“A day after a Christian group distributed bibles to students inside 11 Orange County high schools, a group of atheists and secular humanists said they plan to hand out materials as well,” reports Lauren Roth of the Orlando Sentinel in Florida.
“We don’t want only some groups to have their say,” said David Williamson, organizer of the Central Florida Freethought Community. He said he would prefer to see the school district modify its policies to ban all such handouts. But until then, “we want to be on a level playing field.”
Muslim and Jewish leaders said they had no plans to distribute their own religious books. … Rabbi Steven Engel of Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orange County, said he was “deeply disturbed” that the New Testament was given out in schools. “This is absolutely wrong. It violates the separation of church and state very clearly.” He said allowing the distribution on campus makes it appear government is endorsing a particular religious viewpoint.
The school district allowed the action by the World Changers of Central Florida, which promotes the teaching of Creationism and prayer in public schools, because of a 2010 legal decision after Collier County schools denied a similar request by the group. Representatives of World Changers, who could not be reached Thursday, had distributed bibles in Orange high schools last year without controversy.
“The court has ruled Bibles are OK,” said Woody Rodriguez, the district counsel for Orange County schools.
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