A national nonprofit organization urged an Arkansas school district to cease a band performance it says “condemns non-Christian viewers to damnation”
By ANTOINETTE GRAJEDA | Arkansas Advocate
The Freedom From Religion Foundation officials said they were contacted by school district community members concerned about the Lake Hamilton Power Band’s halftime and competition show called “Revival,” which is themed after Christian tent revivals.
The performance includes religious hymns and props with messages such as “sinners beware” and “repent now,” according to a press release.
“Turning a school-sponsored marching band performance into a religious event violates the constitutional separation of religion and government,” FFRF Equal Justice Fellow Kat Grant wrote in a letter to the district. “Lake Hamilton School District has a responsibility to ensure that performances by school-sponsored groups do not impermissibly favor religion over nonreligion.”
FFRF called on the district to stop the promotion of religion in school-sponsored performances.
“Using a high school band to spread disapproval of nonbelievers is a blatant abuse of power,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said.
FFRF, which advocates for the separation of church and state, asked the Prescott School District in May to stop distributing Bibles at an elementary school and leading students in prayer.
The group also criticized a baptism ceremony for more than three dozen inmates at the Crawford County Jail.
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