School Board to Pay in Jesus Prayer Suit

Posted by Kendall Harmon

A Delaware school district has agreed to revise its policies on religion as part of a settlement with two Jewish families who had sued over the pervasiveness of Christian prayer and other religious activities in the schools.

One family said it was forced to leave its home in Georgetown because of an anti-Semitic backlash.

The settlement, which was approved Tuesday, includes payments to the families that both sides would not disclose. Although the settlement resolves many complaints in the suit, against the Indian River School District, the parties are proceeding with litigation over the school board practice of beginning its sessions with prayer.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants said their clients were satisfied with the settlement. On local blogs, the anger many people felt toward the families for protesting Christian prayer at school events has flared anew.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture

3 Comments
Posted February 28, 2008 at 1:13 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. the roman wrote:

Such a shame. People behaving badly.

February 28, 3:04 pm | [comment link]
2. AnglicanFirst wrote:

“At Samantha’s high school graduation in 2004, a minister’s prayer proclaiming Jesus as the only way to the truth nudged Mrs. Dobrich to ask the school board to consider more generic and less exclusionary prayers, she said.”

Well if you are a Christian, then you accept the Gospel and believe that “...Jesus as the only way to the truth…” regarding Salvation. 

Jesus is the only way to Salvation for a person who has been given and understands the fact the Jesus is the Messiah.  To refuse Jesus as Messiah is to refuse the Truth and to refuse the Salvation that Jesus offers all who hear and understand His message.

This was a problem at the very beginning of the Christian Church between Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and Jews who refused to accept Him as the Messiah.

This is no new thing.  However, at the very beginning of the church, it was the Christians who were the persecuted minority and the Jews who were the persecuting majority.

I don’t think that Jews should be persecuted or made to feel uncomfortable in a public school or in their local community, but the fact is, most of them understand Jesus’ message regarding Truth and Salvation.  That shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

February 28, 3:09 pm | [comment link]
3. Choir Stall wrote:

At the risk of being labelled, I’ll come out with it. The Jewish people (whether secular or religious) hold no special place in the history of persecution. They have controlled and have been controlled. During World War II there were something like 6 + million Jews systematically slaughtered. What of the 50 + million Russians who were slaughtered by the Nazis during that same war? No much heard.  Seems like school should be neutral ground and invite religious expression - even diversity. If the Jews of Delaware were being Jews (chosen people - the light to the Gentiles) they would be establishing equal time to present Jewishness rather than insisting that religious light be extinguished altogether.

February 28, 6:20 pm | [comment link]
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