Here just another sign of the times that tolerance is a thing of the past and ignorance is prospering. Shout out to Keenen for the tip.
A 10-year-old boy in Philadelphia attempted to wear a Jesus costume during his Willow Hill Elementary Schools’s Halloween party last October. Among the other guests were witches, ghouls, ghosts, and devils. It seems like Jesus would fit in with the other supernatural characters, but alas it was not meant to be.
The school’s principal, Patricia Whitmire, put the kibosh on this kid’s plans because it violated a policy prohibiting the promotion of religion. What’s funny is that Whitmire suggested that the boy lose the crown of thorns and tell people that he is a Roman Emperor. Brilliant!
Of course the family received immediate support from the Christian community. The Alliance Defense Fund, A Christian legal group, has filed suit against the school district on their behalf. To the courts we go once again!
Now here’s my opinion on the whole matter. It’s a fricken Halloween party where a bunch of kids dress up like idiots and have fun. Does it really matter if a kid dresses up as Jesus? Who gives a crap, it’s a costume! Once more, the kid was black and I say it’s high time that all these blond hair and blue eye depictions of Jesus are challenged. He was in the Middle East for God’s sake! He had to at least have olive skin and dark eyes. I digress.
But when it’s all said and done; having Jesus at the party could even save the school some cash. Remember when Jesus fed like 5,000 people with a few loafs of bread and some fish? Maybe this kid could feed the entire school with just a single pizza and a bottle of apple juice. Think about it.
So I say let Jesus go to the party and stop these damn lawsuits. I’m sure some of you guys think I’m nuts, but tolerance in this case is a good thing. As a matter of fact I went to an open house at our local grade school because my oldest will be attending there this fall. I went over the holiday season and was very curious to see how they handle it. Much to my surprise they did a great job. Instead of the avoiding the whole religion issue, they attacked it head on and covered all of them so kids were actually educated about the various religions.
Anywho, that’s it for me!
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February 22nd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
How to make a point out of something insignificant. I can understand the idea of educating about religion instead of promoting it, but seriously is there a single kid in the world whose train of thought goes likes this:
“Oh, i’m so insecure, I really wish I had something to believe. Know what? I’m going to take the first religious thing I see as a sign….tralalala….
Wish I didn’t go to one of these sensible schools, this take forev…hold on….Ahh, Christianity it is then”
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:09 pm
It’s kind of funny how devils are okay, but Jesus isn’t. I guess Satan is just a more appropriate representative for American society :)
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
I’m with you gasmonso. It was a student-initiated costume, not a school-endorsed image.
Didn’t we already go through this with school prayer? Student-initiated prayer is ok, school staff-initiated is not. This seems like the logical extension of that consensus. It’s a good compromise as well. Neither church-state separation nor freedom of speech is violated.
Shame on the school to make this an issue. It lends credibility to the usually incredible claim that us secularists are trying to ban all religious expression. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with the lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund, “They explicitly discriminated against Christianity.” I’d rather have seen the ACLU handle this, though, since I would then know they were doing it for the child’s rights and not for the promotion of Christianity.
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:12 am
So wait, you’re saying that the ACLU’s agenda is to protect the rights of the individual? Heh.
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 am
The ACLU’s only agenda is protecting our individual liberties, including our religious freedom.
From their website:
Read this link for specific examples.
I truly don’t understand why many religious people believe that the ACLU is somehow against them. Perhaps you can enlighten me, Scott.
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:39 am
Its because they have had to take on a lot of cases that no one else would touch that went against the “christian grain” in this country. Since they are the ones that sued to take 10 commandments out of courthouses and such, and christians are taught to believe that anything that infringes upon their right to push their religion on others at every single turn is evil, the ACLU is evil.
I agree with the christians in this one though, the kid should have been allowed to come dressed as jesus if he wanted. That was just a ridiculous action they took.
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
No Michael does make a good point. The main reason that the ACLU is so disliked is because of the stances they have taken on religious issues (much of which I actually agree with). My beef perhaps isn’t so much with the cases they have taken, but rather the sorts of cases they haven’t taken, like this one. If you’re aware of a case where the ACLU has defended the right of religious expression, please let me know.
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Hello Scott,
They actually list a number of cases they handled in the second link of my last post. Here it is again for your convenience. Here is just one example from the link:
February 26th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Good enough for me.