"Awesome God" Censored by Elementary School

The case of an 8-year-old New Jersey girl who was told she couldn't sing Rich Mullins' "Awesome God" for an after-school talent show has created a platform for attorneys to highlight the rights of students to express a religious viewpoint, The Christian Science Monitor reported.




The second-grader at Frenchtown Elementary wanted to sing the contested song for a talent show. While school officials did not object to the general idea of a religious song, they opposed one specific section:



"There's thunder in His footsteps and lightning in His fists. (Our God is an awesome God.) And the Lord wasn't joking when He kicked 'em out of Eden. It wasn't for no reason that He shed His blood. His return is very close and so you better be believing that our God is an awesome God."



Joyce Brennan, superintendent for the Frenchtown School District, determined those lyrics to be too graphic and violent.




"The problem came with the words in the song that were not espousing what the child believed," she said, "but rather indicating what other people should be believing."





Maryann Turton, the girl's mother, said schools are erring on the side of being overly cautious to the point of being ridiculous.





"This is tolerance and political correctness gone awry," she said. "This is a much bigger picture than just our daughter in our little town. It is going on everywhere."





Gary McCaleb, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), agreed.





"It is utterly absurd that we live in an era where parents need to go to federal court," he said, "in order to make sure their daughter can sing 'Awesome God' at her local school talent show."