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A
Silent Protest How one man's decision to right a wrong has changed the way we start each day in school. |
 Editor's
note: In 1956 Ellery Schempp did something that showed his love for his
country. What he started changed what you do in school every morning,
even today! Here is his story.When I was 16 years old, the United States Congress changed the Pledge of Allegiance; they added the words "under God." Until then, everyone said, "…one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Now everyone says "…one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." That might have been okay with me, but in 1956, when I was 16, we also had to listen to the Bible being read every morning and we had to recite the Lord's Prayer. There was a lot of religion-Christian religion-every morning in my public school classroom. That same year, I learned about The First Amendment of the US Constitution. One of the things it says is that the government can't tell people what to believe. As a Unitarian, I had also learned to respect different religions. It seemed to me that making students read the Bible and recite Christian prayers in public schools was going against the First Amendment and being disrespectful of other religions. I decided to do something about it.
I made a silent protest. One day I took a borrowed copy of the Qu'ran (the holy book of Islam) to school and instead of putting away my schoolwork to listen to the Bible-reading and recite the Lord's Prayer, I just sat quietly and read the Qu'ran. Boy, was I nervous! Within minutes I was sent to the principal, and given a lecture on respecting rules. When I got home I wrote a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a group that my parents belonged to. The ACLU works to make sure people are treated fairly in our country. I wrote that I thought my school was wrong. Not everybody in my school was a Christian and making students say Christian prayers and listen to Christian readings sure seemed like the government telling people what to believe. To make a long story short, the ACLU agreed with me, and they brought the case to the courts. It was going to be up to judges to decide if the school was right or wrong. I guess it was a hard decision because it took seven years! In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court argued the case called Abington vs. Schempp and Murray vs. Curlet and in an 8-to-1 decision (eight judges were in favor of the decision, one was not) they declared Bible-reading and public-prayer rituals in the schools unconstitutional under the First Amendment. From that day to this, there is no required public prayer in schools. We are lucky to live in a country where people can practice many different religions. I'm grateful to our Unitarian tradition, which teaches us to stand up for what we think is right. It really made a difference in my life! Adapted from a speech by Ellery Schempp given on October 17, 2002 at the Arlington Street Church in Boston, MA. For complete text, go to: http://www.uua.org/news/2002/civil/. |
