After receiving a demand letter from Liberty Counsel, a Greenfield, Massachusetts, school committee member took to social media and the local press to continue demeaning and disparaging members of a church and its school. And now, this out-of-control commissioner is taking shots at Liberty Counsel.

Once again, Liberty Counsel is defending America’s churches against the onslaught of anti-Christian bigotry attempting to rob us of our First Amendment right to religious freedom. And we need YOUR help to STOP it. — Mat

Fight for our churches with your gift to our legal fund today and have YOUR IMPACT DOUBLED by a Challenge Grant!

Greenfield School Committee member Elizabeth de Neeve has gone off the rails with her anti-Christian rants against a Christian school and now Liberty Counsel.

On July 24, she posted on Facebook a “prayer” that reverses the “Prayer for Peace” that appears on Catholic prayer cards for St. Francis. Instead of calling out to the Lord for peace, de Neeve’s prayer is to a “Lady,” calling not for “peace,” but for assistance in causing chaos.

“Lady, make me a channel for disturbance,” reads the opening line of the “prayer” she posted. This a mockery of the well-known St. Francis “Prayer for Peace,” which begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.”

After Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter on behalf of the Providence Christian Academy (PCA), de Neeve once again took to social media and a local radio program to rally people to cause a disturbance to ban the Christian school because she hates the school’s Christian teaching.

The community of Romanian and Moldovan churchgoers of Providence Baptist Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts, decided to start a school and named it Providence Christian Academy. They wanted to provide their children with an alternative to the failing indoctrination camps run by their local government. They met all of the requirements of the law and submitted an application to Greenfield Public Schools to obtain approval.

Instead of approving the school, as required by the law, at the July 12 meeting, various members of the Greenfield Public Schools Committee publicly denigrated, maligned, and demeaned the church for its religious beliefs. It seems the church's beliefs about the family, God, His creation, and His designs are too "extreme" for woke government.

"[The children] will believe a whole set of things that are erroneous and be historically illiterate, which I think is a bad thing for our community and our country,” claimed school committee member Elizabeth Ann de Neeve, “and ultimately, this is going to be reflected in a real breakdown in the separation of church and state.”

On July 20, 2023, Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to Greenfield Public Schools (GPS) demanding they approve Providence Christian Academy’s application. But instead of heeding the demand letter, de Neeve chose to take her anti-Christian vitriol to the media.

In a Monday morning radio interview on WHMP, de Neeve told interviewers that her opposition to Providence Christian School “is about religion reframing their beliefs to justify eroding civil liberties in private education.”

Ms. de Neeve denied the school application because of their religious beliefs … and that’s against both federal and Massachusetts state law.

De Neeve went on to disparage the creators of the religious curriculum PCA chose, known as Abeka. Massachusetts has already approved the Abeka curriculum for statewide homeschooling, yet de Neeve, apparently, does not care.

Greenfield Public Schools is violating the First Amendment and Massachusetts law and must approve the school and refrain from further discrimination to avoid further legal action.

Unmoved by the law or our demand letter, de Neeve has since taken to the airwaves, continuing to malign, denigrate, and demean the Providence Baptist Church, Providence Christian Academy, and now Liberty Counsel.

De Neeve is encouraging people to cause disruption by targeting Christian curriculum for attack in other school districts.

She even proposed local school committees adopt “resolutions” that reject the Abeka curriculum based on its Christian worldview.

Not content to disparage the church, de Neeve took a swipe at Liberty Counsel as well, telling local reporters, “This is what they [Liberty Counsel] do all over the country,” she said, claiming that Liberty Counsel uses “scare tactics” and exploits “loopholes” and “grey areas” in order to “advance alt-right conservative ideology.”

The First Amendment right to religious freedom is no “loophole.” It is a command that governments MUST NOT impede religious freedom.

What de Neeve fails to recognize is that, regardless of her anti-Christian, prayer-mocking proclivities, neither she nor the Greenfield School District may rob Christians of their First Amendment right to religious freedom.

“They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you” (Jer. 1:19).

Help us advance religious freedom by participating in our Challenge Grant that will DOUBLE THE IMPACT of your gift.

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

P.S. Ready to get YOUR kids out of the government indoctrination camps? Check out Covenant Journey Academy, a flexible Christian online school for grades K-12 built upon the foundation of a biblical worldview. CJA provides weekly rolling enrollment. Learn more at CJ.Academy.

Sources:

Byrne, Mary. “Greenfield Church Looks to Open Private Christian School This Fall.” Greenfield Recorder, July 18, 2023. Recorder.com/Greenfield-church-looks-to-open-private-Christian-school-this-fall-51662324.

Byrne, Mary. “Letter Alleges Discrimination by Greenfield School Committee against Christian Academy.” Greenfield Recorder, July 25, 2023. Recorder.com/Letter-alleges-discrimination-by-Greenfield-School-Committee-against-Christian-academy-51737696.

“Greenfield Schools Unlawfully Discriminates against Church School.” Liberty Counsel, July 20, 2023. Lc.org/newsroom/details/072023-greenfield-schools-unlawfully-discriminates-against-church-school.

“What’s Buzzing in the Valley?!” WHMP 101.5 / 1240 & 1400 AM, July 31, 2023. Whmp.com/podcasts/whats-buzzing-in-the-valley/.