Religious persecution? Not remotely

Not only is St. Isidore unconstitutional, but the folks pushing it, an archbishop and a bishop, have not been made to get on the record about it, either

The crumbling separation of church and state is in the news again because, as Sean Murphy’s story for the Associated Press opened Monday, “A group of parents, faith leaders and a public education nonprofit have sued to stop Oklahoma from establishing the nation’s first religious public school.”

Got it?

Something called the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board — which is apparently a real thing, with an ok.gov web address and everything — on June 6 voted 3-2 to approve the application of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to create St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Catholic Charter School.

Because he tends to be on the right side of things, state attorney general Gentner Drummond soon came out against it, writing an op-ed for The Oklahoman that began like this:

“The recent decision by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to approve the application for what would be the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school is cause for serious concern.

“Sponsors of the proposed new school declare that it will be ‘Catholic in teaching, Catholic in employment and Catholic in every way.’ Supporters hail the approval as a victory for religious liberty.

“It is the exact opposite. The board’s vote drove a stake in the heart of religious liberty.”

He went on to explain, “Forcing Oklahomans to fund religious teachings with their tax dollars is not religious freedom — it is state-sponsored religion, which violates the first clause of the First Amendment.”

Of course, supporters of skirting the Constitution and St. Isidore have their own spin.

Via The Oklahoman, Brett Farley, “a lobbyist representing the diocese and archdiocese,” because of course the guy you want doing your speaking when God’s the client is a lobbyist, said this:

"We remain confident that the Oklahoma court will ultimately agree with the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in favor of religious liberty."

Only that’s not what the Supreme Court said at all. 

What the Supreme Court said in June of last year, by a 6-3 vote, was private school voucher programs could not be limited to non-religious private schools. That is, if you’re going to use public money to help give students private school options, you cannot discriminate against religiously-based schools by withholding those same vouchers from them.

Given that, if you’re a critical thinker at all, you should understand a truck can be driven between what the court said and what’s going on here in Oklahoma, because creating a religiously-based PUBLIC school is wholly different than opening up a religiously-based private school to a voucher program.

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Neither should happen, but one is not the other and you know who understands that very well?

Brett Farley, that’s who.

About that, though one might think the Catholic Church above spinning to achieve a political objective, perhaps when you’ve got a state trying to throw money at you, while continuing to believe you’re the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, it isn’t.

Farley, to be fair, is not just “a lobbyist,” but, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma — so says his LinkedIn page — which is a long title for a PR guy, though it does mean he works for the church and, it would appear, speaks for it here in the state.

But is that enough?

Because you know who’s never quoted in stories about St. Isidore?

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, in charge of Oklahoma City’s archdiocese. Nor has David Konderla, bishop of Tulsa’s diocese. Yet, these are the men, along with the unconstitutionalist wing of Oklahoma’s Republican Party, making an end run around the separation of church and state.

Hey, state legislators, maybe bring them in for some testimony? 

Hey, media, maybe find out where they’re next attending (or delivering) Mass and come with your notebook.

They’re not special.

Not in matters of state, they’re not.

I’d love to hear them because, as a product of Catholic high school, I legit want to know where they’re coming from.

I want to know because among my specific memories at Bishop McGuinness was a day in Risa Ryland’s American history class in which we covered separation of church and state, and, best I can remember, it made all the sense in the world to her and all of us in class.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …

What could be clearer?

Another specific memory belongs to Father Rene Vermillion, vice principal, in which, during an assembly, he sternly told us something to the affect of … you’re here, not somewhere else, and here there are expectations you might not find elsewhere, but it’s what you signed up for, unless it isn’t, in which case you’re free to go.

What I heard was I was at Catholic school now, a standard would be enforced, and it suited me.

I first learned to think at Westminster day and middle schools before expanding my horizons at McGuinness. It was there I wrote a paper about Andy Warhol, somehow made it through chemistry and physics, and, as for politics, learned about the murders of El Salvadoran priests by right wing death squads representing the political interests of unsavory characters from which the U.S. was struggling to decouple itself, the Cold War still stubbornly holding sway.

For what it gave me, though not Catholic, I loved my Catholic education.

But I never thought the folks who gave it to me would begin stomping on the Constitution.

We should hear from them.

For that matter, get Pope Francis on the line.

Does he know the church he leads is threatening 230 years of history and the U.S. Constitution right here in Oklahoma?

He ought to.

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Because he couldn’t not, Ryan Walters poked his head out Monday with something dumb to say.

“It’s time to end atheism as the state sponsored religion. Suing and targeting the Catholic Virtual Charter School is religious persecution because of one’s faith, which is the very reason that religious freedom is constitutionally protected. A warped perversion of history has created a modern day concept that all religious freedom is driven from the classroom. I will always side for an individuals’s right to choose religious freedom in education.”

Atheism a state sponsored religion?

How can the absence of something be something?

The virtual charter board is trying to do something that’s never happened in American history but its religious persecution to believe it’s the wrong step?

Sure.

All religious freedom has been driven from the classroom? 

Does that mean teachers and students can no longer wear crucifixes, or a student may no longer bow his head and silently pray as an algebra test is passed out?

Such a dodo.

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Yet, here we go again, where nothings good enough for these yahoos until we’re all under their thumbs.

There’s a Triumph song.

I recommend all of it.

But here’s the chorus:

Fight the good fight every moment
Every minute every day
Fight the good fight every moment
It's your only way.

So it remains.

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