Wednesday, May 13, 2009

School tried to Force Students to change "Day of Prayer"

"Unconstitutional policies that serve to silence Christian students"

Under legal pressure, Covina middle school relents after first telling students they had to change 'Day of Prayer' to 'Day of Reflection'

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News release from Alliance Defense Fund
May 11, 2009

After receiving assistance from Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, students at a Royal Oak Middle School in Covina were allowed to observe the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 7.

Students in the Spiritual Place of Teens, or SPOT, club were initially told by school officials that they would have to change the name of the event and that they would not be permitted to advertise with flyers or posters on campus.

"Christian students shouldn't be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs," said ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman. "The so-called 'separation of church and state' does not permit school officials to silence students who wish to advertise or observe the National Day of Prayer. We are pleased that school officials chose to recognize and honor students' constitutional rights by allowing them to participate in this event."

Charter Oak School District officials initially told SPOT club members that they would have to refer to the National Day of Prayer as the "National Day of Reflection," and prohibited them from displaying materials advertising the event on campus. On Thursday, approximately 60 students and 30 adults gathered for prayer around the flagpole before the start of school in support of the NDP.

ADF attorneys sent a letter to school officials Friday, asking them to drop existing unconstitutional policies that serve to silence Christian students. The policies restrict the rights of Christian students to advertise events, access meeting space, and talk to other students about their faith.

ADF attorneys are presently defending the National Day of Prayer Task Force and its chairperson, Shirley Dobson, in a federal lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation to halt the observance of the annual event.

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Quotes from 'The Glories of Mary':

‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.’

(Gen. 3:15)

“Since the devil is the head of original sin, this head it was that Mary crushed: for sin never had any entry into the soul of this Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from all stain.”

Saint Augustine

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PSALM 71 SPEAKS TO MY HEART

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!

Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
forsake me not when my strength is spent.

For my enemies speak concerning me;
those who watch for my life consult together
and say, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, be not far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.

With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.

I will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.

And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
who sought to do me hurt.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

School tried to Force Students to change "Day of Prayer"

"Unconstitutional policies that serve to silence Christian students"

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