The Freedom From Religion Foundation has taken issue with the Panhandle Independent School District due to its promotion of an unconstitutional bible study on its official Facebook page.
FFRF, a national state/church watchdog, has learned that the district has started a bible study called “Donuts & God.” The district recently promoted and celebrated attendance at Panhandle Junior High’s study group on its official Facebook page. One picture of the post includes a bible quote from the Old Testament, Proverbs 4:25-27: “Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.” Then, a Christian message apparently paraphrased from the New Testament book Hebrews 12:2–4 was added: “Keep your eyes focused on Jesus.”
“Government-sponsored [devotional] bible studies are unconstitutional,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi writes to the district. “Further, government religious messaging is inappropriate and unnecessarily divisive.”
It is a constitutional violation for the district to host and promote a proselytizing bible study or any religion, religious events or religious clubs on its official social media pages, FFRF adds. By promoting Christian messages on the official district Facebook page, the district conveys a message to all non-Christians that they are disfavored members of the community. The district must be more aware and sensitive to the diverse community it represents and serves.
If the event was part of a student club, the school’s promotion of it on the Facebook page would still be a violation of the federal Equal Access Act, which bars school officials or outside adults from running student clubs or, for example, hyping them up on the official district Facebook. Whether officially district-sponsored or not, “Donuts & God” runs head first into either the First Amendment or the Equal Access Act. FFRF insists that the club must be disbanded or reformed to better respect the First Amendment rights of students.
“School districts exist to educate, not indoctrinate into religion,” adds FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This district appears to be taking advantage of a captive audience of students to promote a blatant message of religious favoritism over minority religions and nonreligion.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 1,700 members and a chapter in Texas. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
