Christian Band to Appeal Unfavorable Religious Discrimination Ruling

Christian Band to Appeal Unfavorable Religious Discrimination Ruling

(AgapePress) - A federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush has ruled against a Christian rock band that sued a school district near Toledo, Ohio, for canceling the group's performance at a high school assembly.

District Court Judge Jack Zouhary ruled that school officials in Rossford, Ohio, did not violate the free-speech rights of the local rock band Pawn. In December 2004, the school district rescinded its invitation to have Pawn play at an anti-drug assembly at Rossford High School.

John Whitehead is president of The Rutherford Institute, which is representing Pawn. He says school officials canceled the band's appearance after realizing some of the songs on the band's website mentioned Jesus Christ, and another band was invited to perform in Pawn's place.

Institute attorneys filed suit against the Rossford Exempted Village School District and other school officials in February 2005, claiming the school officials violated the band members' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by discriminating against them because of their religious beliefs and the religious content of their songs.

The amazing thing about this case, Whitehead notes, is that the event for which the band had been invited to play was a voluntary assembly of students; students were not forced to be there, and the purpose of the event was to talk about anti-alcohol and anti-drug themes. Furthermore, he adds, "Pawn even agreed that in between songs they would not talk about religion."

However, even though the group's members agreed that, during this event, their preaching message would be against alcohol and drugs, even that did not stop school officials from discriminating against the Christian band, the attorney contends. "So they, in our opinion, unconstitutionally cancelled them because they were Christians," he says.

Yet, even though Whitehead believes the school engaged in unlawful viewpoint discrimination, he says a dangerous trend is happening in the law at present, and many judges are applying the term "government speech" very broadly, and allowing it to trump all kinds of private expressions. "Eventually," he observes, "if they expand it beyond religion or Christianity or Judaism, will include any kind of free speech, even on private sidewalks."

This is a dangerous theme, the pro-family attorney notes, and it is one that is popping up in cases all over the United States. "We have four cases going on right now where we’re fighting this issue," he says. "So … to be honest with you, if there’s one battle we need to fight for the future, that’s it."

Whitehead definitely plans to appeal Pawn's case, but he says The Rutherford Institute is "not having much luck" with Bush-appointed judges in religious freedom cases. Nevertheless, he asserts, "If we don’t win this battle, it’s going to be very difficult to talk about any kind of moral issue in public."