August 25, 2006--Fanaticism XLVII--Which Grinch Stole Jesus?
Since next week is back to school week for many, here is one more (for the moment final) report on the status of public education in the USA.
While New Orleans is struggling to provide classes for a few thousand of its formerly 60,000 student school district and the education progressives in New York City are criticizing the City’s new deal with the College Board to offer the PSAT exam for free to all high school juniors and seniors, labeling the test as having no “educational value,” in Bridgeport, West Virginia they are trying to recover the “portrait” of Jesus that was stolen from the wall outside the principal’s office of the town’s pubic high school.
It had been hanging there for 37 years (yes, thirty-seven years), and just the other day, disappeared.
No one as yet is claiming that this is evidence of a miracle. Just simple theft. Or perhaps it is a consequence of an on-going lawsuit about the appropriateness of having such a painting on the wall of a public school.
The county board of education has been battling the suit, not spending any taxpayer money to do so, rather receiving support from the Christian group, Focus on the Family (see NY Times story below).
One school board member said, “We have decided to step up to the plate here. This is important to us and reflects what our community wants in the schools.”
Forget for the moment the conflation of sports and Christianity (“stepping up to the plate”?), all over the county one can find Christian tokens and symbols in schools. In addition to crosses in most of their public schools and government buildings, in the women’s bathroom at the board of education headquarters there is a leather-bound copy of the New Testament.
I hope it’s on a chain.
This is a glaring example of the widespread, nationwide transformation of public schools into versions of parochial schools. It’s far from just being about restricting the teaching of evolution. We are talking here about the blatant religious appropriation of a basic public service.
Bridgeport, West Virginia by the way, with a population of just 8,000, is home to 40 churches. They may fight about doctrinal issues, but they are united in wanted their Jesus back.
While New Orleans is struggling to provide classes for a few thousand of its formerly 60,000 student school district and the education progressives in New York City are criticizing the City’s new deal with the College Board to offer the PSAT exam for free to all high school juniors and seniors, labeling the test as having no “educational value,” in Bridgeport, West Virginia they are trying to recover the “portrait” of Jesus that was stolen from the wall outside the principal’s office of the town’s pubic high school.
It had been hanging there for 37 years (yes, thirty-seven years), and just the other day, disappeared.
No one as yet is claiming that this is evidence of a miracle. Just simple theft. Or perhaps it is a consequence of an on-going lawsuit about the appropriateness of having such a painting on the wall of a public school.
The county board of education has been battling the suit, not spending any taxpayer money to do so, rather receiving support from the Christian group, Focus on the Family (see NY Times story below).
One school board member said, “We have decided to step up to the plate here. This is important to us and reflects what our community wants in the schools.”
Forget for the moment the conflation of sports and Christianity (“stepping up to the plate”?), all over the county one can find Christian tokens and symbols in schools. In addition to crosses in most of their public schools and government buildings, in the women’s bathroom at the board of education headquarters there is a leather-bound copy of the New Testament.
I hope it’s on a chain.
This is a glaring example of the widespread, nationwide transformation of public schools into versions of parochial schools. It’s far from just being about restricting the teaching of evolution. We are talking here about the blatant religious appropriation of a basic public service.
Bridgeport, West Virginia by the way, with a population of just 8,000, is home to 40 churches. They may fight about doctrinal issues, but they are united in wanted their Jesus back.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:16 PM
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