"How much God do you need?" School board member slams invocation plan
In Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Pam Escobar stood alone against a bad-faith effort that could cost taxpayers dearly
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A couple of quick personal notes!
On Sunday, May 18, I’ll be speaking at the Skokie Public Library (outside Chicago) to talk about “Christian Nationalism in Public Schools” (a.k.a. what Ryan Walters is doing in Oklahoma). The event is sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation Metropolitan Chicago Chapter. It’s free, but they’re asking attendees to please RSVP here!
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A public school board in North Carolina is one step closer to getting sued after pushing to include Christian prayers at their meetings. One board member, however, did her best to convince her colleagues they were making a huge mistake, and you have to listen to what she said.
On April 14, the Cabarrus County School Board of Education discussed adding a prayer to their meetings at the request of board member Melanie Freeman.
When she had the chance to justify her request, Freeman pushed lazy Christian Nationalist talking points like how there’s a National Day of Prayer, and how “In God We Trust” is on the money, and how “We pledge allegiance to ‘one nation under God.’” (She didn’t seem to know that those mentions of God are not due to “tradition,” or our nation’s founding, but rather because of targeted efforts by Christians in the 1950s.)
She also said Congress opens the day with an invocation and that the Supreme Court has ruled in defense of invocations… but she failed to note how invocations at city councils and state governments are substantively different from school board meetings where children may be present.
There’s no legal precedent for allowing Christian invocations—or any invocations—at school board meetings.
Only one board member, Pam Escobar, appeared to understand that reality. So after Freeman ended her ignorant spiel, Escobar chimed in with a speech you really have to hear in full. It’s incredible. She’s not just a voice of reason, she’s a voice of sensibility, truly speaking for everyone in the crowd who doesn’t have her platform.
She argued that the board had far more important things to focus on. But more importantly, prayers had no place at their meetings. The community they represent is diverse! And no prayer would ever be welcoming to everyone.
I would not want to do anything that says to this community, “You don't belong in our school district. You don't belong in our public school system.” And so this, to me, is very disturbing because I think it sends the wrong message.
Then she got more pointed:
Frankly, we are not in the business of faith or religion. That's not what we do!
Finally, she called out how her colleagues already prayed before meetings with the help of a lobbyist from Capitol Ministries. That’s the group led by right-wing pastor Ralph Drollinger, a man who hosts Bible studies for Congress members with a message that says opponents of a conservative agenda are working for Satan.
“How much prayer do you need? How much God do you need?” Escobar asked. She noted that she’s Christian herself, but even she didn’t feel welcome in their prayer circles.
Her colleagues didn’t get it. One of them pointed out that other local government entities prayed (ignoring the children-in-attendance thing).
So Escobar tried again. This time, she told them that they would very likely be sued if they instituted an invocation prayer. In 2019, she said, the Rowan County Commissioners were sued over their Christian-only prayers at meetings. They were forced to settle the case and had to pay $285,000 in legal fees. And that was a county government! The invocation rules are ever stricter for school boards. (As in: No invocations, ever.)
If you have prayer at meetings, she added, “then you have to be prepared for people to sue us because they have the right to religious freedom.”
She’s right about all of that. She knows exactly what she’s talking about. She’s the only person on that board who seems to get it.
But Freeman chimed in saying she wasn’t trying to force Christian prayers on everyone! Just prayer in general! The details of how they did that, she said, would be for a policy committee to sort out.
That infuriated Escobar ever more, because if they had any kind of policy, it would create more work—and more chaos—for their staffers. They would have to select the speakers, create rules for invocations, deal with the fallout if a speaker didn’t follow the rules, make sure the district was truly open to people of all faiths and no religious faith, etc.
How is this good for kids? How is this good for our school district? How is this being a good steward of taxpayer dollars?… It's not!
(To be clear, everything she said applies to city governments, not school boards. School boards are not allowed to have invocations at all. But she’s got the right idea.)
The point is: This was not as simple as saying Let’s have an invocation at meetings and being done with it.
Finally, after the board’s attorney foolishly said there was a way to craft a policy to minimize legal problems—there isn’t—Escobar tried one last time to talk sense into her colleagues.
This time, she just appealed to their sense of duty. They already took an oath to do what’s best for the school district. Why did they need to inject religion into all this?! That would only make everything worse.
I don't know why you need prayer to take this job seriously. Everyone up here took an oath… Why you need this [prayer] to take [your job] seriously when you took an oath is questionable… But don't say this is going to unify when I'm telling you it will not…
… You're saying that's your argument, that… we won't be solemn enough. We won't take this seriously. What have you been doing for the last six months, huh?! Why do you need this? How does this benefit kids? And I have not heard a decent answer.
Escobar offered a master class in how to challenge invocations. She was calm, full of righteous anger, and armed with the facts. Unfortunately, she was surrounded by Christian zealots who apparently want to turn school board meetings into extensions of their church.
Let’s say they go through with invocations. You know how that would go. What happens when Satanists and atheists want to deliver an invocation? What happens when a local pastor says gay students are going to hell? What happens when someone invokes the name of a God the majority of people don’t believe in? What happens when a member of a minority faith or non-traditional faith wants to give an invocation but there’s no room in the schedule to fit them in?
And why is this the hill that this school board wants to die on? Why is this so damn important compared to all the other issues in the district?
Escobar was practically banging her head against the wall explaining to her colleagues why they should care about students instead of themselves. Not a single person seriously came to her defense.
Ultimately, they voted 5-2 to allow the drafting of a prayer policy.
That policy will then have to be discussed and voted on before it goes into effect, but a smarter school board wouldn’t waste their time doing any of this.
Escobar, by the way, used to be a reporter, in print and on TV. It would explain why she knows the law here far better than her colleagues do and how she’s so calm and articulate when it comes to explaining why they’re completely out of their minds.
The only hope now is that when this policy committee looks into the matter, they’ll realize it’s not worth going through with this because the risk of litigation is too high. There’s no sensible invocation policy to have at any kind of government meeting, but that’s especially true at a school board meeting.
If they decide to shoot themselves in the foot, though, and move forward with invocations, at least Escobar can sleep soundly knowing she had the best interests of the district at heart. Her colleagues, on the other hand, would rather waste thousands of taxpayer dollars paying legal bills.
As of now, there’s no timeline for when the policy committee will be finished with its task.
I don't know what they think invocations are going to accomplish. It isn't as if appeals to magical thinking are going to turn elected representatives into better people. More than anything, it is about Christians marking their territory in the public square paid for with everyone's tax dollars, with forcing their rote conformity on everyone.
Since I have been emailing asshole legislators to call them out, I thought it would be good to email Ms Escobar with a short note of encouragement. Subject line was "Kudos! April 14th Board Meeting"
Ms Escobar:
Thank you for standing up for the religious freedoms of all students in your community. You have supporters across the country and around the world. Hemant Mehta, an activist with a significant following, has brought your courage to the attention of his following. We stand with you.
I included a link to the article, so she could read what Hemant wrote, and see the support she has here in the commentariat.