When broadcast news organizations try to tackle a church-state problem, I'm of two minds about it: gratified for the attention given to the issue, but nervous that the constitutional questions won't get a fair or accurate portrayal. In its story on the graduation lawsuit , challenging the use of a Wisconsin church for commencement ceremonies, ABCNews comes pretty close and includes some helpful interviews.
Still, for my money, the focus is too strongly on the issue of student "discomfort": at being there, and having a large cross be the background in their graduation pictures, at having to enter a church at all if they want to receive their diploma. It is true that the sense of alienation and unease is a central concern, but I can't help but notice there is hardly a mention of the Constitution, and none of substance at all of the First Amendment in the piece.
I don't know if holding a graduation in a church building is the biggest threat to church-state separation, but the relevant question for me is less about whether the children are upset, and more about how the ramifications of a partnership between the church and a public school. The constitutional dangers of entwining the two unnecessarily and excessively are potentially more far-reaching than even the immediate harm done to a few students during the ceremony.
The personal interest angle makes for good copy, but if viewers are only asking themselves if non-Christian students should be able to withstand discomfort for an hour once in their school careers, they've missed the essential questions.
