News Release & Action Alert
On behalf of residents in Brunswick County, N.C., the Freedom From Religion Foundation has written its superintendent and Board of Education threatening to sue if the Board does not reverse a decision to let Gideons distribute New Testament bibles to schoolchildren.
The Brunswick County School Board voted recently to allow the Gideon Society as early as this spring to distribute the Christian testament, rescinding a 1994 decision.
Calling the decision “shocking and unlawful,” Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the Gideon Society is a “repeat offender.”
In a letter to Supt. Katie McGee and members of the school board, Gaylor wrote:
“The Gideon Society is an aggressive proselytizing missionary group which knows it is not permitted to distribute bibles in public schools, yet relentlessly carries on its crusade by hooking up with unscrupulous principals or schools boards. The Society preys on the youngest and most vulnerable Americans–schoolchildren who are a captive audience in our public schools.”
Citing Supreme Court “chapter and verse,” Gaylor noted that it is settled law that religious material may not be distributed in public schools, by the Gideons or by anyone else:
“The First Amendment requires public schools to remain neutral on religious matters, and respect the legal rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”
“Rogue school boards cannot be permitted to undermine our Constitution and proselytize small children.”
To protest the unlawful decision, write:
Katie McGee, Ed.D, Supt.
and Members of the Board of Education
Brunswick County Schools
35 Referendum Dr.
Bolivia NC 28422
