Tennesee's Religious Tolerance

[Kassiana]

MAYNARDVILLE, Tenn. - In what has become an annual event, hundreds of Union County students are excused from class, loaded onto school buses with teachers and sent to a three-day evangelistic tent revival.

"I am going to ask you a question," one of the revival leaders yelled to a sea of students. "If you are glad to be here, say amen."

With the ardor of a pep rally, the students shouted back: "AAAA-men!"

Not everyone is so enthusiastic.

Fourteen-year-old India Tracy says she was harassed and attacked by classmates for nearly three years after she declined to attend Baptist Pastor Gary Beeler's annual crusade because of her family's pagan religion.

Her family has filed a federal lawsuit against Union County schools, claiming the crusade, prayers over the loudspeaker, a Christmas nativity play, a Bible handout and other proselytizing activities in the rural school system have become so pervasive they are a threat to safety and religious liberty.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/5828413.htm

Thank goodness we give Christians time out of school for their religion so they can persecute non-Christians for refusing to come along and pay homage to a religion they don't believe in...

[Jewel]

The state actually allows the schools to close for 3 days so that the students can get indoctrinated into a religion?!? And not only that, but they are also escorted by state employees!

If that isn't a clear violation of the First Amentment, then I don't know what is. :mad: :banghead: :banghead:

[Majestyk]

""Everybody don't have to be saved. They have a right to be lost."

Everybody don't have to be sane, either.

[SLD]

You know this isn't too far from the Scopes Monkey Trial site. I was immediately reminded about H. L. Mencken's report on that trial and his visit to a fundamentalist church.

This is a telling quote about their view on education:

The preacher stopped at last and there arose out of the darkness a woman with her hair pulled back into a little tight knot. She began so quietly that we couldn't hear what she said, but soon her voice rose resonantly and we could follow her. She was denouncing the reading of books. Some wandering book agent, it appeared, had come to her cabin and tried to sell her a specimen of his wares. She refused to touch it. Why, indeed, read a book? If what was in it was true then everything in it was already in the Bible. If it was false then reading it would imperil the soul. Her syllogism complete, she sat down.

There followed a hymn, led by a somewhat fat brother wearing silver-rimmed country spectacles. It droned on for half a dozen stanzas, and then the first speaker resumed the floor. He argued that the gift of tongues was real and that education was a snare. Once his children could read the Bible, he said, they had enough. Beyond lay only infidelity and damnation. Sin stalked the cities. Dayton itself was a Sodom. Even Morgantown had begun to forget God. He sat down, and the female aurochs in gingham got up.


For the full story see Yearning Mountaineers' Souls Need Conversion Nightly (http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/menck02.htm#SCOPES5)

I actually went to school not too far away, graduating about 20 years ago. I still go back regularly. It hasn't changed much since HL Mencken's report. In fact, in a TV series I recall a few years ago on the trial, the sentiment in that area on the trial was still very much against Darrow and for William Jennings Bryan. They interviewed a surviving witness and she damned Darrow and his trial skills.

SLD

[SLD]

I should also add about Mencken's quote that an Episcopalian in the Bible Belt is regarded as an atheist.

As a former Episcopalian I can attest to both truths of that observation. :D

SLD

[Jet Grind]

Gee, I wonder why this story isn't getting national attention.

I mean, it wouldn't be any different if the victimes were Christians would it? :rolleyes:

[RufusAtticus]

Umm this story is a couple of months old. There are some threads on it somewhere around here.

[lpetrich]

She was denouncing the reading of books. Some wandering book agent, it appeared, had come to her cabin and tried to sell her a specimen of his wares. She refused to touch it. Why, indeed, read a book? If what was in it was true then everything in it was already in the Bible. If it was false then reading it would imperil the soul.

Which reminds me of what the Caliph Omar allegedly said about the Library of Alexandria:
If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.

[Toto]

Case settled for $50,000 (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14328)

[iskerbibel]

This doesn't surprise me one bit. I grew up in Anderson County Tennessee, about 30 miles west of Maynardville. When I was in elementery school, a Baptist preacher we called "Mr. George" would show up and preach to all 100 or so kids in the gym every few weeks. Nobody seemed to think this was odd at all.

Several years later I knew a gal in the next town over who had made the mistake of drawing a picture of some Wiccan god while she was in class... she was practically disowned by her parents when they found out.

