When is a song too religious – even in after-school show?

The Frenchtown case falls somewhere between those two decisions, analysts say. Judge Chesler must decide whether letting the girl sing "Awesome God" would be a school endorsement of a particular religious outlook in violation of the First Amendment's "establishment clause," or merely be a recognition of the girl's right to express her faith under the "free speech" and "free exercise" clauses.

Brennan says part of her job as superintendent of the 136-student Frenchtown school district is deciding what is appropriate in terms of behavior, dress, and atmosphere at school activities. "We have people of all faiths here, not just Christian. And for me to say 'OK, you'd better believe in this thing,' maybe my Muslim parents wouldn't understand that, nor would their children," Brennan says.

The superintendent says she has no objection to students singing devotional songs professing one's own beliefs. "I have approved many religious songs in my day," she says. "But when you cross that line and say that someone else should believe this particular thing or else ... then that is why I made the decision I made, because it did cross that line."

Mrs. Turton disagrees. "We know there are certain guidelines. We are not talking about having a tent revival meeting in the middle of math class," she says. "We are talking about an after-school talent show where children were supposed to be able to perform something of their own choosing that they enjoyed."

Turton adds, "To take that and make it dirty and wrong and icky – that is just wrong. I didn't like seeing my child made to feel that way and I wouldn't want anybody else's kid to feel that way either."

The school's actions are indefensible, says Turton's lawyer, Demetrios Stratis, allied with the Alliance Defense Fund. "They are sending a message to young impressionable minds that religion is somehow radioactive, and it's not," he says. "Students do have the right to sing about their awesome God, especially in this context and in this forum."

The case involves protected student speech rather than government-endorsed speech, agrees the ACLU's Edward Barocas. "This was not a mandatory assignment. This took place at an after-school event that was voluntary where the individual student could decide what song to sing or what skit to perform," Mr. Barocas says. "It would be a different analysis if the principal sang the song 'Awesome God' over the loudspeaker at school."

School board lawyer Russell Weiss says Superintendent Brennan has been consistent in strictly imposing her view of what was appropriate for a school talent show.

"She required that two other acts be revised to remove content inappropriate for younger students," Mr. Weiss writes in his brief to Judge Chesler. "One was a Bon Jovi song called 'You Give Love a Bad Name,' which was revised to change the word 'Hell' to 'Heck.' The other was a passage from Shakespeare (Macbeth Act IV, Scene 1), known as the 'Witches Scene,' which was revised to delete gruesome images, including the complete elimination of all the lines of the Third Witch."

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