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Diamond Rio Song Sparks Grade-School Controversy

Country group Diamond Rio hasn't had a hit song in a few years, but they're taking some hits for a song they recorded in 2005. And the trouble started at, of all places, a Florida elementary school.

Nashville Gab reports that the parents of two third-graders at the Webster School in St. Augustine have sued the St. Johns County School Board, saying their children were taught the group's song 'In God We Still Trust' for an end-of-the-year after-school assembly. The lawsuit claims having the students learn the song "amounted to religious indoctrination and interfered with the parents' right to raise their children according to their own beliefs."

While the children were told they weren't required to practice the song, they were also told that doing so meant they wouldn't be allowed to participate in the program, the suit further alleges. The song was pulled from the program just hours before the lawsuit was filed, but a hearing on the dispute has been scheduled for April 8 in Jacksonville, Fla.

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Diamond Rio's Marty Roe told the Florida Times-Union that forcing schoolchildren to either learn the song or miss participating in the program is probably a mistake, but added that allowing a minority viewpoint to dictate whether the song is used was wrong as well.

"This song is about the time-honored values on which our forefathers founded this country," Roe said. "These values are reflected in America's monuments, our courtroom procedures, our money and at one time were reflected in our schools. Now we live at a time in American history where a small percentage of citizens want to take God out of all of this."

Although the school board's lawyers argue that music based on sacred texts has been used in public school choral programs for years, the parents' lawyer says 'In God We Still Trust' goes beyond traditional sacred music taught in schools, and attacks the idea of government neutrality in religious matters.

Since recording the song and seeing it become something of an Internet sensation after performing it for servicemen and women in South Korea, the group has used 'In God We Still Trust' as an encore at their concerts.

"We realize that it's a sensitive subject and there are those who don't share the same point of view. That's their right," said Roe. "But a majority of Americans don't want God taken out of public places. It shouldn't be taboo. That's our roots. And digging up the roots destroys the whole tree."

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TamiSueWho

GOD BLESS AMERICA. IF WE HAVE TO RELY ON THE KIDS TODAY TO PROTECT WHAT USED TO BE THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH, WE ARE GOING TO NEED HIS BLESSING!

April 08 2009 at 6:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TamiSueWho

Don't worry David. It may come to that yet. And as much as I hate to say it, maybe it NEEDS to come to that. Maybe these kids need to be taught a hard lesson and maybe their parents need that same lesson. Maybe they should start appreciating instead of WHINING.
What we have today is WEAK parents ( those 55 and under ) who are raising WEAK sissy boys and tramp girls and because of the WEAK sissy boys and tramp girls, our military is no where near what it used to be when REAL MEN roamed the earth. The punk kids today think they are entitled to EVERYTHING without having to fight for it simply because they exist. Thus, we now have a WEAK country. This is to the advantage of other countries who eventually WILL take us down. The boneheads now days think we are safe and I find it so amusing. N.Korea ( who just sent a missile up and if you believe that it was nothing but what they said it was, you need your head examined ), China, Pakistan, Iran, other Middle East countries and probably Russia. They all hate us AND if we go to war with these countries any time soon ( they will ALL band together ) we WILL lose. No doubt about it. And all these little sissy boys that are out there now will ALL run crying like puppies with their tails between their legs. Boys today are more female than male.

April 08 2009 at 5:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
matt

I still cant see why if there is fifty kids doing this and only three kids parents dont want it why does everyone want to stop all of the rest of the kids from doing it? If they had forty seven kids out of fifty wanting to sing Nazi songs i would not tell them to stop. I would just keep my kid out of it and let them do their thing even though i dont agree with it. Its freedom to do what you want. So why if the majority of the people are god fearing christians do the dumb ass athiests have to ruin it for the rest of the kids? Its the same as prayer circles at school before class. the athiests say it infringes on our rights, well walk the hell away from it and dont participate, thats your right. But its not your right to dictate to everyone else your thoughts on the subject. If you dont want to hear the invocation at the car race or the ball gamehere is a thought, GO TAKE A PISS DURING IT!!!!!!! GET OFF OF IT ALREADY!!!!

