On The Front Lines
'NewPatriot' Radio Interviews Rutherford President John Whitehead About Weekday Religious Education in Public Schools
NewPatriot Radio has published an interview with John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, on its blog radio site. Whitehead talked with host Bill Mabon about the constitutionality of Weekday Religious Education programs, especially in light of the recent debates in Staunton, Va., over the future of WRE programs in the Staunton Public Schools. The NewPatriot Radio interview is available here.WRE is a time-release program that provides for students to be given the opportunity to attend 30 minutes of off-campus religious instruction every week. The Staunton School Board began re-evaluating the future of its Weekday Religious Education program after some parents raised objections that religious studies should not be done during school hours. In response to the controversy, The Rutherford Institute provided members of the school board with a constitutional analysis and guidelines for such programs. The Staunton School Board voted 5-1 recently to keep the program for another year.
As John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, stated in his memorandum urging Staunton School Board Members to preserve WRE, "Any claims that Staunton's Weekday Religious Education program is constitutionally suspect must be rejected and should play no part in the Board's decision to continue the program." Whitehead concluded his memorandum by quoting from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in his 1952 ruling in Zorach v. Clausen:
We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom to worship as one chooses. We make room for a wide variety of beliefs and creeds as the spiritual needs of man deem necessary. We sponsor an attitude on the part of government that shows no partiality to any one group and lets each flourish according to the zeal of its adherents and the appeal of its dogma.
The Rutherford Institute's guidelines for Weekday Religious Education programs are available online here.
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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