Guidelines rekindle debate over religion in schools
DEBRA COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The debate over religion in the public schools is back. In the latest development, a campaign to increase religious expression in public schools has raised the hackles of the author of the guidelines on which the proposed program is based.
Attorney Marc Stern, who authored guidelines detailing the types of religious expression legally permitted in public schools, is mounting a campaign to prevent the Center for Jewish and ChristianValues - a Jewish-run organization that raises money from evangelical Christians - from using the guidelines in a way that he calls "totally unacceptable."
Those guidelines were endorsed nearly two years ago by a wide range of groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union,the National Association of Evangelicals, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress.
Several months after their initial publication in April 1995, similar guidelines were endorsed by the National PTA and by the U.S. Department of Education, which then distributed them to schools.
The guidelines were authored - and issued by the administration - in an effort to avert a proposed constitutional amendment.
According to the guidelines, students can pray during the school day, wear religious attire, express religious beliefs in assignments and make religious or anti-religious remarks as part of an appropriate classroom discussion.
In addition to promoting the guidelines, more must be done to get the guidelines actually implemented in public schools, said Chris Gersten, director of the politically conservative Center for Jewish and Christian Values, the Washington offshoot of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
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