Public School teacher: Jesus or eternal damnation

“If you reject his gift of salvation, then you know where you belong,” Paszkiewicz was recorded as saying. “He did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sins on his own body, suffered you pains for you, and he’s saying, ‘Please, accept me, believe.’ If you reject that, you belong in hell.”

Yuck. Yet its the student, who has exposed this anti-American fundaments, who is getting the threats.

In this tale of the teacher who preached in class and the pupil he offended, students and the larger community have mostly lined up with Mr. Paszkiewicz, not with Matthew, who has received a death threat handled by the police, as well as critical comments from classmates.

Greice Coelho, who took Mr. Paszkiewicz’s class and is a member of his youth group, said in a letter to The Observer, the local weekly newspaper, that Matthew was “ignoring the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gives every citizen the freedom of religion.” Some anonymous posters on the town’s electronic bulletin board, Kearnyontheweb.com, called for Matthew’s suspension.

The First Amendment does not give special right to Christians. The teacher, in the public school system, is acting as a employee of the state. He is using his position of authority to establish a religion in a public place.

The First Amendment, in fact the American ideal, it to prevent the tyranny of the majority, especially in religious contexts. To forget this is un-American.

Ny Times via The Wall of Separation