Judge: School Wrong to Allow Gideons to Pass Out Bibles

Within hours of a federal court ruling that a Louisiana school district violated the First Amendment by allowing Gideons International to pass out pocket bibles to fifth-graders last May, a unanimous school board voted to appeal the case to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit.

“We are somewhat surprised, but very disappointed with the judge’s decision,” Tangipahoa Parish School Board attorney Chris Moody says after the board vote, the Advocate reports.

Roman Catholic parents of children pursued the suit, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. They objected to the Gideons, whose Bible differs from the one they use, being allowed to distribute their version in school.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled on Tuesday that the Bible distribution is unconstitutional under multiple standards of federal case law. He noted that the distribution was "ultimately coercive" and amounted to "a religious activity without a secular purpose" that promoted Christianity by the school board.

Specifically, Barbier found that one of the children, identified as "Jane Roe," felt that if she didn't take the Bible, "her classmates would have 'picked on' her. She feared they would call her 'devil worshipper,' and that 'she don’t [sic] believe in God,’ and that she is a 'Goth.' "

Hat tip How Appealing.