The Liberty Council, affiliated with Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, launched its annual “Friend or Foe” Graduation Prayer Campaign on Tuesday. The group and the campaign seek “to educate and, if necessary, litigate to ensure that prayer and religious viewpoints are not suppressed.” But before Christians begin picketing graduations, we should ask an important question: could a push for religion in schools actually backfire?

Conservative organizations do need to fight for religious free speech. The ACLU is roving the country, devouring any case with even the slightest fragrance of progressivism, liberalism, and anti-Christian sentiments. But treating religion as a deposed king and advocating for its return to the throne within public schools might have far greater consequences than many realize.

A case in Mount Vernon, OH highlights the difficulty. There, the community is divided over middle school science teacher John Freshwater. His display of a Bible on his desk led to an investigation after some parents accused him of proselytizing. Understandably, people see this as an attack on Christianity and are outraged. But the local paper reported that many parents and students, in their fight for religious expression, have ignored the elephant in the science room: “Religion” means more than Christianity.

A fight for Christianity in schools is a fight for religious expression, and that includes religions other than Christianity. If Christianity is allowed in schools, there’s a strong case to afford Hinduism, Islam, and Wiccan the same opportunity. Christians advocating the Bible be put back in the classroom have to ask themselves if they are alright with the Book of Mormon receiving the same status. And as the Mount Vernon case shows, many are not.

Still, there seems a double standard. Mention the Bible in public schools and the ACLU cries for equality. Mention the Quran, and it falls silent. As Lynn Vincent points out over at worldmagblog, Christians find themselves in a dilemma, “While the ACLU does seem to butter its bread by barring from public school classrooms the Bible and any talk of the Christian God, ‘other’ religions seem to get a pass. But should Christians fight the inequity by quashing the public display of other religions or advocating for equal time?”

Advocates of Arizona school choice continue to fight in a decade-long controversy surrounding the state’s scholarship-tax-credit laws. Last week, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld laws that aid almost 25,000 children in Arizona private schools through the tax-deductible donations of private and corporate donors. [Correction: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments last week after the district court upheld the law.]

Since 1997, taxpayers have received tax credit - up to $1,000 per married couple and $500 per individual - for making donations to School-Tuition-Organizations (STOs). These non-profit groups grant tuition funds to individual students, retaining only ten percent for administrative costs.

Last year, Arizona’s 56 STOs received some $51 million in tax-donations and distributed $ 41 million in scholarships to 357 private schools. Because many STOs are religiously affiliated, critics cite these same statistics as proof that the tax-credit program is an unconstitutional establishment of religion.

Supporters of the tax credit defend the program’s legality and point to the advances made in Arizona’s education system through broadening parents’ choices. Dr. Thomas Askew is headmaster of Tucson’s Cornerstone Christian Academy and member of the selection committee for the state’s largest, evangelical Christian STO. Askew told WoW, “The exponential growth of charter schools and the incremental growth of private schools due to tax credits has really made the average Arizona taxpayer-consumer much more savvy about the choices available to their children.”

Askew credits the program for his own school’s increase in enrollment and diversity. When he became headmaster in 2001, 34 percent of 133 students received scholarships. Now, 74 percent of 178 students at the academy receive aid.

Despite encouraging data from his school and others like it, Askew says that after ten years of opposition, the courts will make the final decision: “We’ll never get past the local challenges until the Supreme Court rules that it’s constitutional.”