April 08 2009 at 1:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to matt's comment
TamiSueWho

You know whats FUNNY? That THEY say WE push our beliefs on THEM!! Gosh, I don't see US asking that THEIR children be removed from the classrooms. Also, go to any religion based web site and just watch the Atheists run their mouths in droves! Can you say HYPOCRISY?
Also, think Madalyn Murray O'hair. The mother of all that is Atheism. She, along with her son and grand daughter, was murdered by some of her Atheist cronies who also robbed her Atheist clubhouse of it's money. I guess when you run with Godless people, you can expect Godless acts committed against you. Hmmm, I wonder. They say that her son and grand daughter were killed first. I wonder what was going through her mind as she watched them die? I wonder what she was thinking when her turn came? And to think if not for HER, her son and grand daughter would still be alive or at least would have lived a longer life. HER choices led them to their doom. Nice going Madalyn.

April 08 2009 at 6:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Melinda

When are the majority of this great country going to stand up and tell the minority that want to remove God from everything our country was built on to just shut up and go back to where they came from. This country was built on religious freedom. I don't shove my religious beliefs down anyone's throat and will not have somebody else shove theirs down mine.

April 08 2009 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Elena

PARENTS LIKE THIS SHOULD BE SHIPPED OUT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
LIKE SOMEONE ELSE SAID, FORGIVE THEM GOD BECAUSE THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.
GOD HELP THEM AND THEIR CHILDREN.

April 08 2009 at 1:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Heather

How would you feel if this country had an Islamic majority and your child was forced, or at least strongly encouraged, to sing songs reflecting Muslim values at a public school assembly? I am a Christian, but I feel it is unfair to abuse our majority status. It is a bully mentality: "We are bigger than you are, so do what we do or get out!" It's UNCHRISTIAN to force other people to behave a certain way. We should be practicing tolerance. And if our goal (as the Bible tells us) is to share God's word and convert unbelievers, we are NOT going to do it by verbally attacking them. As for evolution - has it occurred to any of you that there might be a middle ground? Maybe God, in His omniscience, created species that are capable of adapting to their ever-changing environment(s) and thus, EVOLVING?!

April 06 2009 at 2:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lisa

The go to a school with the word Saint in it. I would think that is was a relgious school in the first place.

April 06 2009 at 10:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alissa

would you rather live a country where you are persecuted for what you beleive or be here where you can worship anything or anyone that you want think about that people, we are blessed live in the United States of America. I love this song and no it probably shoudn't be sung in schools and leave it to Americans to sue a school because of it. it just goes to show what a sue happy country we are and that people will sue over anything.

April 05 2009 at 11:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James Lewis

To the nay sayers and ne'er do wells who think their precious little rugrats are too special to hear about God, think about this; since 1962 when the Supreme Court unwisely removed prayer from public schools, in school violence has skyrocketed, teen pregnancy is rampant, drug use has spiraled out of control. Children feel so unloved that suicide seems preferable to life! Please tell me how you can look your children in the eye and tell them that you love them unconditionally and then pack them off to the government policy indoctrination center that you have created with your closed minded refusal to all critical thought. Creating the automatons that you desire, instilling in them the idea that drug use is acceptable, just take your Ritalin, Prozac, Zoloft, Birth Control Pills, go have sex with the partner of your choice whether hetero or homosexual, go watch American Idol or internet porngraphy. Just so long as the parents aren't faced with idea that their children might actually hear that they are far more precious than a walking talking pile of DNA. That there are actually such things as rights and wrongs in this world. Those who don't want God in the schools would also say that the Government is far better suited to raise their children than they are.

April 05 2009 at 9:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Pat Corbat

These same idiots who brought the lawsuit I'm sure would NEVER have a problem with a Muslim song.

April 05 2009 at 8:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply