SAN FRANCISCO – Angry parents in the Northern California city of Cupertino lashed out yesterday at a public school teacher, a Christian legal organization, and the press for dragging the local elementary school into a national controversy over the role of religion in the classroom.

In a federal lawsuit filed last month, the fifth-grade teacher, Stephen Williams, alleged that he was forbidden from distributing classroom handouts that included religious references from historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence. The teacher, who describes himself as “an orthodox Christian,” complained he was being discriminated against because of his religious views.

“That’s a bunch of baloney this guy is saying,” said an engineering consultant whose son was in Mr. Williams’s class last year, Armineh Noravian. She said her son and others complained that the teacher would bring up his Christianity almost daily.

“There are a lot of kids who would come home and tell their parents, they’re sick and tired of hearing about this guy’s religion,” Ms. Noravian said.

Another parent, who has three kids in the school, Maria Segal, said she does not want teachers like Mr. Williams trying to instill their religious views in the students.

“As a Christian parent, I’m responsible for the education of our children in that faith. I don’t need help from a public school teacher in that regard,” said Ms. Segal, who added that her family attends church regularly.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Williams denied promoting religion during class time. He did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this story.

During a live Fox News broadcast from Cupertino last night, Mr. Williams said he is not trying to advance Christianity through his teaching.

“My agenda is to give my students an accurate interpretation of history,” he said. “In all my years of teaching, I have had zero complaints on this issue.”

Early coverage of the lawsuit in the press and on the Internet said the school had banished some of the nation’s most cherished documents. “Declaration of Independence Banned at California School,” blared a Reuters dispatch. Last night Mr. Williams called that claim “a little bit of a stretch.” However, within days, the school was flooded with thousands of hostile email and phone messages, as well as letters – some of them threatening.

“‘You should all burn in hell,’ that’s the easily quoted one,” said a spokesman for the school district, Jeffrey Nishimura. He stressed that the Declaration of Independence is posted at the Stevens Creek Elementary School and most other schools in the district. Citing the litigation, the school district has declined to discuss the teacher’s claims in detail.

A spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund, Glen Lavy, said his group and the teacher have no connection with those sending threatening e-mail messages.

“We’re not associated with any of that. I want to distance the Alliance Defense Fund and Stephen from that. We don’t advocate that,” Mr. Lavy said.

Cupertino is a diverse community that includes many professionals of Indian and Chinese descent working in Silicon Valley. Many local residents are now expressing resentment toward the Christian legal organization for stirring up trouble. The comments echo critiques often heard about the ACLU, NAACP, and other organizations that are quick to take disputes to court and the press.

“These people from outside our district and outside our community have caused the disruption,” Ms. Segal complained.

Ms. Noravian maintains that those backing the lawsuit are seeking to advance Christianity in the public schools. “They’re into shoving their religion down other people’s throats. I have a real problem with kids being intimidated,” she said. “Its our civic duty to stop radicals like this from running our country.”

A professor of education at New York University, Diane Ravitch, said Mr. Williams has every right and indeed an obligation to teach students about the religious elements of American history. She noted that the founding fathers were of a similar faith.

“They were all white men of European descent. They were Christians. They were not Muslim. They were not Jews,” Ms. Ravitch said. “You have to teach the history.”

“The critical issue is whether a teacher is proselytizing and using a position of authority to convert children to his or her religious views. That’s just not right,” she said.

Some critics of Mr. Williams have questioned whether his proposed lessons were appropriate for fifth graders. The handouts rejected by the school include the opinions of an 18th century Swiss jurist, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, on natural law.

Ms. Ravitch pointed out, as Mr. Williams does in his suit, that California’s teaching standards set ambitious goals for fifth graders and specifically call for them to be taught about the role of religion in America’s founding.

God, History, and Fifth-Grade Handouts

SOURCE: EXHIBITS TO COMPLAINT IN WILLIAMS V. CUPERTINO, FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT, SAN JOSE, CALIF.

Excerpts of handouts that were proposed by Cupertino, Calif., fifth-grade teacher Stephen Williams and rejected by the school’s administration:

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1776:

“We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do…solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.”

DELAWARE STATE CONSTITUTION, OATH OF OFFICE, 1776:

“I, ___, do profess faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.”

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE CONSTITUTION, 1778:

“The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed to be the established religion of this state.”

SAMUEL ADAMS, “THE RIGHTS OF THE COLONISTS,” 1772:

“In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced…excluded from such toleration, are those who teach doctrines subversive of the civil government under which they live. The Roman Catholics or Papists are excluded …”

GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRAYER JOURNAL:

“A Prayer for Wednesday Morning…Almighty and eternal God, the great creator of heaven & earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaver, in pity and compassion upon me thy servant, who humbly prostrate myself before thee, sensible of thy mercy and my own misery.”

JEAN-JACQUES BURLAMAQUI, “THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL LAW”:

“The existence of God, that is of a first, intelligent and self existent being, on whom all things depend, as on their first cause, and who depends himself on no one; the existence, I say, of such a being is one of those truths that present themselves to us at the first glance.”

JESUS CHRIST, IN A HANDOUT “WHAT GREAT LEADERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THE BIBLE:”

“It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

JOHN ADAMS, DIARY, 1756:

“Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited!… What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this region be…The Christian religion is above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity, and humanity, let the blackguard Paine say what he will; it is resignation toward God, it is goodness itself to man.”

NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION, 1777:

“…no minister of the gospel or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall, at any time hereafter, under any pretense or description whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding and civil or military office or place within this State.”

WILLIAM PENN, “FRAME OF GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,” 1682:

“Government seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end.

MORE FROM “WHAT GREAT LEADERS HAVE SAID ABOUT THE BIBLE”:

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without the Bible.” – George Washington

“The Bible makes the best people in the world.” – Thomas Jefferson