Just a few months ago they actually passed an ordinance to allow liquor to be sold by the drink in Anderson County (no liquor stores, though). Shockingly enough, it passed... by a very narrow margin.

[EverLastingGodStopper]

Case settled for $50,000 (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14328)
Thanks for the link.
... Specifically, the new requirements state that permission slips for the religious events can be handed out only in common areas at the school, not in classrooms. And when the event hires buses that are marked "Union County Schools" to transport students, a sign "that is visible to passers-by" must say who is providing the transportation services and that they are not costing the school system.

Also, school employees who chaperone students to the crusades or other religious events during school hours must wear a name tag saying they are on leave from their job.

Charles Thomas, the superintendent of Union County Public Schools, said the proposed guidelines would not greatly affect the school system.

"I think that really what this settlement will do will solidify our neutrality in this," Thomas said. "I think it's going to call on the organizers of the crusade to do some things that clearly establish they are independent of the school system." ...
Gee, that would be swell.

[seal_clubber]

In arkansas, school kids get herded regularly into the gym for "character building" assemblies featuring, among others, the Power Team (yikes!). They're supposed to be non-sectarian. :rolleyes:
My son's class was sent around the school putting up posters for a revival. Plus religious tracts placed in the school office, youth ministers haunting the lunch room.......I got in touch with AU and they were talking lawsuit. I decided I didn't want my kids to be put through that. It has subsided somewhat since I talked to the superintendent's office.

[MonCapitan2002]

I am so fucking glad that I do not live in the South. For some reason my father thinks the South is better than the North. I could not disagree more. These people and these stories creep me out. I think there is something very wrong in this country when so many people take the Babble seriously.

[SLD]

In arkansas, school kids get herded regularly into the gym for "character building" assemblies featuring, among others, the Power Team (yikes!). They're supposed to be non-sectarian. :rolleyes:
My son's class was sent around the school putting up posters for a revival. Plus religious tracts placed in the school office, youth ministers haunting the lunch room.......I got in touch with AU and they were talking lawsuit. I decided I didn't want my kids to be put through that. It has subsided somewhat since I talked to the superintendent's office.

It is a tough battle to put your kids through. I'm sure that the tracy girl in Tennessee could not long attend the school after initiating such a lawsuit. Doing this alone would be too hard. But what about other like-minded parents? Any Jewish families in your area? There's safety in numbers.

I'm fortunate in Alabama to live in a community with a high Jewish content. If a school official tried to pull this stunt they'd back off real fast!

SLD

[BigBlue2]

What happened to the thugs who slammed India's head against her locker? Anything?

[Psychophobia]

What a bunch of jackasses. The people at school said the kids were better behaved on the way back after being brainwashed for three days. Then why the hell were all these bullies harassing Tracey? The only thing these seminars are doing, is turning kids into psychotic Jebus-freaks who think any other religion is evil. The kids at Tracey's school called her a Satan worshipper, ##### and a bitch. I live in Philadelphia so I haven't had much experience with ignorant people trying to convince everyone that their religion is better, but I've read alot about this stuff on the net. This article was one of the funniest ones I've read. I love reading about stupid things people actually do. I was laughing my ass off the whole time.

[James Madison]

Personally, and this will undoubtedly surprise some, I do not think these kids should be excused from school at all. The school board making such an exception for these kids to miss school to attend a Christian rally, in my opinion, is state endorsement of religion unless they do it for other people of religious beliefs, including atheists and agnostics.

"It is my opinion that the First Amendment would require the Board of Education to allow parents to withdraw their kids from school for a religious holiday or event," Duffy said.

And the attorney is terribly wrong. Employment Division v. Smith makes it clear a law that is neutral on its face and of general applicability does not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment despite the fact some religious belief or practice is burdened.

Or he may be absolutely correct. Wisconsin v. Yoder is probably more controlling here and, ironically, so is Employment Division v. Smith. When there is a hybrid of rights, as is the case here, strict scrutiny is applied and on this basis the attorney is likely right, the First Amendment may require the school board to allow parents to withdraw their kids from school for a religious holiday or event.

[captainpabst]

I live in Tennessee. Knoxville, to be precise. It's pretty conservative around here, but I have to tell you, there are some seriously fantastic people here. Plenty of open minded people - even some of those that voted for dubya (forgive them, for they know not what they do). Just because a state is 'red' doesn't mean all of its people are. Some of us are trying to hold down the fort, fight against ignorance and prejudice, and generally stand tall as secularists in a foreign land here. Wish us luck.