Jesus Worshipers Run Amok in Florida Public School

[meegbear]

Public schools in St. Johns County, Florida have been infiltrated by Christianist radicals from the top of the organization down, leaving the community in an uproar and the school district in federal court.

The trouble started when several teachers at Webster Elementary School in St. Augustine decided this little ditty, “In God We Still Trust” by the country music group Diamond Rio, should be sung by third graders in their annual assembly at the end of the year.

Parents of several children objected to the song, which calls for an end to separation of church and state through a Christian uprising.

Now there are those among us
Who want to push him out
And erase his name from everything
This country’s all about
From the schoolhouse to the courthouse
They’re silencing his word
Now it’s time for all believers
To make our voices heard

The parents were told their children didn’t have to sing this song. There’s just one little catch. If they chose to abstain they would be barred from participation in the entire program. Cue up the first lawsuit.

Only upon being informed the suit was filed did the school district pull the song from the program. But not without whining in a press release first.

“This is obviously someone again using the school system (as well as taxpayers’ money to defend the lawsuit) for their own personal agenda,” (said Superintendent Joseph Joyner). “Unfortunately, this is not unusual and distracts us from our mission.”

The nature of Joyner’s “mission” is the issue. The superintendent and other county notables, including the sheriff, tax collector, and members of the state’s attorneys office, belong to the steering committee of a group called “The Marketplace,” whose flagrant goal is to bring Jesus into the office.

The purpose of The Marketplace is to help men and women fulfill their call right in their own place of work. To realize that their workplace IS their ministry…

Where do the majority of people spend the majority of time interacting with the majority of unsaved people? …it is where most people spend 60-70% of their waking hours – the workplace. If we are going to see our society changed for Jesus Christ we will have to change the way we equip believers to live out their faith where they spend a majority of their time.

If you thought there was a “wait, there’s more” coming, you’re right.

<snip>

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/04/22/jesus-worshipers-run-amok-in-florida-public-school/

[EmilyAnne]

1. Irony alert!

“This is obviously someone again using the school system for their own personal agenda.”
Um, yeah.
That pretty much describes what you idiots were doing with this play.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Not only is that entire story scary as hell,

I also had to read the URL 4 times to stop seeing "PenisToReview.com" rather than "PensitoReview.com"

It's too early in the morning for my mind to be so far into the gutter. :(

[old mark]

18. "A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste." nt

[ananda]

3. Boy.. and I thought Texas was bad!

nt

[gauguin57]

4. Jesus H. Christ! (see ... I'm not "erasing his name from everything"!)

This is massively disturbing.

[csziggy]

19. Is that Jesus Hussein Christ? n/t

[LeftinOH]

5. The superintendent is confusing his personal "mission" with his job description..bad idea n/t

[frebrd]

6. K&R n/t

[Arugula Latte]

7. This is what some Christians on DU who complain about how the religious are treated here don't get

This shove-religion-down-our-throats crap happens all the time with alarming tenacity in the real world. We are beyond fed up.

[spoony]

12. That's a lame defence

By that logic you'd find a racist perfectly understandable if he was once mugged by a black guy.

[MindPilot]

8. Like I don't already have enough co-workers trying to save my soul

The MarketPlace appears to be nothing more than a small offshoot of "The Fellowship", and everybody who is anybody in Washington DC belongs to "The Fellowship.

[onethatcares]

16. that place we're trying to bring democracy to,

don't they have something called the Taliban that wants to shove their religion down every bodys' throats? Is there much of a diffeence?

[intheflow]

9. I regret I found this too late to rec it.

I used to have this same fight with my high school chorus teacher who was always making us sing religious songs, though they were in Latin so somehow that made singing about Christ's supposed sovereignty ok in a public school. Disgusting to see it's not only still happening 35 years later, but it's been kicked up a notch.

[dsc]

13. You can't be a serious choral singer without knowing how to sing classical choral works

and many of those were religious in nature. Sorry, but your teacher was absolutely correct. It would be like taking calculus and complaining that the teacher was requiring you to differentiate functions.

[retread]

10. I lived in St. John's county many years ago. Looks like some things never change. n/t

[retread]

11. Is the superintendent appointed by the school board? A cursory glance of their bios shows

a promise keeper and a Jeb appointee out of 5 members.

[spoony]

14. Overly broad title

Presumably all or most Christians are "Jesus-worshippers" whilst your story is about fundies, not all Christians.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. Jesus worshippers?

These asshats wouldn't know Christ if He came down from Heaven and smacked them upside the head with his cross.

[LWolf]

17. This is one of those times

when I'd like an amendment, or something, that prevents proselytizing. The right to privacy, or something.

Not that I'd really want to silence anyone's viewpoint. I don't.

How DO we protect the rest of us from incessant religious propaganda without infringing on free speech?

How do make religion a private, rather than a public, practice? About the spirit, and not about power?

At the least, perhaps we could add an amendment that clearly specifies a deep and wide separation between church, corporation, and state, instead of an much disputed interpretation of the 1st amendment.

There is a huge gray area when it comes to religious expression in public education. It needs to be restricted to private, rather than public, expression when on public grounds. There is an assumption that we are infringing on a cultural right to celebrate majority "culture," which includes faith, at school when a "minority" faith objects.

The determination of some to take over public schools for Jesus is downright scary.

I teach middle school in a rural, homogeneously white "christian" community. We have open people. We also have a large contingent of very active families that regularly object to curriculum and "opt out" of assigned reading, etc..

My students are encouraged to read outside of assigned reading, and to share what they are reading in regular book circles. We have a recommended reading list, but they are allowed to read other things, as well. I've had to regulate heavily this year; a few students read nothing but "christian" fiction with a transparent "come to Jesus" theme, and then tried to use the book circles to proselytize.

In this community, I'm thankful that we don't do holiday programs or parties in class, and that the PTC organizes some celebrations after hours, and outside the classroom. It seems to keep the community happy, and we don't have to worry about xmas or easter wars.

I DO have to constantly provide "substitutions" for district adopted curriculum. Most of the time, the only substitution the protesting parents allow is something with no substantive content at all, that won't encourage their children to think or to question anything.

The most recent substitution was for "The Giver," which, apparently, is "against our religion." Not that there is anything in the book about religion. It's a fictional dystopia.

Anyway, I hope those law suits keep coming from now until they give up on the agenda, no matter how long it takes.