Reported by Nigel Boys
The government is in violation of the U.S. Constitution by allowing churches to rent space in 40 percent of the public schools in Loudoun County, Virginia; and this is a clear favoritism of religion which must be stopped, according to attorney John Flannery.
Writing on the blog Loudoun Progress, the former federal prosecutor and congressional chief of staff states that since 34 out of 87 schools in the county allow churches to hold services on their premises every Sunday, he finds it a problem that needs to be solved.
Just because the churches are holding their services after school hours and have been doing so in the gymnasiums, libraries, and cafeterias of public schools in the county for at least 12 years, does not mean that the government is not violating the constitution, states Flannery. He adds that it’s about time to declare that the public will no longer permit this use of public schools for religious worship and the furtherance of religion, even if they are paying for the use of the building with collections or donations.
Arguing that people make excuses that the services are after school hours and the churches pay rent, Flannery further wrote “We’ve had these religious services without a murmur of inquiry or dissent, and now suffer from an inertial indifference to question what’s become an unquestioned practice.” He continued, “It’s past the time when we should have stopped this unconstitutional ‘establishment’ of religious worship in our public schools.”
However, Bill Fox, a member of the Loudoun school board, told reporters that there has never been a complaint about the church services and doesn’t see anything wrong with continuing to rent out school space. He added a variety of churches, community groups, and non-profit organizations rent out the space, so they are not favoring religion.
Fox went on to say that Flannery is doing nothing more than trying to expunge religion from the United States and he is well known for attacking other people’s faith. He added that the way Flannery interprets the Constitution is not the same as he does and he has been an advocate of the First Amendment his entire life.
Some people believe that the First Amendment means that the nation should be free from religion, but it actually means that we should be free to choose religion and which one to follow, said Fox.
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