Our student handbook forbids anything offensive, blasphemous, or the all-encompassing and purposefully vague "disrupting of the learning environment." Of course, they allow the young men at school to wear PINK (hellooo, that's offensive!) and they allow gay pride T-shirts, which would be disruptive.
At least back in the day, if you wore that crap to school? Your day would be disrupted and you'd go home with a fat lip. Not to mention that you are disrupting everyone else's day because THEY feel the need to go beat you up. Not that that's nice! Just that that IS disruptive, regardless of whether you have the RIGHT to wear it and feel safe at school both at the same time. And yes, it DOES disrupt teachers' and administrators' time to have to deal with the petty fighting that results. But you just go ahead and assert your rights because you need to be uniquely you, whether it inflames argument around you and wastes staff time and messes up the learning environment of the other 1,200 students or not.
Actually, I'm ok with people being allowed to wear gay pride T-shirts if other speech isn't stifled. Confederate flags! Maybe even a Nazi symbol! Beer and cigarette ads! Whatever would be acceptable and lawful at your local Wal-Mart ought to be able to be worn at school, right? Maybe even a cross or a Biblical saying, or a Christian's opinion?
Wrong.
See, Christians need to shut up. It's ok for everyone else to have an opinion, even and offensive or blasphemous one... unless they're one of those intolerant types that like, believe in Heaven and Hell and stuff. Wear your local church's "Islam is of the Devil" shirt, and get sent home. Wear your "There is No Devil" shirt, and I guess you're ok. Because those existentialists don't get everyone around them upset by proclaiming truth and all that.
You know... I'd be ok with these kids being sent home if school policy were more uniformly applied. Speaking of uniformly doing stuff... and uniforms, might as well. Everyone wear a plain blue shirt and plain blue pants. (Denim is ok.) Require it. Then watch people all get upset that their "freedom of expression" is being trampled upon. But I think the public schools would rather just send home the Christians and be done with it. Those Christians can be such a pain sometimes. Bet you these are the annoying type that pray over their meals and evangelize, too.
Disclaimer: As a result ofa friend's questions by email, I feel I need to add the following:
No, I don't think this is a "nice" shirt. It's not something I'd let my children wear personally. I hope that I didn't come off that way. I only meant to state that offensive material, if allowed, ought to be allowed across the board. I think the "Islam is of the Devil" kinds of shirts inflame people to no good purpose. I don't think Paul ever went to a Greek temple and went, "Oh, your gods are SOOO lame. Mine is better. Nyah, nyah." That's not the Christian "attitude," in my opinion.
What I was advocating for was fair treatment. That means if the "Islam" shirts go home, so should the gay pride shirts and the other offensive items. Thats' all. :]
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
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ReplyDeleteOh, well. I got this by email and thought it was a good comment. :]
ReplyDeleteSorry. I missed what was to me a significant detail. :) Jeremiah attended high school in another town, which I was contrasting with the lousy local school. :)
ReplyDeleteAn awful lot of it is where you live. My oldest son wore numerous Christian t-shirts to school and no one said a word about it to him. This is the same school that allows the music teacher to mix Christian Christmas songs in with the secular music and use them at competitions. Jeremiah regularly hung flyers inviting teens to attend our youth concerts as long as he asked the office's permission first.
On the other hand, the local elementary/middle school discourages the kids from saying "Merry Christmas" and will not allow religious anything to be advertised in their halls. Nor will they transport kids to any religious after school programs even if they're on an existing bus route(which was the death of our church's many years old program) largely because they want the kids to attend theirs. Am I bitter? You bet I am.
Stuff like that really burns me up too. I mean what is fair for one group should be fair for another--but what is offensive to Christians is irrelevant. I have to say, though, that our experience in America was similar to Mary's. Our youth kids could wear Christian stuff to school and hang flyers, etc. if they asked first. We were even allowed to visit the schools, as youth pastors, during lunch and in FL we were allowed to have a pre-school breakfast/worship/prayer meeting at the schools (middle and high) as long as everyone was invited.
ReplyDeleteHere they have a "Bible in School" program in all elementary schools run by local church volunteers and youth workers can go into the middle and high schools to "support" kids. It's weird to me, because NZ is not a particularly Christian country (putting it mildly). But no one complains. If they do you never hear about it. I'm sure if they did you would because the news here LOVES to talk about stuff like that--if they don't have a story, they just make one up--seriously.
I wore Christian t-shirts to my high school and never got in trouble. Of course, we also said "invocations" at school events too. And I was pesky enough that, when asked to lead one, ended it with "in Jesus' name." Never got slapped for it.
