Erica Shead understands the issue and is right to recognize and speak out against the “cultural changes that have stripped faith from the public square.” It is a shame that she had to experience the matter personally with her daughter’s assignment. Even when such matters as the one at Lucy Elementary School are resolved and not done with ill intent, such confusion was unnecessary. Let this be a lesson, but also a warning of how our religious freedom is being stifled in and by our society.

Recently a piece went up reacting to the Wausau School District’s initial ban on Christmas carols that are religious in nature. That is the very real War on Christmas we already starting to see.

We now also seek examples of not only assaults on the Christmas holiday, but attempts to silence the very name of God. Even when arising out of impulse and confusion, the misunderstandings surrounding the issue of separation of church and state lead to such unfortunate consequences.

As TheBlaze reported back in mid-September, a mother in the Shelby County School District, Erica Shead, was outraged after her 10-year old daughter, Erin, who attends Lucy Elementary School, was told she could not write about God as an idol she looked up to.

The incident was reported  again the next day, after the story checked out. Despite statements from the school district that students are permitted to discuss their faith, the teacher, on impulse, decided not to allow God in the assignment.

From TheBlaze. Emphasis my own:

Erica Shead, the mother of 10-year-old Erin, has revealed the reason her daughter was told she couldn’t write about God for a school assignment: Her teacher wasn’t sure how to handle the church versus state dynamics that exist in public schools and so acted on impulse.

As TheBlaze previously reported, Erin and her classmates were asked to choose one idol and then draw and write them. Erin selected God and made the assignment about her faith, but the teacher said she needed to make a different selection (she ended up choosing Michael Jackson, which was permitted).

Now, Shead says the decision — one that sparked a plethora of debate this week — was rooted in the teacher’s nervousness and confusion surrounding the issue. During a meeting after the incident, the principal and teacher at Lucy Elementary School in Memphis, Tenn., reportedly apologized to the mother and daughter for the debacle.

The latest reporting mentions that fortunately the school has decided to accept and grade the assignment, which earned a 100 percent. The principal and teacher also apologized. The piece reports that the media and a legal conservative group, the Liberty Institute, got involved.

From the piece:

In a previous report, TheBlaze reported that the teacher may have been confused about the separation of church and state in making her initial determination that the God assignment was not allowed.

Erica Shead previously told WREG that the teacher and school principal both apologized for what appeared to be a misunderstanding rooted in nervousness and confusion surrounding the issue.

The matter seems to have been resolved peacefully, and it would be unfair to say that the teacher banned God from being accepted as a role model for the assignment out of malice.

One could still certainly point out that a competent teacher would know her school district policy’s allowing for students to discuss their faith for assignments. She would also know the balance between not endorsing any religion herself while encouraging discussion between her students, while educating them that it is okay for students to have different religious beliefs.

That is what freedom of religion is about in this country. And public discourse is a good thing, not something to be stifled. Instead, this happened:

“The children started talking and some didn’t believe in God and some did and they were talking about it,” Erica said last month. “[The teacher] did admit that she didn’t know how to handle that situation.”

The teacher is likely not against God herself. This confusion is a symptom then of a bigger problem, of a nervousness to even display God’s name through a student’s assignment. There is also a serious misunderstanding of church and state. And as a result, the first amendment rights of Christians end up getting stifled.

The state is not only supposed to be protected from the church, but the church is to be protected from the state as well. People seem to forget this. And there is such paranoia of upholding what many assume to be separation of church and state, that there is risk of violating a crucial Constitutional right.

The most recent reporting concludes with this:

The mother said that it’s important for Christians to be able to defend themselves, especially in light of cultural changes that have stripped faith from the public square.

“We understand that they’ve taken prayer out of schools but they cannot take God out of our children,” she added.

Erica Shead understands the issue and is right to recognize and speak out against the “cultural changes that have stripped faith from the public square.” It is a shame that she had to experience the matter personally with her daughter’s assignment. Even when such matters as the one at Lucy Elementary School are resolved and not done with ill intent, such confusion was unnecessary. Let this be a lesson, but also a warning of how our religious freedom is being stifled in and by our society.

This article appeared on the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s blog and is used with permission.