Rob Sherman Advocacy   
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Liberal News and Commentary
Wednesday, October 1, 2003

School Prayer War Involving
Rob Sherman's Daughter Escalates

Shermans to File Federal Lawsuit
If Demands Not Met

      There has been a major escalation of the school prayer war involving my daughter, Dawn, and her public school.  This may turn into the biggest school prayer battle in the nation so far this decade.  The dispute was first reported in Monday's Liberal News & Commentary.

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      The song that my daughter, Dawn, had been taught to sing at her public school turns out to not be Hashkiveinu, the second blessing after the Shema in the evening prayer service, but rather Hashivenu (no "K"and no second "I"), which is Chapter 5, Verse 21 of the Book of Lamentations, the Prayer of the Prophet Jeremiah.  Dawn's pronunciation of Hebrew is not proficient because she has never gone to Hebrew School or Sunday School and has not studied the Hebrew language.  The phrase, "Adonai echod," that I reported about on Monday turned out to be, "Adonai elecha," the second and third words of Lamentations 5:21.

      The Jewish translation of the Hebrew text of Lamentations 5:21 is:  "Turn Thou us (God, turn us) unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned;   renew our days as of old."  That language may be vague to most of us.  In the Catholic version, contained in the Douay Bible, the meaning is made much clearer:  "Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted:   renew our days, as from the beginning," as in becoming born-again.

      The Jameison-Faussett-Brown Commentary and Explanatory on the Whole Bible states in its commentary on Lamentations 5:21 that "the sinner may use this prayer for God to convert him."  

      The Torrey's Topical Textbook entry for conversion (see bullet point "Pray for") lists Lamentations 5:21 as one of only four verses in all of the books of the Old and New Testaments that atheists can "pray for" to get converted to Judaism or Christianity.

      Hashivenu is not just an Israeli folk song, as the School District contends.  It is a prayer, which means that public schools should not be using it, but it is not just any old non-denominational prayer.  For the chorus class of the daughter of the nation's best-known and highly respected atheist activist, the School District just happened to select a prayer for converting atheists to believe in a non-existent god.

      BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) is a performing rights organization that collects licensing fees on behalf of 300,000 composers, lyricists and music publishers in all genres of music.  BMI then distribute royalties to them.  The BMI library contains 4.5 million compositions.  In addition, ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) represents 160,000 composers, lyricists and music publishers.  With all that material out there, millions and millions of songs, School District 21 contends that the only song that they could come up with to teach my atheist daughter about music and cultural diversity is "Convert us atheists to believe in God."

      Are you buying that?  Neither am I.  

      This has got to be an attempt by some religious zealot at the District 21 office to embarrass the Superintendent, the school principal, my daughter and me by tricking my daughter into singing a proselytizing song.  Can you image what that person must be saying?  "Hey, you know what I got Sherman's kid to do?  Sing 'Convert me to believe in you, God.'  Ha, ha, ha!"

      I intend to find out who is behind this, but it gets worse.
      I asked Dawn at dinner, last night, whether anything unusual happened in chorus class yesterday (Tuesday).  She said that the way that they responded to my concern about a religious song was to introduce another religious song, the first line of which is:  "I am going up yonder to be with my Lord."
 
      You don't suppose the same person who picked that song would pick out a song that has as the lyrics, "I am going up yonder to an atheist convention because I know that God is make-believe," for the public school curriculum, do you?

      It is clear that what employees at School District 21 are doing is not unintentional and inadvertent.  They have definitely made an intentional, deliberate decision to use the chorus as a religious weapon to attack my family, my daughter and state/church separation.  I'm not going to take that from them.  This morning, I will meet with Superintendent Gary Mical to demand that both songs be deleted from the chorus program, that he adopt a policy prohibiting the use of proselytizing songs in chorus, and that the school district stop using the public school chorus as a weapon in a holy war to convert my daughter from atheism.  This is a very serious situation.

 
      My daughter, Dawn, and I will hold a news conference during the day, today, to announce that I am giving School District 21 exactly two weeks to act upon my demands.  Otherwise, I will file a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, October 15th, at 9:00 a.m., which will give them the opportunity to explain to a federal judge just why they think that the only way they can teach my atheist daughter about music is to have her sing:   Convert us atheists to believe in God and I'm on my way to visit with God.  I can't wait to see if a federal judge will find a secular purpose in that.

         Rob Sherman          

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