Story: High school student sent home for wearing ‘homosexuality is a sin’ T-shirt, father says

[whatistrue]

I hope you will forgive me for pointing out that a ratio of (being partly hyperbolic but not entirely) say 1000:1 doesn’t really help the case. And interestingly enough, some who harp on a single sin don’t choose this particular one but do choose one that is similar in that it is one of a long list of similar sins and isn’t actually as prevalent in real life as they would have us believe.

 

[puer.dei]

Christianity is about loving the sinner.

It is not about condoning the sin.

But homosexuality, of itself, is not a sin.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

But homosexuality, of itself, is not a sin.

At face value, and semantically, this is true.

However, I would venture to say that a teacher who displays the rainbow flag is not merely sttaing the fact that homsexuality exists as a phenomenon, but celebrating and normalizing the sinful lifestyle that is associated with it. Claiming the flag merely represents homosexuality is thus an incorrect statement.

The meaning of homosexuality as represented by this flag is a sin.

And the slogan on the T-shirt, although maybe semantically similarly cut short, does provide the bible verse which anybody can look up to see what is meant.

 

[Freddy]

puer.dei:

But homosexuality, of itself, is not a sin.

At face value, and semantically, this is true.

However, I would venture to say that a teacher who displays the rainbow flag is not merely sttaing the fact that homsexuality exists as a phenomenon, but celebrating and normalizing the sinful lifestyle that is associated with it. Claiming the flag merely represents homosexuality is thus an incorrect statement.

The meaning of homosexuality as represented by this flag is a sin.

And the slogan on the T-shirt, although maybe semantically similarly cut short, does provide the bible verse which anybody can look up to see what is meant.

It seems to have escaped you that the very reason the rainbow flag exists is as a counter to those who think that, for example, getting your daughter to wear a t-shirt to school which denigrates gay people is a good idea.

There will be a time when gay parades and icons of gay support will not be required. Until then…if you keep demonising gay people then expect some visible support and solidarity from most of the population.

 

[njlisa]

I’m not speaking to the specific issue of the t-shirt. However, I’d like to point out that public school officials are allowed to ban expression that they consider to be disruptive.

Though public school students do possess First Amendment freedoms, the courts allow school officials to regulate certain types of student expression. For example, school officials may prohibit speech that substantially disrupts the school environment or that invades the rights of others. Many courts have held that school officials can restrict student speech that is lewd.

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[njlisa]

I agree that prohibiting any shirt with writing on it, unless it’s an official school shirt, is the only way to solve this. Otherwise we will have kids showing up in shirts promoting everything from Bible verses to Communism and there is no way it will all get evaluated fairly.

@Tis_Bearself

Here’s a humorous aside.

In high school, we were allowed to wear t-shirts depicting rock stars and our teams.

When I attended a secular college, a few of my professors were rabid atheists and communists. So, like one of Pavlov’s dogs, I went through a brief Marxist-atheist phase. I wore a Mao cap and communist buttons and spouted the Communist Manifesto.

By 2007, in my mid-forties, I was teaching at a college. I would see herds of students wearing Che Guevara shirts.

I’d think, “These kids know nothing about history. I should confront them.”

Then I’d flash back to the early 1980s when I was prancing around like a commie in conservative Oklahoma.

I was received into the Catholic Church 30 years ago. In the Northeast, that means I’m even more of a rebel.

 

[Freddy]

I agree that prohibiting any shirt with writing on it, unless it’s an official school shirt, is the only way to solve this. Otherwise we will have kids showing up in shirts promoting everything from Bible verses to Communism and there is no way it will all get evaluated fairly.

Nice story. Kinda ‘been there, got the t-shirt’. And your story reminds me of a stall in a market I was in once that sold teeny tiny t-shirts for toddlers with humourous statements such as ‘What Happens In Kindy Stays In Kindy’. Had a good laugh reading them all. But the one that had me literally giggling all day was one with the standard monochrome shot of Che in his beret with the statement underneath: ‘I Have No Idea Who This Is’.

 

[otjm]

Because it is understood that robbing a store is wrong.

We have been watching riots for more than 3 months; apparently the message did not get passed around.

 

[fredystairs]

fredystairs:

Because it is understood that robbing a store is wrong.

We have been watching riots for more than 3 months; apparently the message did not get passed around.

Touché …

 

[toddy]

I would go to other school to study and that what I walked out when I was young to protest other sins and the Lord blessed me with better teachers until post graduated.
I spoke to the dean and all other fellow students what happened. No more nonsense threats.

Victory is meaningless empty without the dominated class.

 

[Katie777]

You know this is high school.
But children these days grow up too fast.
Let a child or teen be a teen before this nonsense. Of course it’s a sin and the child should know this–from home

Sex happens after marriage.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

It seems to have escaped you that the very reason the rainbow flag exists is as a counter to those who think that, for example, getting your daughter to wear a t-shirt to school which denigrates gay people is a good idea.

