Visiting Choir from Europe told they couldn’t sing sacred songs

“Voices of Heaven”, an ‘all star’ choir visiting from Europe, had been brought to Michigan through the efforts of Kelli Falls, choir teacher at Three Fires Middle School. But, it seems they were told they could not sing songs that were ‘too religious’ in the Michigan school district of Howell.

The order came recently from Supt. Charles Breiner of the Howell School District in Michigan just as the Eberbach, Germany, choir arrived for its scheduled concert at Howell High School.

The 62-member choir, which came to the US through a program of the Blue Lakes Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan, will not go home with a good impression of the area. The members who stayed with familes while in Michigan were upset and felt discriminated against.

Officials told the local newspaper that the censorship was imposed to bring the program into line with a policy of Howell Public Schools that limits the amount of sacred music in any performance.

"I don't know if I would call it 'scaled back' or 'censored' – and that word scares the heck out of me," Donna Hoornstra, a parent of two Howell choir students said. She hosted two members of Voices of Heaven during their recent visit.

The students said this was the first and only school that had asked them to take the songs out of their program. Some had solos that they could not sing because of having to drop some of the songs.

A parents group is now asking for the resignation of Supt. Charles Breiner. A spokesman for the Livingston Organization for Values in Education committee, Vicki Fyke, says he’s gone from promoting gay agenda to embarrassing their community internationally. He has allowed the hanging of a gay flag in the school, but he has forbidden “In God We Trust” to be on the school walls. She said they have endured two years of controversy with Breiner, and the community would be better served, if he would just resign.

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