AU opposes Bible distribution at Missouri school.Americans United for Separation of Church and State Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is a religious freedom advocacy group in the United States which promotes the separation of church and state, a legal doctrine seen by the AU as being enshrined in the Establishment is urging a federal appeals court to stop a Missouri public school district from allowing Bible distribution at elementary schools elementary school: see school. .In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, American United argues that the South Iron R-1 School District in Annapolis, Mo., violated church-state separation by permitting members of the Gideons International Gideons International (also known as Gideon's Bible) is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible in over 80 languages and more than 180 countries of the world to those who might not otherwise encounter it, most famously in hotel to distribute Bibles to fifth-grade students. After a legal challenge was filed against the school district over the Bible distribution, members of the school board voted on a new policy that allows material to be disseminated disseminated /dis·sem·i·nat·ed/ (-sem´i-nat?ed) scattered; distributed over a considerable area. dis·sem·i·nat·ed adj. Spread over a large area of a body, a tissue, or an organ. by private groups on school grounds in certain cases. Americans United's brief in Doe v. South Iron R-I School District argues that the new policy was a transparent effort to permit distribution of religious material. "The law is crystal clear: Public schools are not supposed to be in the Bible-distribution business," said Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn Reverend Barry W. Lynn (born 1948 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) has been the Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992.[1] in a press statement. "Handing out Bibles is a job for churches, not public schools." |
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