IN THEORY:Did graduation speech cross the line?

Public school officials in Nevada recently pulled the plug on a high school valedictorian who injected references to Jesus Christ in her speech to graduates. “God’s love is so great that he gave his only son up,” Brittany McComb said before the microphone was turned off, the Associated Press reported. Without amplification, she continued, “ ? to an excruciating death on a cross so his blood would cover all our shortcomings and provide for us a way to heaven in accepting this grace.” McComb is suing the school’s principal, assistant principal and the school employee who turned off the microphone in federal court. She claims her rights to religious freedom and free speech were violated. A school district attorney has said officials were following the guidelines of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rulings that prohibit proselytizing. Do you think the school district made the right choice?

I don’t support her decision to proselytize, but I support her right to speak. I don’t think a graduation ceremony is the place to have church, but if Brittany McComb felt that her success in being able to achieve the status of valedictorian was due to her relationship with Jesus, then she has the right to say it. It would be contradictory to require a student of integrity to attribute her success to something else. They honored her for her accomplishments and achievements and then asked her to violate those accomplishments for the sake of the ceremony.

Students on campus are asked and allowed to talk about sexuality, drugs, politics and myriad other issues. The American school system encourages students to interact with and think about the information they are being taught. Other countries simply require their students to memorize lectures. Our system allows our students to hear all points of view and learn to make informed decisions. It is healthy. To limit the views of one segment of society because of their religious, social or cultural status violates the integrity of our system, our government and our society.

While Brittany should have been coached about excluding the altar call from her message, she should have been given the right to speak. Both sides went a bit too far.

LEAD PASTOR RIC OLSEN

The Beacon, Anaheim

“Dear faculty, families and fellow graduates. Judaism is the one and only path to God’s grace and salvation, The Truth and The Way. At this milestone occasion, it is fitting for me to explicitly extol Judaism as God’s chosen faith and to implicitly dismiss all other religions as, at best, inferior and at worst delusional.”

Would this panegyric, delivered before a heterogeneous audience at a secular ceremony, be suitable? Is a commencement exercise a fitting venue for witnessing to a particular theology and professing exclusivist claims? At a recognition of educational accomplishment, should we be reminded that Jesus died an excruciating death or be compelled to hear a laudation of Abraham’s surrender to God?

Another angle: “Dear faculty, et al. As valedictorian, I urge you to recognize the historically pernicious role of religion. The wars mounted in the name of dogma have besmirched God’s image. Religion has perpetuated ignorance by resisting scientific inquiry, perpetuated poverty by directing hopes heavenward, perpetuated discrimination through bias against women, and perpetuated the status quo by refusing to embrace change. Religion is anathema to reason. Liberate yourselves from its chains!”

Would this be a tolerable exercise of free speech? Or are references to religion acceptable only when referring to Jesus, or only when praising the benefits of faith, or only when they do not express the Mormon view of God?

Another hypothetical: “Dear faculty and all present. For four years a curriculum has been foisted upon us that is inimical to truth. We have been coerced into learning that Darwinism is a correct understanding of how our world came to be and taught that the findings of Intelligent Design have no place in biology class. This is Satanic, since Darwinism is but a theory while God is a fact, as attested by Scripture. How can one compare “The Origin of the Species” with the Bible? Random mutation and natural selection blaspheme the Creator’s design and merit God’s wrath!”

And what if the valedictorian quoted the blogger who wrote: “You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s. A graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years reveals there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.”

At the college commencement for one of my daughters, a speaker abused the opportunity to declare his opposition to the war in Iraq. After four years of onerous tuition payments and the Sturm und Drang that accompany a student’s progression through college, I only want to hear about pride in the past, rejoicing in the present, and dreams for the future. There is no room for self-indulgent commencement speakers who express views with which only part of the audience identifies or approves.

One salient Biblical verse springs to mind: “There is a time to speak and a time to be silent.” And if not silent, at least considerate.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm, Newport Beach

Brittany McComb, though a valedictorian, has a lot more to learn about life. All life is school and we all make mistakes. She has made two. The first mistake was to memorize her speech, defying her teacher’s request. The second mistake was to sue the people involved, who gave her the right ethical and spiritual advice. No one advocates his personal beliefs in a public school. The 1st Amendment does not give you the right to shout fire in a movie theater. The right to carry a gun does not give you the right to carry it on an airplane. In Judaism we have an expression, that a child can murder his parents and plea to the court that she is innocent on the grounds that she is an orphan. Brittany McComb knows better than being a martyr for her faith. As a valedictorian, she is not preaching Christianity but education. There is no excuse for her speech or her lawsuit.

