| This image can be found on the Hope Christian school's website. Ironic isn't it? |
A 3-year-old was kept from enrolling at a religious-based school because he has two fathers, according to a letter sent by the school.
Action 7 News got a copy of the letter that Hope Christian School sent to the family. It says in part: “Same gender couples are inconsistent with scriptural lifestyle and biblical teachings,” and "Home life doesn't reflect the school's belief of what a biblical family lifestyle is.”
The letter also says since the school is private, it is free from "excessive government interference in matters of religion."
The school will receive more than $60,000 in federal tax dollars this school year. That money will be used for educator professional development, according to the state's Public Education Department. The school qualifies for that money under federal guidelines.
“We don't think agencies that discriminate or use religion to discriminate should be receiving our federal or government funds,” said Peter Simonson with the ACLU.
It may not be sitting well with the ACLU, but come fall, the private school will get the tax dollars and the 3-year-old will start his first day of prekindergarten somewhere else.
I'm sorry, but if you take federal dollars you simply should NOT get to discriminate! Period!
You know if they are going to discriminate based on the Bible, perhaps they need to also reject children with divorced parents, or children whose parents work on the Sabbath, or children who dare to wear clothing made of two different kinds of materials. I mean unless they're hypocrites of course.
This is a three year year old child, a three year old child, who I assume they want to keep out of their program for fear that his presence will not make it seem that it was okay for gay people to raise a child together. (Heaven forbid!)
So instead they taught this little boy that Christianity is filled with hatred and intolerance.
Good job Hope Christian school!
Wouldn't Jesus be proud?
So when are they filing suit against them for taking Federal money? The ACLU, I mean.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but Gryph, I have to agree with you. NO entity should receive Federal funding - in any way - if they discriminate - IN ANY WAY!
I have often wondered what Christianity would be like today if the Old Testament had been throw out. That IS, after all, where the vast majority of this crap comes from.
I wonder if they take the children of parents who have divorced? Or are on their third or fourth marriages? Or parents who weren't virgins when they married?
ReplyDeleteAnd that's just their sex lives. What about parents who work on Sunday, drink, smoke, or practice any of the 7 deadly sins (wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony)?
Which children would Jesus exclude from an education?
Rick
My feeling exactly! It's a joke.They all think that they are so special that their sins are forgiven,even if they keep making them, over and over again. Just not if you are gay or have an abortion. or are responsible human being.
DeleteThis is just more of the same and it does more of the same: it sickens me.
ReplyDeleteThis must be taken to court as a civil rights violation AGAIN! Was that law not settled a half century ago? Yes, it sickens me.
But what is this country doing anyhow, with this public taxpayer support of non public education?
I have never understood this. I assume that this is just another reason I come at problems fromthediagonal
My niece went to Hope Christian School for 2 years. Her father decided that she needed some of those Christian values instead of academics. My niece learned NOTHING in the 2 years she was there. The school was a joke. She was ostracized because she was different from than the other kids. My sister finally saw the light and over her husbands objections, took her daughter out of Hope. The damage was already done, however. My niece struggled in school after that because she did not have the basics down. She finally graduated from HS this past May. IMO, this little boy and his 2 daddies are much better off staying as far away from this school as possible. Why in the world would 2 gay men want their child enrolled in such a place is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteIt would behoove these nuts to remember that Jesus said. "suffer the children to come unto Me," and He never spoke of homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteLouisiana School Voucher Decision Banishes Children to the Bronze Age
ReplyDelete...We’re not talking here about a damage that will be limited to a year. We are talking about damage that will be permanent; something that will scar these children intellectually for the rest of their lives. In this very technological, highly competitive world, there is no room for the Bronze Age.
http://www.politicususa.com/louisiana-school-voucher-decision-banishes-children-bronze-age.html
You can bet they also keep out the handicapped child, the blind one, the kids with ADHD...religious schools and charters can discriminate, and do. And yet, they still somehow use those federal dolalrs with no strings, and the GOP wants to end public ed and make all scools charters and religious. Where will the kids who need help go? Who will educate the hard to love when there are no public schools? This issue needs to be out there, before the GOP gets really busy on it, as they have contraceptiona nd abortion this past two years.
ReplyDeleteTo work. It's all in the big plan no education, they will end up as slaves to corporations or the sex trade. Child labor is big all over the world, and the rich want in on it.They want every pregnancy so women can have children fron 10-50, why educate children when they want them stupid so they can't fight them. They want no rational thinking allowed! This is why they don't want adults to have a job they will have to have someone working in the family.
