UCLA Prohibits Student from Saying ‘Jesus’ in Graduation Speech
June 5, 2009
Press Release — Christian NewsWire
A professor at the government-funded University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has prohibited a graduating student from saying “I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” in her own graduation speech.
Christina Popa just posted the proof emails on her facebook page, showing how other students are permitted to have their speeches read aloud at a pre-graduation ceremony, and Christina would also be allowed, but only if she didn’t mention Jesus.
Instead, UCLA Biology Professor Dr. Pamela Hurley deliberately censored Christina’s proposed speech, and emailed back to Christina saying: “UCLA is a public university where the doctrine of separation of church and state is observed,” and the professor proposed a censored version of Christina’s proposed speech, deleting any reference to Jesus Christ.
When Christina objected, Dr. Hurley threatened, “If you prefer, Christina, I can read none of what you wrote. I am very sorry that this is a problem for you.”
Links to the proof emails, and a petition to the UCLA Chancellor, Gene Block and Provost, Scott Waugh (for concerned citizens to sign and forward widely), may be found at this web-site:
Christina Popa has consulted attorneys but is not yet available for public comment.
Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, the former Navy Chaplain who was punished for praying publicly “in Jesus name” (but was later vindicated by Congress), issued the following statement:
“I am not Christina’s personal spokesman, but I admire her courage. Jesus is not an illegal word, and UCLA has no business censoring her speech, especially if they claim to celebrate ‘academic freedom.’ Instead, Dr. Hurley has terribly misapplied her own twisted idea of the separation of church and state. As a Government school, UCLA has absolutely no right to prohibit Christina’s freedom of religious expression, and she’s earned the right to speak her own words at her own graduation. UCLA is crossing the line of separation, not Christina, and we pray UCLA will repent of their anti-Christian discrimination.”
