The High Court



Two landmark decisions were both made on this date

By the Supreme Court ... both overturned prior slates

One was a ruling preventing atheists holding office

If their positions were paid for out of state coffers



Which was overturned by the high court in sixty-one

And so now Maryland state bureaucrats can be one

Accepting their colleagues who've chosen not to pray

Which should really be an independent thing, anyway 



And then in nineteen eighty-seven, the court struck

An even greater blow to the devout with much pluck

For it overturned a law on the books in Louisiana

Which required both kinds of teaching standards



For a while, evolution and creationism were taught

Side by side ... which cancelled out both thoughts

And probably created confusion in Cajun country

Where the Bayou and the Mississippi River run free



And now the children go through their schooling

With only the visions of ape ancestry enthralling

Unless they're also part of the church congregation

Within whose sphere is belief in a higher creation

 

- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

2:30pm Sat. June 18th, 1999