TEN COMMANDMENTS ARRESTED AT PALMETTO HIGH SCHOOL a response to the media accounts of 5/10/02

TEN COMMANDMENTS ARRESTED AT PALMETTO HIGH SCHOOL a response to the media accounts of 5/10/02

Lewis, a student of Palmetto High school picks up the cross
and starts handing out literature after Keith is arrested for
asking for his sign back

Need we wait for the headlines of horror in our own communities?! Have we so soon forgotten the tragedies of Columbine and Peducah? A fool says in his heart,"There is no God." The actions, as of late, by representatives of both the Manatee and Sarasota County School boards are acts of fools. At this point, it's not a matter of allowing prayer, Christian T-shirts or the Bible in school, or even allowing the Ten Commandments to be displayed. It's a matter of the heart, and the hearts of our public school systems have been exposed! You cannot serve God and Darwin. They have chosen Darwin, but Darwin cannot protect our children and certainly not our nation.

Palmetto, Florida: We posed no threat or disruption to the students as we stood outside Palmetto High School's boundaries on Friday with our two large (4' x 6') placards depicting the Ten Commandments. We came in peace as we passed out literature to students, explaining the holiness of God and the acountability He requires. No, we didn't hold graphic signs of aborted children or distribute anti-abortion tracts as the media and police erroneously reported, although these methods of displaying the Truth are consistent with the message of the Gospel and we have used them in the past to expose the dreaded reality of child killing. We were assured by the city's engineering department that the property we stood upon was well within the public right of way. Though initially disputed, after research, even the police conceded that we stood on public property, not School Board property. Finally, of course we didn't block anyone or force them to accept our literature. We simply offered. In fact, of the six arrested, none handed out any literature - most just stood holding the large Ten Commandments tablets (if they even got the chance before getting arrested)! Our two Ten Commandments signs were last seen being first trampled upon, then shoved into the trunk of a Palmetto police car.

What would have been the great risk in allowing us to continue peacefully without the ruckus caused by the police cars blocking the entrance, and school administrators bullying gentle Christians and unlawfully confiscating literature from students? Suppose a student did see the Ten Commandments outside the gates of the school as they walked or drove in - what if they did choose to receive the pamphlet "Words to Live By" (see yellow brochure)? Sadly, the Supreme Court ruled for us all that it would be a detriment to our children if the Ten Commandments were to remain in our classrooms. The 1980 decision to expel the Ten Commandments from government schools was based upon this logic: "If the children read them, they would meditate on them and if they meditated on them they would obey them . . " How much tragedy could have been avoided if they were simply obeyed! Our Supreme Court has made many mistakes, from the Dred Scott decision to Roe vs. Wade, and millions have suffered as a consequence. Who knows what remedial judgements God may bring to a nation who rejects Him?

Or, perhaps students, having seen the commandments, would have asked their teacher about another way to explain nature's ways and the world about us, other than theories which could never be proven such as the hypothesis of life emanating from the void and man evolving from slime? Perhaps, in discussion, they may have begun to wonder, and contemplate, and think. Perhaps, in their search for truth they might have found the God in whom our nation once trusted - the God who our forefathers proclaimed as Almighty, Holy and Just - the God who made our country great.

Or, even if the administrator of the school was against the message, wouldn't this have been a grand opportunity to teach the practical applications of our Constitution, and the tremendous protection it affords to the citizenry! Even if the message of the "speech" wasn't what you wanted to hear, our founding fathers knew the importance of protecting just such speech. That is the basis for our freedom! They knew from experience what would happen when certain messages were stifled and they were determined to protect their prodigy from such tyranny.

The bottom line is this: God has been expelled from the classroom! He has been expelled from the football field! He has been expelled from the Board of Education, and He will be expelled from all public property if someone doesn't stand for what is right! God's Word is mocked as the school systems force their humanitarian theories upon our children, and they do use force - "learn this doctrine or you will fail!" Rarely, if ever, is the possibility of God offered as the master engineer of creation. Scriptures state that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge" Proverbs 1:6. When the fear of the Lord is removed, so is wisdom and knowledge. What remains is not education!

Why is it that peaceful Christians cannot stand on a public sidewalk and present this message without the fear of getting arrested? How can this be that school officials and local law enforcement team up to stifle, bully and condemn such messengers? Does anyone really believe that if this was Columbine or Peducah High School instead of Manatee, Palmetto, or Booker, that families and citizens would be arrested and jailed for quietly displaying the Ten Commandments on the sidewalk outside of the school's fences prior to classes? If trouble again befalls our nation or our precious communities, who will you call upon: Darwin or Almighty God?

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord Jesus! Brothers and sisters, we must stand!

"We have staked the whole future of the American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institution upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
James Madison (chief architect of the U.S. Constitution)

"I am very much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount..." Martin Luther

Pray for us as we return to the schools and as we fight the legal battles ahead. Ask God about your part in this battle, it's far from over. Maranatha!

Tom McGlade
OPERATION SAVE AMERICA
OSA/MANATEE-SARASOTA
e-mail OSAsrq@juno.com

Keith McGlade and the Police