The “American Humanist Association” threatened, via e-mail, to sue the Duncan Public School district in Oklahoma over what the atheist group calls “unconstitutional Bible distribution” by Erica Mackey, a third-grade teacher at Woodrow Wilson Elementary.
Ms. Mackey brought copies of the New Testament into her classroom. She communicated to her students that if they want a free Gideon Bible they could take one. Most of her third-grade students walked up to her desk to receive a free Bible. Teachers have given away books for free before, why would giving away one of the oldest books in history be any different?
The atheist group has alleged that one child (O-N-E…..or U-N-O) felt “peer-pressured and coerced” to take a free copy because several of his classmates had done so. This wasn’t kids smoking or jumping off cliffs or spraying graffiti over museum art; this was kids in a classroom given the choice to take a book for free home. “Peer-pressured and coerced”..yeah, he’s scarred for life…sure; from this emotional tragedy he may never recover. I can just hear him in therapy :”oh gee, they made me take a book”….
The school district responded by sending a letter to the American Humanist Association promising the atheist group that the distribution of the free Bibles to students would stop even though most of the third -grade students took them on their own free will. So much for the Duncan Public School District standing up for Literacy! If the school district was worried about a lawsuit, they should have accepted the challenge because there are organizations out there that would have helped defend them for free.
Parents, students, and local residents whose tax dollars pay for the school districts took to social media in support of Ms. Mackey.
There was no need to drag third-grade children into this fiasco. The books are free. Most of the children wanted them except for an alleged boy that the atheist group said was almost bullied into taking the book through peer pressure. The only bullying done here is by the atheist group. Since when does the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many, especially when the many wanted the free copy of the Bible. Is the reported young student who was allegedly so offended even a real student in Ms. Mackey’s class; or is the association basing its complaint on a guess?
If the Atheists are concerned about the Bible being a myth will they be halting the free distribution of free copies of Grimms’ Fairy Tales or Aesop’s Fables as well? Those stories are not real, why warp the minds of children with wonder and morals? Will the Atheists also sue President Obama since his administration has suggested that ISLAM be taught in schools? Would these brave atheists of the American Humanist Association send another brave threat through the safe confines of internet e-mail to public schools that the Islam should not be taught to students because there is no Allah?
Maybe those in the American Humanist Association need lessons in literacy. The First Amendment of the US Constitution says Freedom OF Religion, not Freedom FROM Religion. If a child wants a Bible to read he or she should have that opportunity be it at a public library or a school library. It’s not just a religious book, there is history in it as well and it has been a major part of history too; and if the child does not have the money to buy a Bible he or she should be allowed to get a copy for free wherever the Bible is given out for free.