ReplyDeleteWell, not until graduation when I was told that if I mentioned God even once in my speech they would take the mic and kick me off the stage.
...however, since then, I've started wondering if the Christian thing to do it not do those kinds of things. See, I doing it to make an impression, stir something up, get people thinking.
But that's not what happens. People either agree with me, don't notice, or get mad. And enraging people isn't the point of being Christ-like.
...just a couple little thoughts bumping around in my head.
~Luke
That bumps around in my head, too, Luke. Then sometimes I think that we've become more secular as Christians have become more silent. Used to be you had a "Christian" name and a "surname." Now it's just first and last. Things like that that culturally skew people toward accepting Christ I think are just *gone* now. And I think that it's a bad thing that Christianity is not considered the "default" religion, what one would assume another person believes without inquiry. (Say, someone dies by the roadside. How do you bury this unknown person? Or, how do you swear people in at court? Etc.)
ReplyDeleteI am saddened by the fact that not only are there fewer CHRISTIANS in the nation, but that CULTURALLY we are no longer a Christian nation.
Bonnie, I'm *really* surprised. It isn't a Christian culture? When I went to school in Aus. it sure was. BUT I didn't hear of Jesus as a sacrifice for sins until I was three years out of college. Really. :[
ReplyDeleteMary, I'm GLAD you commented again. :]
Um... oh. Well, guess I went backwards in saying hi to everyone...
MrsC: I am shocked you found us Christian. I don't particularly although RI/RE [religious instruction/education] is still allowed in schools & that mainly means the main Christian denoms go in to speak to the kids about Christianity but on the whole I find us very secular in our thinking & attitudes.
ReplyDeleteA funny aside: In the 10 or so years I was teaching at our school I only heard of 2 families who objected to their kids recieving RE. I got them. lol Out of the frying pan & into the fire!
Sorry, Ganeida, but I did! Bear in mind that I had moved FROM the East Coast, which is extremely liberal. :]
ReplyDeleteMy little friend Deborah (11) just went to court to stand up for religious freedomes. She was forced to get rid of her folder that said "Jesus Died For You" on the front. Her dad called a place to figure out how to deal with it and it turned out they were already having debates about it. She was brought in as a main witness. Actually, the judge decided to use her as the only witness. She was brought to different places to speak on Christian kid's rights in school. Everything was passed in our favor. She has her notebook with that writing on it at school now. :)
ReplyDeleteI think if none of us want to say things that bother others, soon "you can't do that" will be spoken over it and already has been as you've demonstrated, Virginia.
ReplyDeleteah, but around here in the Midwest bible belt, the Christian shirts don't get sent home. It's in your face 24/7.
ReplyDeleteAnd having some Jewish friends, I can comfortably say that it gets very old, very fast.
On a different note, I notice that you describe 'D' as a leatherworker, so am I. I post pics of things I do on my blog; do you have links to some of his stuff? I know so few in real life that finding another is always interesting.
LEST WE FORGET...
ReplyDeleteSeptember 1st is the fifth anniversary of the almost forgotten Beslan atrocity. The full story was never published at the time.
In particular, the Islamic involvement was censored. The MSM never reported the child-rapes or other typically Islamic aspects, even though the children were being knifed to shouts of 'Allah Akhbar'.
The full uncensored story can be found in the links under 'BESLAN - Child rape, torture and ritual murder' at The Religion of Peace™ Subject Index
Yes, Islam is of the Devil. The Beslan massacre shows the truly Satanic vileness of this predatory murder-cult.
http://elementaryteacher.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/sharia-law-is-it-spreading/
ReplyDeleteMoss, I have been referring many of my friends to the above post. It is written by a woman in a Middle Eastern Muslim country, and I think she really strives to present a balanced view of Islam in her area.
I would agree that fundamentalist Islam is a very frightening thing. I am not sure how these people can be stopped, though I think stricter vigilance and careful immigration policies in our respective countries (I am assuming you are British) would be a start.
"I would agree that fundamentalist Islam is a very frightening thing."
ReplyDeleteAnd I find Fundamentalist Christians and Hasidic Jews just as frightening.
I can understand where you might find a fundamentalist Christian or Jewish takeover of US law scary, but surely people like me aren't the big-bad boogie man?
ReplyDeleteMost things in life don't even require a religious perspective. I mean, I went to three stores today and don't remember asking the cashier about her religious preferences. Most conversation, even among Christians, doesn't include God in each sentence.
Though if you want to talk about how you don't need faith, I do understand. Or how some things get "God" thrown in when it really isn't relevant. Did you know I used to be an atheist? Yep. :]