Wisconsin School Board Member Censured for Mentioning Jesus
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A Wisconsin school board member is under fire from the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has filed a complaint for his mention of Jesus at Appleton North High School’s graduation ceremony on June 6th.
Alvin Dupree, who is also a Pastor, served in the marines, in part, he said, to preserve the constitutional right to freedom of religion he feels is under attack in the controversy, the FFRF having sent a letter to the school board on June 13th requesting he be disallowed from speaking at any further school functions.
“To try to say that we can’t do what people have laid down their life [for], and what this Constitution and this country has been established on, that’s offensive,” Dupree, who was the first African-American elected to the school board in 2017, told Madison365.com.
The letter, penned by staff attorney Ryan D. Jane on behalf of the FFRF, accused Dupree of “using a government position to promote his personal religion” for honoring Jesus Christ as his source of strength in the graduation speech.
Stretching the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” to include all mentions of faith in the public sphere is an oft-employed tactic of atheist groups against vocal Christians.