Understanding the Brawley, Calif., grad speech debate and Christian culture war
To find one’s self knighted in the service of a culture war is a heavy responsibility for one young man, and it’s not quite clear whether Brooks Hamby fully understands his role as free speech crusader, or more accurately, the role others are thrusting upon him.
Clearly he is smart and extremely articulate, destined for a role as leader of men, but he is still a manchild being burdened with the weight of other people’s expectations to further a perception and give a doe-eyed, smooth-skinned face to an agenda that might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
So far young Brooks seems a willing participant to the national adulation, but he came off a little smug on “Fox & Friends”; smug might not be the right kind of reaction one would want to go with in a minor news story that has been covered with nearly no balance and pushed almost entirely through a famously biased conservative Christian media machine.
The entire viral nature of this story has been orchestrated locally, perpetuated nationally, and has been completely adapted for a national obsession with Christian persecution. Yet this is no persecution; in many parts of the world Christians are still being killed for their faith, not simply being denied two minutes of giving it up to God.
My beef is not with Brooks; it’s with the push outward to manufacture a story, to shape a story and use a kid as a figurehead for others’ paranoia.
If we keep the perspective to our home world of Imperial County, Brooks was doing what his heart would have him do; profess his faith in Jesus Christ in front of peers and parents. It feels right to the gut, to the soul.
But the school district was doing its duty, too. As a government-funded agency, it was protecting its place, defending its policies, covering its butt and promoting equity under the law in upholding that established dividing line between religion in a public forum, between church and state.
It is way more complicated than that, though, because to cry church and state is to open up the argument to the slings and arrows of free speech, government intrusion, and yes, again, Christian persecution. When the culture warriors foist the armor and the weapons on a young man, they are being irresponsible with giving him a responsibility he hasn’t earned.
California Ed Code, federal appeals court cases, and even related U.S. Supreme Court cases will defend BUHS’ actions, not because anyone wants to persecute Christians. This is about keeping religion in its place and not forced on someone else who doesn’t want it and wasn’t asking for it.
A graduation is the same under the law as a public school assembly, with a captive audience that is not going to walk out on a special moment, the culmination of more than three-quarters of a lifetime achieving and befitting under a free public education.
If someone wants to take a stand for the Christians of the Imperial Valley, for the Christians of the country, at a public high school graduation, understand then what a baccalaureate is for; it is a religious event, optional in attendance and participation. Sure, the same might be said about a graduation, but unlike a baccalaureate there are no expectations of religion.
Where would this discussion be if a Muslim kid stood before the class of 2014 and talked about the district thwarting his attempts to quote from the Koran? Who would champion their free speech? But that’s not the point, is it?
Earlier in the week I was sent 26 links to stories about Brooks’ battle; about 20 of them came from news organizations that traffic in nothing but one-sided, opinion-based conservative and religious-leaning content. Fox News, Glenn Beck’s Blaze website, the Washington Times, Christian Post, Liberty News, Your Nation, Conservative Tribune, the list is long and not very distinguished.
As far as I can tell, we’re the only newspaper to report the reasons behind the school district’s decision to ask Brooks to revise; we’re the only publication to talk about the Ed Code and case law. Our stories didn’t have a preset agenda; there is no way the same can be said about content that seems to exist to keep the culture war raging.
Lest any of my point be lost or I’ve offended, it doesn’t matter: the Supreme Court dealt with a comparable situation just this week, refusing to reverse a lower-court ruling emanating from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in which a Milwaukee school district was found to have violated the idea government bodies may not endorse religion.
This has been decided, and this is not meant to begrudge young Brooks his faith, which is obviously very personal to him. But it’s his personal story, not necessarily anyone else’s. That is a choice he doesn’t get to make for everyone.
This column first appeared in the Imperial Valley Press, June 20, 2014.
A link for context: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/07/11/school-have-right-to-ban-god/