High School Cheerleaders in Trouble for Bible Verse Banners

[Ghoulish Delight]

A sporting event is not government funded.

While I agree with Alex that since the football game is not required, and the sign was likely the idea and creation of the cheerleaders, not school officials, it's low on my scale of offense. But I'm generally incensed at how much of schools' budgets are dumped into football while other core educational necessities are monetarily choked to death, so that reduces the amount of slack I'm willing to give to people privileged to be participating in said public money sink.

[€uroMeinke]

I'm fine with it as long as they all agree to convert to another religion, or abandon religion altogether should their team lose - since obviously, if they were paying to the right god they should win.

[SacTown Chronic]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

- since obviously, if they were paying to the right god they should win.

Best typo ever? Best typo ever.

[bewitched]

I look at this as a mother of a child who is inadvertently agnostic/atheist*. Kids have a hard enough time fitting in as it is. I can just picture her sitting there, not agreeing with the majority yet feeling compelled to go along with it because, well, she's a kid. She's a strong kid, but it is still really difficult at an age to stand up against what is popular, right or wrong. Being from Texas (and unfortunately going to a small town school for a short time), I know the pressure put on kids who don't toe the religious (read: Christian) line...even the teachers discriminate.

As an adult, I can clearly see the absurdity in getting upset by this. As an adult, I could care less...but I care about the kids and how the outsiders feel. From this perspective it's wrong. Period.







*By this I mean her dad is a nonpracticing Christian and I am an atheist...she lives with me and has more or less, even though I in no way actively encourage it, adopted my beliefs.

[Gemini Cricket]

Heather: Oh. My. God. Amber! We totally got busted today for making Jesus signs for the baseball game.

Amber: I know, right?

Heather: I'm so going to Chik-fil-a to protest their bogus decision.

Amber: That's so sick. I'm so there.

Heather: I know, right?

Amber: But don't eat anything there, it's like total fat food.

Heather: Oh, I won't.

Amber: The other day, I heard Carly's legs rub together while she walked by me.

Heather: You didn't!

Amber: I so totally did.

Heather: I forgot to tell you, I almost inhaled a baby carrot during lunch in the cafeteria yesterday.

Amber: I heard. Don't you hate that?

Heather: Totally.

[lashbear]

Maybe they can put up some nifty Westbro Baptist banners calling for the abolition of teen abortion (and warning of the dangers), and maybe some warning to any faggot players on the team that they're going to hell. After all, it IS their right to do that during a school sporting event according to the Bill Of Rights, isn't it ?

[Jazzman]

Originally Posted by lashbear

Maybe they can put up some nifty Westbro Baptist banners calling for the abolition of teen abortion (and warning of the dangers), and maybe some warning to any faggot players on the team that they're going to hell. After all, it IS their right to do that during a school sporting event according to the Bill Of Rights, isn't it ?

Well, first, those examples are hardly comparable to the butcher paper pep sign, but technically, yes, those would be within their rights. That's the great, and often messy, thing about freedom and our Constitution; everyone's voice gets to be heard, even if they're a bigoted douchebag. Why do you think Westboro keeps popping up and being such hate-mongers? Because they have a right to, regardless of how asinine their message is or where they present it. Noam Chomsky made a great comment, "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all," that, in my mind, applies perfectly here.


And, as someone else mentioned earlier, if everyone were forced to attend and repeat the phrase and pray and pass a tithing basket, then that would be an issue. But writing it on a piece of paper that the team runs through? Please. It's just a quote, that even if you're an atheist has a good message. No different than a quote from the Dalai Lama, or a comic book strip, or Lord of the Rings. Would anyone be offended by being wished, "As-Salamu Alaykum?" It means "Peace be upon you," but since it's associated with Islam, should an atheist be offended by it, or appreciate it for what it is?

Last, to be pragmatic, if this offends you (not you Lash, generic tense of you) then so what? Show me someone who isn't offended by something every single day. I find countless things done in schools to be offensive, much more so than a saying on a piece of butcher paper at a football game, and they don't have any basis in any Judeo-Christian beliefs. They're just things that offend me, and run counter to my beliefs and morals. But do I get outraged and hurt by them? No, because in reality, I have no right to expect the world to fit perfectly into my little box of "How Jeff sees the world" or for me to live in Jeffreytopia where nothing offensive ever happens. And neither does anyone else. Somebody is offended by a Bible phrase, somebody else is offended by an atheist phrase. Somebody is offended by one symbol, somebody is offended by its absence. That's life. Let things get to you, or let people be themselves and move on. Each of us has that choice, especially at a football game.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Originally Posted by Jazzman

Would anyone be offended by being wished, "As-Salamu Alaykum?" It means "Peace be upon you," but since it's associated with Islam, should an atheist be offended by it, or appreciate it for what it is?

I don't know Arabic, so I will trust your translation. I have zero problem with someone merely wishing me peace in any language. It's when they want God/Allah/Buddha/Flying Spaghetti Monster to create that peace for me that my craw starts to stick.


Well, maybe someone wishing that last deity bless me would make me giggle.

[Gemini Cricket]

Religious cheerleaders designated to a certain area now. Most likely near where liberals were sequestered when they wanted to protest Bush.

A public high school in Georgia that recently banned banners containing Bible verses from being displayed at its football games will designate an area roughly 50 yards away from the field for cheerleaders, students and others to erect signs with religious themes, the school's principal said Wednesday.
The decision comes after a group of cheerleaders were told they could no longer display the religious banners — a mainstay at the school for eight years — on the football field at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. The ruling caused an uproar in the community.

Source (Yes, it's Faux News - bleh!)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Free speech does not mean "You have the right to say whatever the fvck you want, whenever the fvck you want, without consequence." It means "You have the right to say whatever the fvck you want, whenever the fvck you want, without censure from the government."

I can't run around work screaming at the top of my longs that I hate every single person who works there and expect no repercussions. All I can expect is to not get arrested for it. I can surely be told to shut the fvck up, and I can be fired. That is not a violation of my free speech rights.

Being told "What you are saying is not appropriate for the setting you're in" is not a violation of free speech rights. It's civility.