Return of the Gospel Choir

There's a letter in today's Ann Arbor News from Andrew Dorsey, whom I presume is a Pioneer student (a quick yearbook check reveals that he is a junior).

Keep religion out of public schools

I often hear prominent figures talking of the principle of the separation of church and state as one of the defining features to our democracy. In my opinion, the public school is one of the staple parts of the state, and should be separated from any religious experiences.

On Thursday, Jan. 17, Pioneer High School had an assembly celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Attendance was mandatory. The assembly included performances by the Pioneer High School Gospel Choir. Their performance was superb, but I was troubled by the content of their songs. Every song was religious in content, and every one obviously Christian religious content. I have nothing against religion - I am a Catholic myself - but this sort of preaching should not be allowed in our schools. King was religious, but he also preached equality more than anything else. Pioneer is a diverse school, and it is hardly equal for the Jewish, Muslim and other religiously diverse students to have to, for the better part of a half hour, listen to Christian gospel music.

The schools need to learn from King and stop this discriminatory violation of the separation of church and state. The Founding Fathers included the religion clause in the Bill of Rights to avoid events such as this. The school should either make attendance nonmandatory or remove the Christian gospel songs altogether. The public school is the epitome of the state, as it has a huge influence in raising the nation's children, and this institution is becoming religious.

Andrew Dorsey, Ann Arbor

Now, I don't agree with the whole thing; I thought one of the songs was non-religious. That's about it. I didn't really cover this issue, because I was too caught up in the whole camera thing. But the whole thing did seem quite religious. I know that they will never make assemblies non-mandatory; they were blocking the doors so people couldn't leave. But they could certainly come up with more interesting speakers. Like me! I would like to declare my candidacy for keynote speaker for whatever assembly we have coming up (not the pep assembly). Pioneer representatives, please email me at pioneer.uncovered@gmail.com.