High School Cheerleaders in Trouble for Bible Verse Banners

[€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.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

What happened to cheering for the team? Who would know who is cheering for Jesus, who is cheering for the team and who is cheering in hopes that someone loses their top?

Yet no one has addressed this.

Who would know what you're cheering for? Unless they are chanting Our Father's, then there's an issue.

[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.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

For the record - I'm not infuriated or horrified by the cheerleader banner, but I do think that it's inappropriate at a public school function, period.

Originally Posted by Jazzman

The girls did it on their own, and last I checked, that is their Constitutional right.

Students on school grounds at a school-sponsored event do not have the same free speech rights as a student outside of school.

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

What happened to cheering for the team? Who would know who is cheering for Jesus, who is cheering for the team and who is cheering in hopes that someone loses their top?

This is all the more reason to keep Jesus out of the equation. Would be nice if people actually rooted for a team to win the game, instead of rooting for Jesus to help the team to win the game.

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

Then you should stay away from any sporting even that plays God Bless America...

I'm not a fan of that either. I am not placated by the "any God" concept, since there are plenty of people who do not believe in God. Better yet, I'm getting to the point where it seems obvious to me that asking the one all-powerful being to favor their country over others is a rather ugly, divisive, spiteful concept...unless one believes that God can bless everyone simultaneously...and then it's just pointless.

[Jazzman]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Students on school grounds at a school-sponsored event do not have the same free speech rights as a student outside of school.

No, I'm pretty sure that the Constitution applies everywhere. Maybe it's different down in Cali (don't know why it would be) but school policies do not trump the Bill of Rights.

[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.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Jazzman

No, I'm pretty sure that the Constitution applies everywhere. Maybe it's different down in Cali (don't know why it would be) but school policies do not trump the Bill of Rights.

More or less.