I am writing in response to Pastor Michael Grant’s June 17 letter to the editor expressing his support for former Franklin County Technical School superintendent Richard Martin. His opinion is dangerous and wrong in that he sees this as a case of persecution of religion, and Christianity more specifically. Mr. Martin did not face consequences because he “prayed for people who were grieving” but rather the clear violation of the separation of church and state represented by a public school superintendent leading a graduation audience in a specifically Christian prayer and then sharing his faith as a large part of his commencement speech concluding with FCTS, for him, meaning “Forgiveness through Christ; Transformed through Service.”
Mr. Grant’s analogy with opening a session of Congress with prayer is flawed as despite his assertion that separation of church and state was designed to “keep the government out of the affairs of the church” and not vice versa, the state and Supreme Court, as well as the current federal Department of Education, have held that a public official (superintendent of a public school district) cannot lead a prayer while performing his official duties (officiating a graduation ceremony) in an official public event (graduation).
The courts have also found that offering “those who would like to” does not negate the compulsion present in a public gathering. The number of people who complained about this infraction is immaterial as, no doubt, many more were affected by Mr. Martin’s actions due to their own deeply held religious or secular beliefs and civil liberties are not dependent on “majority” opinions — definitely not as measured by social media outrage. Pastor Grant does not seem interested in fact and law, but invested in continuing the fallacy that Christianity is facing persecution when it is kept out of official public events sponsored by government entities.
George Hayduke
Pelham