Christian lawyers fail to invent persecution at public school

[D. Scarlatti]

Remember the Child Evangelism Fellowship, a.k.a. the Good News Club? Several years ago it won a Supreme Court decision allowing it to move its fundamentalist brainwashing operation for 5-12 year olds into public school facilities after hours. More recently its been battling a South Carolina school district over avoiding paying fees for the use of those facilities.

The district's policy allowed free use to school organizations, business/education partnerships, and government agencies. All others had to pay a user fee, which could be waived at the discretion of the district if the activity was deemed to be "in the best interest of the district."

The Good News Club's application was approved, but it was assessed the user fee, just like every other group in its situation, and the Club started complaining immediately.

Within a couple of months the school district was served a lawsuit by Mat Staver and Liberty Counsel, alleging numerous constitutional violations, including equal protection, free speech, free exercise, establishment of religion, and that the district's policy was unconstitutionally vague and acted as a prior restraint on the Christians' speech. In short, the now familiar battlecry of Christian persecution.

Staver claimed that the $48 dollar per use fee resulted in a financial hardship to the Good News Club, and it was prevented from reaching its goal of expanding into every elementary school in the district.

Last week a U.S. District Court found against Staver and the Club on every count, noting in passing that there was "no persuasive evidence that CEF's religious viewpoint, the religious content of CEF's message, or CEF's identity had any bearing on the District's decision to require CEF to pay fees for using its facilities." Child Evangelism Fellowship of South Carolina v. Anderson Sch. Dist. 5, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46298 (D.S.C. 2006).

The court denied Staver's every request including his demands for damages, lawyers' fees, and expenses. This is one attempt by Staver to invent religious persecution where it didn't exist that you probably won't find Staver trumpeting across his website, although he may be ramping up his begging efforts to help defray the costs of this pointless and groundless lawsuit.