filed Tuesday by American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama attorney Pamela Sumners on behalf of her client, DeKalb County educator Michael Chandler.
Sumners urged U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent to enforce his Oct. 29 order.
"The only thing that has changed between April 1997 (when Pryor said he would not appeal DeMent's ruling that struck down a 1993 student-initated prayer law) and November 1997 is the proximity to the date of 1998 state elections..." Sumners wrote.
"The plaintiffs sniff pure politics being played with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."
DeMent's order barred school-sanctioned prayer and other religious practices in DeKalb County public schools. He said his ruling which set guidelines for all Alabama school districts, did not prohibit many activities, including silent prayer, religious clothing or Jewelry, or Christian clubs that meet at schools outside classroom time.
James Tucker, an ACLU attorney involved with the Chandler case, said Pryor never clearly stated any solid reasons why DeMent's order should be delayed.
"(Pryor is) terribly misguided," Tucker said. "Much of the underpinnings of DeMent's ruling is based on two decades of established legal precedent."
Pryor is appealing portions of DeMent's order, arguing that certain sections "actually violate the First Amendment and do not conform to recent decisions of the Supreme Court, because they curtail and limit voluntary expressions by student and private citizens."
Pryor asked DeMent to delay the order while he appealed to the 11th Circuit Court.
Joy Patterson, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, said Wednesday that Pryor had no response to any direct comments concerning his motion for a delay.
Pryor did authorize Patterson to issue this statement on his behalf:
"I do not expect the ACLU to agree with my arguments, and I'm proud they do not."
The Montgomery Advertiser, Thursday November 20,1997
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