At the University of Maryland porn is protected speech, prayer is not

After citing “academic free speech” as the reason to allow the showing of a triple-X rated pornographic film, officials at the University of Maryland have decided that prayer during commencement addresses should not be accorded that same freedom.

Exerting political muscle, the University Senate voted to eliminate the practice of recitation of an invocation at the upcoming graduation ceremony. According to the university paper The Diamondback, “The senate approved a proposal that eliminates a prayer invocation at the university’s annual commencement ceremony in a 32-14 vote after a lengthy debate that touched on the controversial issue of the separation of church and state.”

The university has a tradition of allowing an “all-inclusive” invocation to be given at the beginning of each commencement address by any one of the fourteen university chaplains.

This decision came just days after another controversy erupted on campus involving a hardcore pornographic film. After learning of the decision to allow students to show sexually explicit excerpts of the film on campus, State Sen. Andrew Harris threatened to block the public university’s $424 million share of state operating funds unless the decision was reversed. The University did ban the screening but did not interfere with the students’ “academic freedom” when an independent student group decided to secure a lecture hall to show portions of the hardcore film, “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge.”

Sem Harris said, “I know some students would like to portray this as a free speech issue. It is not. This is about the use of taxpayer dollars, and the Maryland General Assembly acts every day on issues concerning the use of taxpayer dollars.”

Sen. Andrew Harris gets our nomination for Hero of the Week.