Ethics

Baptisms Okay, but President's Speech? No Way

By Ed Brayton

Remember the school in Kentucky where the superintendent had no problem with the football coach taking his players to a church to get baptized? They required permission slips to watch Obama's speech. Seriously.

A quick phone call to the high school got me transferred to the school district's main offices, where a friendly woman answered but did not want to give her name when I identified myself as a reporter.

"Mam'," I began, "I just have one question that's not even related to the baptism thing and the coach. I just want to know if the district's schools played President Obama's speech on education today."

She responded by putting me on hold. Upon returning, she claimed to have no first-hand knowledge but had been told by someone else in the office that ...

"The students who watched the president's speech today had to get a note signed by their parents that said they could watch it."

In other words, students at the school district where a top official -- the superintendent -- does not see anything wrong with taking football players to be baptized at a Christian revival, were forced to get a parent's signature to "opt-in" (instead of out) for the president's speech.

I'm not surprised, but I am appalled.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 11, 2009 (boomark / email).