This graduation season, The Blaze has covered a number of stories about the limitations that have been placed on students’ commencement garments and public prayer rights. Now add a ban on explaining how God changed your life to the list.
Kyle Gearwar, the valedictorian of Fair Haven Union High School in Fair Haven, Vermont, says that he was told by school officials that he couldn’t include specific information about how God has changed his life in his commencement address.
Gearwar told the crowd during his ceremony last Friday that he was only allowed to deliver half of the speech he had wanted to. The Burlington Free Press has more:
“It is a fine line here. Here’s freedom of speech and here’s separation of church and state,” Fair Haven Union High School principal Brett Blanchard said. “The line is generally the difference between proselytizing and personalizing.”
Gearwar was allowed to mention God and Jesus in the accepted portion of his speech, Blanchard noted, but he said public schools have to be careful about allowing someone to preach their religion at a school-sanctioned event.
Gearwar claims that he isn’t interested in setting off a firestorm or engaging in the infamous church versus state debate. The former student said he had simply hoped his words would help others. According to the Free Press, he told the audience:
“I have always dreamed of speaking about God in front of my school as the valedictorian,” he said in his speech. “This was the message God gave to me, and I am not allowed to share it with you even though it is my testimony, the most important change my life has ever experienced, and the one thing that I stand for no matter what.”
Source: The Blaze
My Comment:
The above article just proves that mentioning “Jesus and/or God” will soon be a crime. How you may ask? Well, in areas of the world it’s already a crime to praise Jesus Christ. Christians are persecuted daily, and have been killed because of this.
In the United States, by banning God/Jesus in speeches, schools etc., is just the very beginning that will lead to the persecution of those who believe in Our Lord and Savior.
2 Timothy 3:12
……that mentioning “Jesus and/or God” will soon be a crime…..
Amen!! Amen!! Too Many let others tell them they can’t speak about Jesus …Well a time will indeed come if they don’t confess HIM before Men …He will not confess them before HIS Father! ….The Stage is so set!!!
If someone were to mention the name of allah in a commencement speach, I wounder how many of these people who are always complaining about the name of Jesus or the God of Abraham being mentioned would have the courage to stand up and say how offended they are when muslims speak of their god. It’s easy to voice your outrage with Christians and Jews because, unlike the muslims, they won’t slit your throat and hand you your head! Shalom
What they fail to acknowledge is that Jesus is God, and that he come’s soon. So just as Christ said this will be a sign prior to his coming, I say come Lord, and thank you Jesus for loving us that much! Amen!
Along with humor and engaging audiences, it’s a challenge to offer a diverse audience a message that will resonate and leave them with gifts for their journey ahead.
Here’s an example of a storied approach to this challenge. A collage of stories is used to offer students three gifts for their journey (judgment, compassion, and mercy).