This coming Tuesday night I will be giving the invocation at the Newport Beach City Council meeting. Following is part of the letter I received with my invitation:

“The City Council believes that the purpose of an invocation is to recognize the role that freedom of religion has played in the history of this country and the contribution that religious groups make to the quality of life in this community -- and not to promote or discourage any particular religious belief. The City Council is confident that anyone who agrees to give an invocation consistent with this policy will offer words that respect the laws and institutions that protect the freedom we all enjoy.

The City Council has determined that invocations that comply with the following guidelines are consistent with the “Rubin v. City of Burbank” decision:

The tone, tenor and content of the invocation would not, to a reasonable person, be considered as advancing or disparaging a specific religion.

The invocation does not refer to terms associated with a specific religion, sect or deity such as ‘Jesus Christ,’ ‘Allah,’ or ‘Our Father in Heaven.’

The invocation does not refer to a particular religious holiday, significant date, holy day or religious event.

The person giving the invocation does not read or quote from any sectarian book, doctrine or material.”

I intend to follow the council’s instructions for a more viable and vibrant community in Newport Beach.

RABBI MARC S. RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah, Newport Beach

“Civil Religion in America” is alive and well! As Bob Bellah concluded his l968 Daedalus article with that title, ours “is a heritage of moral and religious experience from which we still have much to learn as we formulate the decisions that lie ahead.”

In this column we have discussed guidelines for invocations at City Council Meetings that prohibit proselytizing and references to particular religions. We have debated schools’ prohibiting T-shirts advocating particular religious beliefs and protecting art disparaging certain faiths.

We have considered student speakers who accepted editing of their religious content and followed up with legal suits against such censorship. The school district in this case made the legally correct choice and one taking seriously Rousseau’s outline of “civil religion” in The Social Contract that includes “the exclusion of religious intolerance.” But, personally, I wish the speaker had been free to say what she felt, leaving thinking listeners free to receive what they heard in their own ways.

This valedictorian knew her boundaries and guidelines. According to the Associated Press, she “was warned that her speech would be cut off if she did not follow an approved script that deleted references to Christ and invitations for others to join the faith. But she memorized the deleted parts and said them anyway.” If she could not observe the boundaries set by the powers in control of this situation, she should not be surprised by the consequences. If I am asked to observe guidelines with which I do not agree as a Christian, I may protest and/or observe them, for as an American I am a beneficiary of our “civil religion.”

(THE VERY REV’D CANON) PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, Corona del Mar

How unkind to use a graduation speech to press religious views onto other students, their families and guests. A high school commencement is an important rite of passage and an exceptionally meaningful celebration for parents who have brought their daughter or son through the difficulties of childhood and teen years to reach this wonderful milestone. Good manners, consideration of others and civility should have guided the student in making references to the importance of her faith in her accomplishments, but refraining from using the valedictorian’s speech to evangelize. Videos of the graduation show clusters of people standing to applaud, others booing loudly, some chanting “let her speak” and a pantomime on stage between the speaker and school administrator ? a graduation deliberately turned into a political event by this student and her supporters.

A student claims she has a right to say whatever she wishes. Other students may claim they have a right to attend their graduation without being subjected to another student’s attempt to convert them to her religious beliefs. Officials of public school districts claim they must implement court decisions governing references to religion in public schools. Our current situation is one of sensible compromise. I think increasing diversity and the growing numbers of non-Christians in the United States will make the use of Christian references at public events more and more inappropriate in the future.

Summaries of this graduation speech may not convey that the plug was pulled only after the student’s speech had gone on for quite some time and it was obvious that she was preaching. The approved version of her speech allowed her to discuss the importance of her faith and to make references to God. The school district’s general counsel, Bill Hoffman, says, “It only became a problem when that language was proselytizing, quoting passages and being more aggressive in an apparent attempt to convert others to her religion.” The district’s procedures call for speeches to be screened, and students were forewarned that divergence from the approved texts would result in the microphone being turned off. Hoffman went on to say, “The district uses taxpayer money to produce a graduation ceremony. It invites the diverse public to attend the ceremony and when it does so it assumes a responsibility to ensure that the religious views of student speakers are not imposed on the audience.”

Students traditionally attend baccalaureate services held at their own churches and temples. Even at the Roman Catholic college I attended, the baccalaureate service was held the morning of graduation day as a separate event, with a large and voluntary turn-out of students and faculty.

Students may attend baccalaureate services at their places of worship and they may pray with family and friends before and after the graduation. A student may make references to God and the importance of her faith in a valedictorian’s speech. But a student should not be permitted to hijack a public high school ceremony to preach her faith to those who have come to celebrate graduation.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

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