There will be a time when gay parades and icons of gay support will not be required. Until then…if you keep demonising gay people then expect some visible support and solidarity from most of the population.

There may have been a time that it was necessary to counter a prevalently and systemically homophobic society, and the rainbow flag represented that.

But rather than having learnt the lesson of what a terrible thing it is to be intolerant, vocal parts of the homosexual now have the boot on on the other foot and are displaying exactly the same intolerance they were once subjected to. Hounding down people who have different opinions, kicking their kids out of school, punishing them for not baking their cakes. Ridiculing and denigrating religion.

These days, Christians are clearly the underdog in this dispute. It doesn’t take much courage to put up a rainbow flag any more, but it takes much more courage to criticize it.

And before you accuse me of being homophobic, all the gay people I know fully agree with me on this. They say the pendulum has swung too far and its getting ridiculous. But their voices are not heard. They say that if these people really care about discrimination, they should go to some of the dictatorships in Africa and campaign there. But children are easier to kick around than dictators I guess.

 

[Freddy]

Freddy:

It seems to have escaped you that the very reason the rainbow flag exists is as a counter to those who think that, for example, getting your daughter to wear a t-shirt to school which denigrates gay people is a good idea.

There will be a time when gay parades and icons of gay support will not be required. Until then…if you keep demonising gay people then expect some visible support and solidarity from most of the population.

There may have been a time that it was necessary to counter a prevalently and systemically homophobic society, and the rainbow flag represented that.

But rather than having learnt the lesson of what a terrible thing it is to be intolerant, vocal parts of the homosexual now have the boot on on the other foot and are displaying exactly the same intolerance they were once subjected to. Hounding down people who have different opinions, kicking their kids out of school, punishing them for not baking their cakes. Ridiculing and denigrating religion.

These days, Christians are clearly the underdog in this dispute. It doesn’t take much courage to put up a rainbow flag any more, but it takes much more courage to criticize it.

And before you accuse me of being homophobic, all the gay people I know fully agree with me on this. They say the pendulum has swung too far and its getting ridiculous. But their voices are not heard. They say that if these people really care about discrimination, they should go to some of the dictatorships in Africa and campaign there. But children are easier to kick around than dictators I guess.

I don’t think any children were being ‘kicked’. But the father of the girl who asked his daughter to wear the t shirt needs someone to have a chat with him as regards parental responsibility and tolerance.

But I agree with you that pendulums do tend to swing back past the resting point. It’s the nature of society. The further you push it, the further it swings back. It will come to rest eventually if we all keep a hands-off position.

 

[Jbrady]

For a laugh, I’m guessing yuu’re not an American. In American English, “to knock up” means exclusively “to get someone pregnant”. Using it any other way is going to raise eyebrows, or evoke sniggers.

 

[Freddy]

For a laugh, I’m guessing yuu’re not an American. In American English, “to knock up” means exclusively “to get someone pregnant”. Using it any other way is going to raise eyebrows, or evoke sniggers.

Quite a common expression in the UK and Australia. In both senses of the term. Context defines it.

 

[Jbrady]

Quite a common expression in the UK and Australia. In both senses of the term. Context defines it.

I know. It still amuses Americans because we lack the second meaning, so there is no context to work on.

 

[Freddy]

Freddy:

Quite a common expression in the UK and Australia. In both senses of the term. Context defines it.

I know. It still amuses Americans because we lack the second meaning, so there is no context to work on.

You’ve got some that raise eyebrows down here. Your other colloquialism for someone’s butt means something entirely different down here. And ‘entre’ for a main meal? Whaaat? Took me a couple of weeks in the US before I worked that out!

 

[Jbrady]

Your other colloquialism for someone’s butt means something entirely different down here.

The funny thing is that it isn’t at all offensive in American, and it’s used even by small children. On the other hand, the British terms for “eraser” and “cigarette” can get one in big trouble in the States.

I fell victim to the “eraser” one myself when I was helping a VERY chaste, VERY Catholic Irish girl I lived in the dorm with in Germany correct some exams she had given her students. She was correcting them on her bed, and I was sitting at the desk. Suddenly, out of the blue, she casually said, “Can you be a dearie and open the desk drawer and hand me the eraser”. Except she didn’t say “eraser”. She said I turned white as a sheet.

 

[signit]

The funny thing is that it isn’t at all offensive in American, and it’s used even by small children. On the other hand, the British terms for “eraser” and “cigarette” can get one in big trouble in the States.

Yeah; in grammar school in the U.S. they showed us an anti-smoking film in which a teenage boy was hooked on smoking and he was craving a cigarette saying, “give us a ***, give us a ***” and the grammar school boys were laughing.

 

[Jbrady]

Don’t forget the jellied eels. You’re just faking it if you leave them out.