DeleteYeah, it's proven that homelife for a three year old being dragged around different homes in different states on the grifting, narcissistic whim of a talentless "harworking" single teen mom and a sociopathic teen auntie is much more stable, as long as they giggle at curse words and sexual slurs also too. Cause God's on their side, providing opportunities to dance in a cage on national television and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that rather than, from the point of view of his own religion, embracing the innocent child in an attempt to save his eternal soul, this "christian" jackass turns him away because of the status of his parents.
ReplyDeleteNo room at the inn? ...or nothing but blackness and hate in his heart.
Do these people even READ the book they're pinning their hopes for everlasting glory on?
Hope Christian School is NOT REAL Christians. Anyone who claims otherwise is LYING.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Anonymous 5:57. You're wrong. These idiots are simply applying the Old Testament (which Jesus SUPPORTED. He was a rabbi, after all.) and ostracizing and hatred are definitely part of that.
DeleteNow, if you meant that REAL CHRISTIANS don't believe in the Old Testament, then they are ignoring the fact that Jesus said he came also to REINFORCE the old laws, so they are not true Christians.
On the other hand, if you are saying that real Christians accept and live by only the New Testament, they STILL aren't REAL Christians because they are ignoring his teachings that the old laws still held.
I live by five words: Love, Understanding, Compassion, Forgiveness and Tolerance.
I exclude no one. I help whomever I can. And I share my good fortune. But I don't need any damned GOD to tell me to do these things! I do them because it is right to do them.
And I don't need any REWARD for doing what is RIGHT!
NO Christian I have ever met is willing to accept that the Bible contradicts itself constantly and teaches exactly opposite things all in the same breath.
Leland 6:33, I only disagree with you on one point. I believe Anonymous 5:57's parody is representative of a lot of self-identified Christians' reaction to criticism of other self-identified Christians.
DeleteOH! A knee JERK reaction, huh?
Delete(sigh)
ReplyDeleteYeshua was a black , jewish, gay man. Yep, his name wasn't even Jesus.
"Jesus" is the Greek form of "Yeshua" just like "Peter"/"Pierre" "John"/"Jean" etc.
DeleteJesus (Greek for Yeshua) was probably black, definitely Jewish, and no evidence of being gay or not gay. Perhaps he was asexual. Yes, there really is a significant number of people who are asexual. Sounds like you have some issues.
DeleteJesus did support the Old Testament in some ways, but he emphasized forgiveness and compassion far more than the OT did. He blasted people who followed a legalistic interpretation at the expense of loving their fellow humans.
DeleteHe said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Hope Christian School is following neither of these dictates. And IIRC, Jesus himself never spoke against homosexuality.
And as others have said, if so-called Christians are going to go all Old Testament on people's asses, then they'd better start clamping down on adultery and envy. Those are violations of the Ten Commandments, which DON'T EVEN MENTION HOMOSEXUALITY.
It is hateful, bullying actions like that of this "school" that is REALLY what is attacking Christianity today. These people are dragging the name of Christianity through the muck and the mud, and turning away droves of people in the process.
ReplyDeleteI know many of you on this blog, including Gryphen, don't believe in this sort of thing - but I am growing convinced these people are doing the work of the Devil.
I want to see these people take one tenth of the stand against adultery that they do against gay marriage. Just one tenth. Because adultery, not gay marriage, is expressly forbidden in the Ten Commandments. Adultery, not gay marriage, was specifically spoken out against by Jesus.
But the cowardly charlatons don't dare as it would no longer be safe for them to rail against sin.
It's so much easier to rail against a "sin" you don't feel you have to worry about, isn't it?
I loathe these people.
I am beginning to make a distinction between self-described "Christians" and people who actually attempt to follow Christ's teachings.
DeleteAnon 12:52 pm, I hope with all my heart more and more people will make that distinction, too.
DeleteWhen people - and especially, the media - just assume these charlatans are the authoritative voice of Christianity, it only helps them carry out their hateful agenda.
No one who follows the tenets of Jesus would turn a little child away from a school. No one.
I had a student in my school a few years ago who had two moms, both of whom were very involved in school activities. One was the PTA president and the other was on the school planning team. The were very visible and at every school event so all of the kids and parents knew they were a couple.
ReplyDeleteAnd, what do you know, the other kids couldn't have cared less that this child had two moms! In fact, I suspect that a few were jealous because they didn't have two parents involved in their lives and there to support them at every turn.
