Eat me, people--no matter what side you're on, too far is too far.

[silverthorne]

Link

People, people, people. The painting has been there for 30 years and not every kid coming out of that school during that time became a Zombie for Jesus. Chill the fuck out, okay?

And just because Verizon tends to erase their news within a day, here's the text:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Two civil liberties groups sued in federal court Wednesday to remove a picture of Jesus that has hung in a high school for more than 30 years.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union say the painting, "Head of Christ," sends the message that Bridgeport High School endorses Christianity as its official religion.

"I frankly cannot understand why this school insists that it is doing nothing wrong," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "This is pretty clear constitutional law. Public schools cannot promote specific religious ideas."

A vote by the Harrison County school board on removing the painting ended in a tie this month.

"At this point, it's a matter that's pretty much going to be up to the board," Superintendent Carl Friebel Jr. said. "It's just going to be very interesting for me to see what the board wants us to do with it."

The suit was filed on behalf of Harold Sklar and Jacqueline McKenzie, whose children attended or will attend the school.

Comments

[molotovcoqtiz.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, unless they were willing to give equal space to other organized, recognized religions - Judaism, Hindu, Muslim, so on and so forth, then I would have an issue with my child going there and it being up.

She has been raised in a belief that while their is nothing wrong with her religion, she can be hurt and attacked because of it and encourage an environment where it can be pointed out that she's wrong because of that picture is not something I would want for her.

People tend to forget one thing about children. They are one of the cruelest predators in the world and they seem trained to attack a weakness. If you don't believe this, watch them for extended periods. They are often like vicious, half starved pack animals with a two legged deer when they find a weakness in another child. So I take issue with giving such a clear statement that this one thing - in this case Christianity - is okay. It wouldn't have to be Christianity though. I feel this way with many things schools do that seem more geared towards creating animosity rather than solving it.

[derek-bliss.livejournal.com]

Hmn.

See, I understand that point of view.

I also get the feeling that turning the tables as it were only adds to the animosity as well.

The painting has been there for decades. This hypersensitivity to Christianity has been here since, what, mid-90's maybe? All in the name of political correctness. What I see is that yeah, Christianity did a lot of banning, hiding, what have you over the centuries.

Thing is, giving them as good as they got?

All it does is turn it around on them and make them the Big Bad Thing to be afraid of. So, we do that for oh, a few hundred or a thousand years, and then the cycle repeats over again when they, as the poor picked on by everyone religion, once again gets its strength up and another round of over-turning and suppression of the 'bad' religion(s) happen.

Political correctness thinks in terms of a few lifetimes--this sort of stuff takes centuries.

Consistant education, though? That will stick.

Yeah, Jesus is a huge ass religious figure. Thing is--and I say this about everything--not just religion--what your child will learn the most and what will stick with them the most is what you as a parent will teach them, even above and over what they learn from other kids. Even if you're yourself are estranged from your parents (I mean 'you in general here), chances are if you take a nice long deep look at your own actions and beliefs, you'll find there's more of them in you than you think--even if you turned your back on them and what they believe.

If you teach children Christianity as the religion is horrible bad nasty and all the people in it are bad nasty--then your child will grow up with the same bigotism towards all Christians that many children brought up in extremist Christian households are taught about paganism and other religions. Heck, that applies no matter what religions you teach them are 'good' verses 'bad'.

Teach them instead though that it's certain people, and what to look out for in people? Then you teach them respect and the ability to differentiate between a Christian following their religion, and a bigoted bastard using the religion as an excuse for their actions.

To me, having a picture of Jesus in the school would simply give me the opportunity to explain to my child who he is, why he's so important to certain people, and the range of reaction s/he could expect from people who follow that religion. But then, I want my child to know all the possibilities, and not to be afraid of something different than what his/her mother taught him/her. To me, Jesus is another historical/mythic figure to talk about and learn from.

And yeah, I know all about kids being cruel--I was everyone's chew toy in school. Trust me--I know probably more than 90% of the people reading this (Ever get cornered and have rocks the size of fists thrown at you while the teacher ignores it? I have.). But again, that goes back to teaching my kid--yeah, there are cruel, nasty people out there. And there are thousands of ways to deal with them. And we'd talk about that as well.

And ultimately, I also know this--no matter what I teach my child? Eventually she's going to find her own way anyway unless I lock her in a closet somewhere. I'd rather she do it with a relatively unbaised opinion. That includes keeping away from knee jerk reactions of 'That's not MY religion, let's get rid of it before the kids cna see it!'.

I'm all for suggesting that the school allow other relgious art be displayed as well, I'm just not all for suddenly suppressing one religion just because it happened to be the dominant one for so long and people are somehow trying to 'make up' for it by removing it entirely. That isn't equality--that's hiding. And one painting doesn't equal a religion.

But, like you...that's just how I look at it. Everyone has their own way of doing things. ;)

[molotovcoqtiz.livejournal.com]

And that shoulda been a comment to this. It's late. Sorry.