These are scary times, but scarier is giving up on our country’s promise of freedom without favor and equality without exception.

Defense of separation of church and state is not a burden – it’s an honor and a privilege. And no matter what the nature of our battles – in courts, in legislative chambers or in the media – AU always gives 100 percent.

Sometimes people pressure school staff to teach things that are unconstitutional, illegal, inappropriate or that run afoul of state curriculum standards. They might also press for removing needed instruction. The only answer there is no.

Thanks to separation of church and state, Americans have the right to align with existing houses of worship, fashion their own belief systems or reject religion entirely.

Lest anyone think that blasphemy laws are relics found only in less advanced or hardline Muslim nations, bear in mind that Canada, Iceland, Denmark and New Zealand repealed such laws only recently.

Historically, terms like 'obscene,' 'pornographic' and 'explicit' have been used by would-be censors to attack books they don’t like or volumes that deal with themes that make them uncomfortable.

It remains fashionable among Christian nationalists, extreme free-market conservatives and others on the far right who hate everything to do with the government to bash our public schools as fonts of socialism and rampant liberalism.

If the Supreme Court jettisons Roe v. Wade, it will not only defy public opinion, but it will also fling open the door to sectarian strife