The sponsor of the event, National Network of Youth Ministries (NNYM), is an evangelical christian organization and has as one of its stated goals to "expose every teenager to the gospel in a personal and culturally relevant way". So the group prays outside of class, but its mission is to proselytize to everybody in the building. And its particular brand of christianity is the charming kind that banishes those of all other faiths to eternal damnation. From the NNYM's statement of faith: "The salvation of any person is wholly a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justifies them in His sight. . . . At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation." So Jeffrey Dahmer gets in to heaven if he repents to JC on the electric chair, but every Jew who has lived a blameless life, filled with good works, burns in hellfire eternal. Lovely sentiment. While I'm sure that it's very comforting to the christians around the flagpole to believe that everyone else is going to hell (how does that one square with the Golden Rule, by the way?), I doubt that the jewish (or hindu, or buddhist, or muslim) kids in the school, or their parents, will be very much comforted by the mere fact that this group acts in their school through a student club, rather than through the school administration. My guess is that the pressure on the non-christian students will feel just about the same.

I fail to see the public purpose to be served by allowing clubs in our public schools that exist for the purpose of perpetuating the incredibly cruel belief that everyone not a member of the club will burn in eternal torment. And what possible public good comes of allowing such groups to conduct their worship on the school grounds?
 

#1) Not all Christians are fundies

#2) You're pretty much missing the whole "free speech" angle
 

1. Fair enough, but clearly the group that sponsored this event is (as is Campus Crusade, another very visible christian organization in schools), and so it's not such a stretch to assume that the clubs to be set up by the participants in this event would be. Whether the individuals portrayed in this article are fundamentalist or not, let's just agree to look behind the curtain, and not let the fuzzy generality of the word "christian" excuse people or groups that profess rather cruel and outmoded beliefs. And once we examine the specific beliefs espoused by these groups, let's not be afraid to say "keep it in your home or your church, but keep it out of my public school".

2. It's all a question of venue: they certainly can march through Skokie, but setting up a table in the Skokie High School cafeteria is another matter entirely.