Views on 'Jesus glasses' best left at home

Teachers in a taxpayer-financed classroom don't have the right to insult their students' religious beliefs.

By GORDON DILLOW / Register columnist

If a public high school teacher were to say to his students, "When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can see the truth," you can bet the American Civil Liberties Union and others would say that the teacher was promoting Christianity, that it was a violation of the separation of church and state. And the school administration would probably agree.

But what if a public high school teacher tells his students that "When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth"? Isn't that essentially the same thing? Isn't disparaging a certain religion in a public school classroom just as legally improper as promoting a certain religion?

It seems to me that it is. But at the same time, suing a teacher doesn't seem like the best way to fix it.

What brings this up is the federal lawsuit filed last week against the Capistrano Unified School District and veteran Capistrano Valley High School teacher Dr. James Corbett. As reported in the Register, 16-year-old Chad Farnan, a Christian, and his parents, Bill and Teresa, say that Chad's constitutional rights were violated when Corbett repeatedly disparaged religion in general, and Christianity in particular, while teaching an Advanced Placement European History class.

To back that up, the complaint quotes a number of tape-recorded statements Corbett allegedly made to the class one day in October - including the statement about "Jesus glasses" making it impossible to see the truth. They say the quotes are typical of Dr. Corbett's in-class "hostility to religion."

I don't have room to print all of the quotes, but you can find the entire complaint at www.faith-freedom.com, the Web site for a nonprofit group called Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which filed the lawsuit for the Farnans. Remember, though, that the complaint is only one side of the story. Dr. Corbett respectfully declined my request for an interview, and the school district says it is reviewing the matter.

Still, if the quotes are accurate, it's pretty clear that Dr. Corbett, who by most accounts is a popular teacher among many students, isn't shy about sharing his personal and political views with a more-or-less captive audience.

"Conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies," he's quoted as saying. "That's interfering with God's work. You got to stay pregnant, barefoot, and in the kitchen and have babies until your body collapses. All over the world â¦ the conservatives want control over women's reproductive capacity. Everywhere in the world, from conservative Christians in this country to Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan."

There's more. According to the complaint, during the same class he called religious beliefs "irrational" and suggested there is a correlation between high church attendance and high crime rates. He also called Rush Limbaugh a "fat, pain in the ass liar," said the Bush administration's push for teen sexual abstinence is "idiotic," and referred to the Boy Scouts as "a homophobic and a racist organization" - although what any of that has to do with the Peace of Westphalia or the War of the Spanish Succession or any other aspect of European history is a little unclear to me.

Well, you may agree, or disagree, with some or all of Dr. Corbett's views. But teachers in a taxpayer-financed classroom don't have the right to insult their students' religious beliefs, any more than they have the right to teach them that there is no God but Allah, or that atheists are going to burn in hell. That's for parents and preachers, not public school teachers.

Nevertheless, as I said, except as an absolute last resort, I'm not a fan of lawsuits against teachers, no matter who files them. Lawsuits take money away from education, and set a bad example of litigiousness for the students.

Jennifer Monk, the Farnans' attorney, told me they filed the lawsuit because previous complaints about Dr. Corbett by other parents had provoked in-class ridicule and didn't resolve the problem. She said the Farnans really aren't interested in money, but only want Dr. Corbett replaced in that class so Chad can complete it and realize his dream of going to USC or UCLA.

And maybe that's so - although if young Chad has a problem with liberal, anti-religious teachers in high school, just wait till he gets to college.

In any event, the parties involved should sit down and work this out without going to court. In return for the Farnans dropping their lawsuit, Dr. Corbett should promise to be more tolerant of other people's religious beliefs.

And to leave his thoughts on "Jesus glasses" at home.

Contact the writer: GLDillow@aol.com

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