Carter: Open letter to Rankin County School Board

Neil Carter | Guest Columnist

Dear Rankin County School Board,

Because I live in Rankin County and because I currently have four daughters attending three of your schools, the decisions and attitudes of the Rankin County School District faculty, staff, administrators and board members matter a great deal to me. As a taxpayer in this county, it concerns me greatly when I see decisions made thatI believe will negatively impact the reputation and performance of Rankin County schools, especially when those decisions result in unnecessary legal fees and judicial penalties for violating the orders of the federal court system.

Leaders within the RCSD have made our county nationally famous for their overt displays of faith in settings that are required by law to remain neutral toward matters of religion. I know many within our district feel compelled by their devotion to their faith to make these demonstrations because they feel their surrounding culture has become hostile to their faith, impinging on their own religious liberties to the point of marginalizing them, thereby dishonoring the object of their faith.

I was raised a member of that faith, and while I no longer subscribe to it, I remain deeply committed to ensuring the right of anyone who does so to practice that faith (or any other) without interference from the government, which derives its value from its ability to protect our freedoms rather than to limit them. My own family continues to hold to the Christian faith, and I have no desire to see their freedom to do so hindered by anyone who does not, myself included.

But there is a catch: Your freedom to swing your fist ends at the other man's nose, as the saying goes, which in this case means your freedom to practice your religion must never curtail the freedom of another not to practice your religion. That is why publicly funded institutions must take pains never to show favoritism toward one set of religious beliefs at the unavoidable expense of any other. Individuals within RCSD must remain free to observe their own religious traditions, but they cannot use government resources to that end without necessarily entangling the government in favoring one set of beliefs over another.

Such neutrality requires more effort for some than for others. In recent days, RCSD's most newly elected board member, David Dyess, articulated his own difficulties to that end when he admitted his strongly held religious beliefs would make it harder to navigate the legal demands for religious neutrality on the part of the school's leadership. As he put it, "I have a hard time separating that from everyday life." Remembering well my own former devotion to that same faith, I can understand how that will present a challenge for him.

I do not agree, however, with his troubling contention that "There’s no such thing as separation of church and state." The very author of our Declaration of Independence coined that phrase in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, and its spirit is woven throughout the Constitution on which our current legal system is based. It is also factually incorrect that "a judge said you can't say God in school anymore." No such restriction exists.

My hope and earnest plea for the Rankin County School Board is you would endeavor to walk that fine line of respect for the religious diversity of your staff, students and parents, not showing favoritism toward your own faith at the expense of the others. Failure to do so infringes upon the freedoms of those who do not subscribe to your religion, and it continues to cost the county taxpayers money. In a state that keeps reducing educational funding, it is financially irresponsible for a school system to fail to rein in its leadership when their displays of religious favoritism cost the system tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary legal penalties.

If you truly believe your tradition enjoys the benefits of divine favor, it should not require government favoritism in order to survive or to thrive, not even in the midst of a hostile environment. That goes double for a legal system that is not, in fact, hostile toward any religion but seeks instead to treat all faith traditions the same, protecting all and privileging none.

Neil Carter is a Rankin County resident and a former teacher for the RCSD with four children in that district. He is a member of the Mississippi Humanist Association and writes a column on Patheos under the name "Godless in Dixie."