Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/112475
Sarasota News Leader March 1, 2013 Page 35 ���It���s not sponsored by the school, nor is it en- ���Our role with them is a facility lease,��� Royce dorsed by the school,��� stresses Samoset Prin- says. ���That���s really what it comes down to.��� cipal Pat Stream. ���What we do is rent them a Lynn says that because of the 2001 Supreme room.��� Court decision, challenging the Fellowship leParents are informed about the Good News gally would be ineffective. He calls the rightClub through a flyer, which is vetted and ap- wing legal groups that helped the Fellowship proved by the main school district office. win in court ���real masters��� when it comes to Stream says the Club operates like any other advancing their agenda. organization ��� the Boy Scouts, for instance ���I have to give them credit for this: They very ��� that rents space at the school. carefully orchestrate the campaigns to get the That misses the point, says Barry Lynn, the right cases to the right courts,��� he adds. ���Sadexecutive director of Americans United for ly, they���re very good at being on the wrong the Separation of Church and State, a na- side of almost everything.��� tional nonprofit ���dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state sepa- STRATEGIES ration.��� He says it is ���ridiculous��� to think that elementary school students can differentiate Americans United is now focused on alerting between an arithmetic class taught during parents to the organization���s presence in their normal school hours and a Bible class taught children���s schools, an effort aided by Stewin the same building right after the bell rings. art���s book. Stewart says she is ���really grateful��� for the reception her book has received. She ���These evangelical groups have the easy pick- regularly speaks to libertarian organizations, ings of students seconds after classes end,��� progressive religious groups and LGBT rights Lynn points out. ���You have a captive audience activists about her research. at 3 o���clock and then at 3:01 they���re being lured by their friends, lured by their promis- ���We have an irreducible diversity of faith in es.��� Comparing the Good News Club to other our society,��� she adds. ���There are so many difafter-school clubs just does not wash; ���These ferent types of Christianity. ��� If our public classes are not about the Bible,��� he says. schools are to function, we need to set aside our religious affiliations, our political affilia���They are hard-sell evangelical messages.��� tions, and see schools as places to come toTara Principal Steve Royce disagrees. ���It���s not gether.��� in the school,��� he says. ���It���s outside the school hours. It���s not like they come in at 9 o���clock. ���Do we really need to be turning our public The school day is finished before they even schools into these religious battlefields?��� start, so the students who choose to stay, their The Good News Club: The Christian Right���s parents are definitely aware of what they���re Stealth Assault on America���s Children, will staying for.��� be presented from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Both he and Stream note they have re- March 3, at the First Congregational United ceived no parent complaints about the Church of Christ, 1031 Euclid Ave., SarasoGood News Clubs. ta. The program is free. %