Thursday, September 15, 2011

Court rules: Buddha’s fine, God is not

Wisdom Quarterly
Left to right: 1. Sumerian god, 2. Shakyamuni Buddha, 3. Jesus (St. Issa), 4. "Laughing Buddha" (Zen master Hotei), 5. blue Krishna, 6. holy cow (gopis), 7. shaman Tiki idol, 8. sinister crouching figure. (Interpretation: Wisdom Quarterly; image: weheartit.com).

(Cal Catholic) Appeals court says school can force California teacher to remove patriotic classroom banners mentioning God.

SAN DIEGO, California - A Poway high school math teacher who displayed patriotic banners in his classroom that mentioned God has lost his appeal in federal court and been ordered to pay substantial court costs.

Brad Johnson, a teacher at Westview High School in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, was ordered by school officials in 2007 to take down classroom banners [after 25 years on display] that contained historical slogans such as “In God We Trust, ” “One Nation under God, ” as well as the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, because, school officials said, “they may offend a Muslim student.”

...According to the Thomas More Law Center, which represented Johnson, the school district allowed religious classroom displays by other teachers, including one of a 35- to 40-foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha; a poster with the lyrics from John Lennon’s anti-religion song “Imagine;” a poster with Hindu [political] leader Mahatma Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins;” a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X; and a poster of [Tibetan political "pope" and] Buddhist leader, the 14th Dalai Lama. More

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