ABSTRACT
A fairly new idea has entered the fray over censorship and public schools and has proved to be an effective challenge. RR leaders claim that schools teach a “liberal religion” or “the religion of secular humanism” and forbid conservative Christians from practicing theirs, thus violating both segments of the First Amendment’s religion clause (see chapter 1). This argument, which sounds plausible and has supporters among high government officials, was launched in the 1974 Kanawha County episode (see the Introduction) when a petition was drawn up by protestors that said the following:
Inasmuch as it has been held unconstitutional for a tax-supported school to promote religious belief, we hold that it is equally unconstitutional to promote religious disbelief. Further, since the denial of supernatural forces is in itself a form of religion, the promotion of agnosticism or nihilism must also be unconstitutional. (cited in Hefley, 1977, p. 163-164)
Because RR extremists are convinced that everything is religious in nature, and all beliefs other than theirs are false and dangerous, every school book, program, and activity either promotes the RR dogma or promotes the devil’s. There is no in-between. What most people consider merely secular, the RR perceives to be the Satan-inspired “religion of secular humanism.”
