Declaration of Independence Banned! UPDATE!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,141030,00.html
JoeUser Forums
Tune to Fox News for an interesting interview with the teacher that was the subject of the article Declaration of Independence Banned! The facts ought to be interesting.
If you miss the show on now, it will be replayed later on tonight.
Update: Here is the transcript of the interview with the teacher.
STEPHEN WILLIAMS, TEACHER, STEVENS CREEK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Yes. Last year, starting out in the beginning of the year, I hadn't changed my curriculum much at all, as I've done in the past several years, as a fifth grade teacher.
And a few weeks into the year, there was a student who said, "Why do we say 'under God' in the Pledge? And I thought, current events, past events, this is an appropriate topic to talk about.
So I said, "Let's discuss this for a few minutes." After discussing it, I didn't put too much of my opinion into it.
At the end of the day that day in school, my principal came in school and said, "What are you doing talking about God in the classroom?"
And I was kind of taken back, and I said, well, and I — I explained to her why — why it came up. And she said, "All right, it sounds reasonable."
A little bit — while later, it came up that Christopher Columbus was a Christian. This was about a 30-second discussion, where I said, "Well, a Christian means you're a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ."
The principal at the end of the day comes in and says, "What are you talking about Jesus Christ?" I explained what happened in class.
She said, "All right, sounds reasonable."
Well, the pattern developed. A parent — some parent was calling in any time there was a mention of God, Christianity, or Jesus Christ, and they just took it as a personal agenda.
HANNITY: I want to put this in perspective here. Because I have spoken to you before. Less than five percent of the materials, —you would give supplemental materials to kids — ever mentioned God. There was no discussion.
You were a history teacher. You're teaching relevant history.
WILLIAMS: One of the subjects, yes.
HANNITY: Now, you are singled out, inasmuch as no other teacher had to give whatever supplemental materials you wanted to give to your students, you first had to give it to the principal. Tell us how that then became you can't give the Declaration of Independence to them?
WILLIAMS: Right. One lesson I handed out was on the National Day of Prayer (search). We talked about it for maybe ten minutes. And the principal decided, that's it, you know, and — again this has happened a handful of times and this is one of the handful of times.
And at that point, she decided, "OK, I want to see all of your lessons that include anything about God, Jesus Christ or Christianity."
So then the now famous "the Declaration was banned." Well, my kids had read the Declaration so that's a little bit of a stretch. But what I wanted to teach was William Penn's frame of government, Samuel Adams, "The Rights of Colonists" and the first two paragraphs that exactly what you read in the beginning and the last paragraph and show how the wording came from some of the founding documents.
HANNITY: It's interesting because they keep putting out these somewhat conflicting, in my view, statements to the press, the school district — by the way, which was invited to be with us tonight, and they're not here.
But it seems like there's two strategies going on. They want to paint you as some type of a religious zealot, extremist out that is out there to proselytize students. Do you have an agenda such as that?
WILLIAMS: Absolutely not. My agenda is to give students an accurate representation of history. And whether you like it or not...
HANNITY: That's it?
WILLIAMS: ... there are some things in our historical documents and in our history that have been directly influenced by Christianity and references to God and Jesus.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Stephen, Jordan, thank you both for being here. I say this as a liberal, because I am, thank you. You may not have done anything wrong. I mean, as long as you're not proselytizing.
I've heard that other — some of the things we've read in the press are that other parents have complained that you proselytize. Are those inaccurate stories?
WILLIAMS: What they...
COLMES: What are they saying?
JORDAN LORENCE, ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND: What they mean by proselytize is that he mentions God. And see, there are people that have this allergic reaction to any mention of God.
Now, if we're talking about "Huckleberry Finn (search )" and some parent called up and complained...
COLMES: Right.
LORENCE: ... the teacher wouldn't — the principal would not say to him, "Get rid of 'Huckleberry Finn'." They'd say, "You have the right to opt out, but this is part of our history. Mark Twain was a big writer." You should confront that.
This is the only issue where they think, wrongly, that there's this mandate to go on a search and destroy mission and eliminate all things religious.
COLMES: Right. Let me ask you about this. Now, the Alliance Defense Fund, you're — the group you work for...
LORENCE: That's right.
COLMES: ... it has claimed, says in their mission statement, "defends the right of Christians to share the Gospel in workplaces in public schools, claiming that any efforts to curb proselytizing at work and school are anti-Christian."
Is that an accurate representation?
LORENCE: By — by individuals, not by government employees. They don't have a right to proselytize. We've never taken that position or...
COLMES: But you say the right of Christians to share the gospel. You believe that that was correct?
LORENCE: Yes, I do. I mean, just like George Washington and others...
COLMES: Does that mean that your client has the right to share the Gospel?
LORENCE: He does not as a school employee, no, but he does as a regular person. He doesn't surrender his rights simply because he's a schoolteacher.
COLMES: All right. What I want to understand here, Stephen, also is, are you selectively taking documents, some of which, say, for example, John Adams diary includes the phrase, "The Christian religion is above all religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, which would then set the Christian religion as above other religions?
Is that one of the supportive documents?
WILLIAMS: First of all, look at my track record...
COLMES: Is that one of the — just answer me, is that one of the documents you offered to the school that they rejected?
WILLIAMS: One of many, yes.
COLMES: So can you understand why the school might have a problem with a document that says a Christian religion above all religions that have ever prevailed? That's not the government view.
LORENCE: But the Supreme Court has said you can even teach the Bible itself. It's the context that's important. Yes, I mean, sure, I mean, ome of the quotes are pretty intense out of the Bible, that Jesus is the only way. But you can teach them if it's a proper context.
The principal here, unfortunately, got involved and got messed up with this wrong understanding of the Constitution to think context isn't important. If I see a God word, it gets eliminated. And that's one of the reasons he contacted us, and that's why we took the case.
COLMES: Well, we wish the school could be here to give their side.
LORENCE: We...
WILLIAMS: Look at my track record. In all of the years of teaching, I have had zero complaints on this issue, zero. So all of a sudden this one year...
HANNITY: You're a great American. Best of luck to you both and appreciate all you do. Thank you for being with us.
*Lorence in the above transcript is attorney Jordan Lorence form the Alliance Defense Fund.
The link at the bottom will take you to FoxNews where you can view the above interview. "
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