In USAToday today (hey, you figure out how to say it), Tom Krattenmaker takes on the issue of religious expression at public high school commencement ceremonies. And while I appreciate the effort he makes to find some common ground, and reasonable understanding when it comes to letting valedictorian speakers preach their religious views (I really do!), I find some of this the kind of mushy middle talk that's exactly not what school administrators can use.
Krattenmaker spends a little time asking "where's the line?" of propriety, and bemoaning the vagueries of the law in this area, but he takes up the rest of his column suggesting we not spend so much effort worrying about lines and such and just let the kids talk while we sort of do the best we can.
He concludes:
Like so many things, it boils down to good sense, wise judgment, an eye toward effectiveness, respect for others — traits and practices that Christians call discernment. Believers of whatever stripe ought to put this discernment to prayerful use in navigating the tricky waters of what to say, and what not to say, to captive audiences at events such as public school graduations.
But, please, let's not pull the plug on Christian valedictorians or anyone else who would have the temerity to use the J-word in public. "Jesus," after all, is not a dirty word.
I'm in favor of "good sense" and am a huge fan of "wise judgment", but where really does that leave us? Where we already are, right? For the most part, school administrators are trying to avoid conflict, follow the law, and make it to summer vacation without being sued from one side or the other. No doubt an "eye toward effectiveness" is a tool they already consult. There will still be conflicts and tough choices. But at the end of the day a public school graduation is a sponsored by the people, for all the people, and it's inappropriate for it to become a church service from the podium *on any level*. If school officials are going to vet (i.e., give the a-ok) the student speeches at a school-sponsored event, they have every responsibility to see that they don't proselytize or otherwise give the impression that the school seeks to foster religious views through the ceremony. And yes, sometimes enforcing that responsibility can get a bit messy.
For some Christian students, it may indeed be "distasteful" as he says to endure such an important event in a secular context. But he's wrong to suggest that what's at stake are merely competing forms of discomfort. When the shoe is on the other foot, and a non-Christian is forced to endure a momentous event in a Christian context, it's worse than distasteful; it's a violation of their constitutional rights. Those rights protect us all, and are too important to be followed only with mushy good intentions in the place of well-defined policy.
"Gratitude and witness to God" are of course perfectly appropriate for such occasions and everyone has a great opportunity to engage in that activity privately throughout the ceremony and loudly before and after.