Two loving parents of any permutation are far better than what many of my students dealt with: single parents living in poverty, parents in prison, multiple 'dads' that changed every week, parents who were addicts or abusive...
Anonymous 6:37? AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Delete" it is free from "excessive government interference in matters of religion."
ReplyDeleteFair enough, however, now I want America to be free from excessive religious interference in matters of government.
Well said!
DeleteI would say that child escaped a metaphorical bullet by being denied entrance to the religi-Nazi, pseudo-christian school. Whew!! That was close!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lucky little boy! He sure dodged a bullet there as everyone knows that you don't get a "real education" at a christian school; I've known too many kids that have had to play "catchup" in a major way after their "christian educations"; some never gained the level of educational achievement as those who never attended the christian "school". Christian and education is an oxymoron! He will now actually be educated instead of spending his days learning lies and being taught to fear EVERYTHING. Don't even get me started on all the unqualified parents that are homeschooling....seen some real gems there as well.
ReplyDeleteThere are many excellent Christian schools from pre-school through graduate school. It is patently unfair to paint them all with the same brush. However, it is true that some are god-awful and repressive. Each has to be judged on its own merits.
DeleteI attended one that was definitely god-awful and repressive. We were consistently told that we scored much higher on standardized tests than our peers from public schools. By the time I graduated, however, I knew my education was very lacking--I'd had the same English and history teachers from 7th through 12th grades, and I realized our classes were limited to their (not very extensive) knowledge, their limited perspectives, and our insane fundie textbooks (ABeka, anyone?). The Old Testament God, John Calvin, and Rush Limbaugh were the real holy trinity to the teachers.
DeleteAnd that's not even touching the verbal and emotional abuse, religious manipulation, and sexual harassment we endured. I still have nightmares about that school. And 20 years after graduation, I am still talking to a therapist about the emotional scars from those years.
As a high school student, I undertook to educate myself and make up for the gaps in my education. When I got to college--a liberal Christian college known for its academic standards--I was still far behind my peers. And of my hs classmates who started college the fall after graduation, I am the only one who finished a degree in four years. I went on to earn a graduate degree from a public university. There, I found I had a much more solid academic background (thanks to my college) than many other students. But I had to work very hard as a teenager to compensate for the insane and low standards of my junior-senior high school. And no, I had no social life, and yes, I was very ostracized by the other kids.
Should change the name to No Hope Christian School. Bastards!!
ReplyDeleteAll I can think of (and haven't read the other comments yet) is "Suffer the little children to come unto Me."
ReplyDeleteBut I guess the words of their Savior just ain't good enough for them; they're gonna go by their interpretation from the Old Testament (so much more "Christian"...???)
***
I took the time to look it up (Mark 10:14) and found a couple of related quotes:
(from http://www.freewebs.com/suffer-the-little-children/ )
Mr 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Lu 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Kinda makes you wonder what Bible they've been reading, doesn't it?
Well, I have to say this is probably in the best interest of the child that he WAS declined because imagine how he would feel to have to listen to his teachers, or other kids disparage his family. At 3 years old, he wouldn't understand and it would be so confusing to the little guy. And as a parent, it would piss me off to no end.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how these are the same people who don't want ANY federal funds to go to places like Planned Parenthood because they perform abortions, but willing take the federal money for their schools to teach their hate.
There was a time when to receive Federal money you had to abide by Federal guidelines.
ReplyDeleteThat all changed under Bush.
Just another helluva job.
I can't agree more, any institution that accepts tax dollars should not discriminate. These parents (two dads) have every right to send their children to a Religious School, they want their child to learn their Christian Values just as other parents (a dad and a mom or a mom and a mom) have that same right.
ReplyDeleteJust as I have the right to not send my children to any religious school.
This news item got my blood boiling as well
http://tinyurl.com/7raqflo
How do these so called "christians" sleep at night?
Would they recognize Christ, himself, if they can't see him in other people?
Time for me to renew my membership in the ACLU!
ReplyDeleteIsn't this blaming the child for the "sins" of the father(s)? The education is for the child, not the parents. Depriving the child over something he can't (not even to say, should) control is just mean.
ReplyDeleteAlmost seventy five percent of the state's cities made it to the existing grid of storage providers. Picture Doctor may be able to enjoy many of these gate keepers are clueless not only about how to properly evaluate fleshlight the skills of prospects, but also their precision.
ReplyDelete