Today religious activists, including the nation’s top anti-gay legal organization, got a large number of students to pray at school – beneath the flag. How many were “guilted” into it?
It’s called “See You At The Pole,” and it’s a simple but effective program fostered by the religious right that teaches students there is no separation of church and state.
It could have been, See You At The Front Door, or See You At The Cafeteria, but religious doctrinaires specifically chose the pole — atop which flies the U.S. flag, a national symbol — to mask their real intent: removing from the minds of the faithful the wall of separation between church and state.
Note that this program also asks students and even teachers and administrators to send in reports of the number of students who attended the prayer event, which suggests there is a competition and therefore possibly some intimidation, and to post photographs of students praying at the pole, at the U.S. flag.
In fact, one youth ministry leader admits she pressured students to participate. “I’ve guilted my own youth group teens way back when into “showing up” at their school’s flag pole to pray,” Gina Abbas writes. “If it is meaningful and life changing…chances are you don’t have to make a flyer for it.”
“Prayer is something to practice both alone and together and not something to be guilted into for some long forgotten 90’s movement,” she adds.
There is, of course, a See You At The Pole website which appears to be run by Student Discipleship Ministries — both are essentially stores for Bible-related and SYATP supplies.
There’s also a Twitter hashtag, #SYATP.
This is not only an attempt by religious activists to blur important lines, but it is an attempt to exclude people of faith who are not Christian, or to convince them to join.
And who’s behind this indoctrination?
While technically there is not a single group that runs the annual event, the most anti-gay legal firm in America, the Alliance Defending Freedom is front and center, and even has published a memo instructing students and administrators how they can participate — and that they cannot interfere.
The ADF is the legal team behind the attacks on same-sex marriage in California (Prop 8), Virginia, and Oklahoma. They also were the attorneys in the famous Elane Photography case in New Mexico.
In a memo this month ADF tells students,
“Students and student clubs have the right to make P.A. announcements promoting See You at the Pole to the same extent that other students or student clubs are permitted to make announcements regarding school-related events,” and “Students have the right to use religious words like “pray,†“God,†and “Jesus†and to include Bible verses on advertisements for See You at the Pole.”
 A right-wing Christian conservative website notes that “SYATP since 1990 has been held every fourth Wednesday in September.  Students will meet to pray at their school’s flagpole at 7:00a in their time zone.  Students are encouraged to pray for their school, friends, teachers and administrators, families, churches and communities.”
The ACLU advises that participation in the SYATP is “permissible,” but “School officials, acting in an official capacity, may neither discourage nor encourage participation in such an event.”
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Image, top, via Twitter