My friend Jerry Coyne published this Public high school principal prays at graduation « Why Evolution Is True.
I found what happened in Lebanon, Pennsylvania offensive, an attack on the First Amendment.
Jerry got a lot of vile emails (and, it seems, phone calls) from raging Lebanon what-we-should-not-really-call citizens, who approved of the principal’s, um, principles (Christian, not educational). One point that the forces of evil–oh, no, wait, I mean belligerent Christianity (or any other fundamentalist belief)–fail to reckon with: why are they always so damn hostile? So angry, so ignorant, so inarticulately furious? These are not people who are making anything like a persuasive argument for their side of the debate.
Jerry did got one glorious response from a Lebanon high school student who was at graduation and sharply rejected what his principal had to say, and the atmosphere the principal had created, along with his bullying Christian students, at the high school.
As Jerry said, the letter will bring tears to your eyes.
This kid sounds so smart. I predict he will go far in his life − and hope it’s far from Lebanon, Pennsylvania, unless he has the strength to battle the forces of ignorance.