The Nanny State is a term used to describe what happens when the government or its agencies thunder into the most intimate areas of people's lives, telling them what to eat, where to live, how to parent and educate their children, what kinds of cars to drive and -- perhaps the most dangerous of all -- how to apply their religious beliefs.
Ask my 9 yo or her younger sibling to tell the story of the Pilgrims and the first thing you'll hear is how they left England so they could worship in peace.
Sadly, the past two centuries have obscured this small but vital factoid to the point that even those who take an oath to study and apply the law are wont to grasp it.
Case in point: A couple in New York has been battling their local school district since 2006 over its charge that they are not eligible to obtain an exemption from vaccinations for their son. The parents are not Christian Scientists -- one of the few well-known religious groups legally granted such an exemption to some degree in every state but West Virginia and Mississippi.
They are Catholic and they maintain that vaccinating their child goes against their understanding of God and His authority over their family.
No, no, no, good reader. Tempting as it may be, do not be sucked into the vaccination debate and the question of whether mass innoculations are always a good idea.
Instead, I ask you to focus on the bigger picture, the one that is about to unfold:
The parents filed some sort of standared form with the school, presumably having to explain why they wouldn't be vaccinating their son. The school shot back a letter explaining to the parents that the form would not suffice. Instead, they would be required to submit to a "sincerity of faith" test before the district would grant the waiver.
So the parents met with the school district attorney who proceeded to grill them at some length about their religion and why they believed they were entitled to the exemption. They were compelled to do this twice.
One news report quotes the attorney as saying, "If you believe God is on your side, does that mean he's not on the side of someone who believes in immunization?"
"Do you have conversations with God? Has God told you not to immunize?" the attorney asked. "Explain it to me."
The attorney explained to the parents' attorney that the purpose of the interview was two-fold: to determine whether the parents' beliefs were truly religious rather than philosophical or political; and to determine whether the beliefs are "sincerely and genuinely held."
Good readers, does this sound like America in the 21 century? Me, I'm thinking it's a wee bit Gestapo-like.
World Net Daily reporter Drew Zahn tells the rest of the story in his Feb. 8 article on the online news site:
"It's almost beyond words what we were put through," Palma said. "It's such an abusive power, it's so arrogant that 'outrageous' doesn't even label it correctly. It's something you can't even imagine that somebody would take it upon themselves to do – to judge the sincerity of your belief.
"Particularly in a school district," Palma said, "taking it upon themselves to judge your relationship with God? Have you ever heard of such a thing?"
Not only were the Palmas grilled, however, their attempts to file religious exemptions were also ultimately denied.
Following both interviews, the first in 2006 and the last in 2008, the school district deemed the Palmas' beliefs were not sincerely held.
"This determination," wrote the school in 2006, "was made based upon your meeting with the school attorney and information which we received, which significantly calls into question your stated beliefs."
Rita Palma explained to WND that her choice not to immunize her children was a decision of conscience and of following God's leading. In the interview with the lawyer, Palma further explained that she sees a distinction between medicine as a healing for sickness and vaccines, which she described as injecting a sickness as step toward heath. The latter, she insisted, violates her understanding of trust in God and his design for the body.
The school district's denial, however, cited a medical test Palma gave her son as evidence that her beliefs are too inconsistent to be sincerely and genuinely held.
The district's second denial, in 2008, further criticized the Palmas, a self-described Catholic family, for misquoting the Bible and claimed that if their objection was truly a matter of religious conviction, they could have sought something other than public school for their son.
The Palmas appealed the original denial to the state's commissioner of public education, only to be denied again.
First, I wish I could wrap that poor mother in my arms and explain to her in no uncertain terms the fact of which she's obviously not aware. God has no place in public school. Period. Anyone believing otherwise is living a fantasy and ought to wake up quickly.
The second thing I'd do is find out how a public school district with no place for God in its environs somehow knows whether a parent is misquoting the Bible! Are they serious? At a time when textbooks used by schoolchildren nationwide are regularly noted for mistakes, a school district has the AUDACITY to argue the finer points of Christian doctrine with those who actually follow it?
Then I'd proceed to have that attorney explain to me what intellectual freedom is and why philosophical or political beliefs are somehow less valid and unworthy of protection.
But my favorite is the zinger at the end of the above excerpt, the one where the district told the parents they could either capitulate or else find educational accommodations for their son elsewhere. In short, "It's our way or the highway."
Perhaps the first recorded case in recent history in which a public school actually crafted its own argument in favor of private education.
The story doesn't say what the parents elected to do about their son's schooling. My personal hope, of course, is that they've abandoned their effort to make a silk purse from a sow's ear and instead chosen an option that preserves the dignity of families who don't like to tow the party line.
The Nanny gets bigger and bigger with every passing year, folks. Keep your ears to the ground and your eyes upon the road so that she won't barge in to a facet of life near you.
(And where, oh where, has the mainstream media gone? Oh where, oh where can it be?)
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