Persecution of Christians

I never thought I would see the day, but the persecution of Christians has begun in my very own backyard. Chris Lind is a Christian employee of the Prior Lake Savage ISD 719 School District at the Prior Lake Savage High School. This is the same school district that refused to let a local Christian youth pastor onto school grounds but invited an Imam to speak to one of the elementary schools. Chris recently spoke to a group of students after school and off of school property about abstinance and why he thinks it is the optimal form of birth control. Yes that did include a discussion about his faith. Now, Mr. Lind (in all fairness and disclosure we do go to the same church) is on unpaid administrative leave pending a final decision by the school board on his employment status. The school board will meet tomorrow to decide his fate.

Now I am well aware that there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Mr. Lind did admit that he did have these discussion with students, as well as conversations about the dangers of the homosexual lifestyle with the Gay Student Alliance. However, because these conversations took place off of school grounds and outside of school hours, there does not appear to be any reason for administrative actions. Mr. Lind is not employed in a teaching capacity, or so I have been told, and the supposed infraction did not take place on company time or property. This appears to be a simple 1st Amendment case. Mr. Lind has hired an attorney who feels that he has a fairly decent case against the school district.

I will be getting reports from the school board meeting (I am going to try to attend, but I do have a prior engagement that overlaps with the meeting time). It will be intesting to see what will come of this.

If you live down here in the Savage Lands and you want to have a say in the boards action, or even if you just want to sit back and watch, I would encourage you to go to the board meeting tomorrow night. The board meeting is held at the District offices at 4540 Tower Street in Prior Lake (the old Pond's Edge Early Learning Center). The meeting starts at 7pm. If you do attend and decide to speak, please be respectful.

If you don't live in the district and you would like to write a note of encouragement to Chris, you can reach him via his website.

UPDATE AND BUMP - Lady Predator asked for an update in the comments, so I thought I had best follow up on last night's school board meeting. There were approximately 100 students and concerned citizens at the school board meeting. Considering our school board rarely gets ANY audience, I think they were a bit taken aback by the response by the community. I arrived late (the Junior Logician had a baseball game that ended at the same time the board meeting started) so I only got to see one speaker, but it was enough. The board, citing privacy issues for the complaintant, decided that this issue should be resolved in a closed meeting, but that they would be taking written input from all citizens. The two local papers (the Prior Lake American and This Week Prior Lake) were in attendance and spent a lot of time interviewing those of us who came to lend support to Mr. Lind.

This is far from over. I suspect that the public outcry will get louder once the story hits on Saturday.

What's the difference?

Can you tell me what the difference is between this...

The front of the Quran, Islam's holy book, read "Mohammad pedophile." An expletive was written inside, smeared under two strips of bacon, according to a Clarksville police report. The report labeled the incident a hate crime.

and this?????

"Someone wrote "Free Palestine" on the door in English as well as Arabic writings, said. Izzie Weinzweig, president of the congregation. "Death to Israel" and similar language was spray-painted on signs posted on the side of the building, he said."

And why is this kind of "art" ok...

"Described as the ultimate arbitration between politics and Christianity, “Christ Killa” is a video game linked to video projectors and television monitors. A first person shooter in which the player shoots hordes of homicidal Jesus Christs, the game landscape is filled with Googled images of Christian propaganda posters, religious shrines such as St. Peter’s in Rome, and clichéd representations of Christ who constantly mumbles messages of tolerance and compassion. "

while this kind of art is censored because it might offend someone?

" Word began to spread about the comic strip, titled 'Yes to Pistachios', and rumors soon swirled about repercussions if it were ever to be published on our website. These repercussions included walkouts, mass de-enrollment at MCTC, and even unconfirmed threats of violence."

I'm sorry - defacing a book - holy or otherwise is not a crime. Vandalizing private property is! And if drawing a cartoon about the Islamic prophet is offensive, why must Christians put up with a first person shooter game that lets players KILL THEIR PROPHET?

I keep thinking back to some comments that were made at Congressman Kline's townhall meeting. A speaker got up and admonished the audience to "respect Islam". WELL RESPECT IS A TWO WAY STREET!!!!! If you expect Christians to respect Islam, then people need to start "respecting" Christianity! It's really that simple.

As frustrating as this double standard is (for someone who deeply believes in fair treatment FOR EVERYONE) it does not surprise me in the least. For in the Bible, Christ predicted this very type of "prosecution". While it certainly does not fall into the same category of "suffering" that Christians in Islamic countries or in China face, it is a fact of life that we should all wear with pride.

The world according to Cartman

I've never understood the appeal of South Park. I don't "get" it. However, the Logical Husband and the Junior Logician do and they watch it together often. Usually when that happens I retreat to my computer - shaking my head and trying to understand what the draw of a program designed to insult anyone and everyone is. However that all changed today.

"Comedy Central's vulgar, profane, hilarious animated hit"South Park" begins its 10th season on Oct. 4 in an uncertain place.
In the past year, the show and its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, won their first Emmy and were also honored with a Peabody for best electronic media. But the year was also fraught with moments of censorship that caused the show's creators to wonder if the world had changed so much in the last 10 years that "South Park" could really no longer thrive. "

It appears that Parker and Stone ran afoul of a parent corporation that was more concerned about upsetting a group of people, rather than the free speech that made this country great.

""South Park" has been vilified as crude, disgusting and nihilistic, and the eagerness of Stone and Parker to impale every sacred cow they can reach is a major reason for its success. After all, in the fictional town of South Park, Colo. — home to third-graders Kenny, Kyle, Stan and the evil Cartman — everything is fair game. Even the Prophet Mohammed, who appeared as a superhero in a July 2001 episode called "The Super Best Friends."
"People told us at the time, 'You can't really draw an image of Mohammed,'" Parker says. "And we were like, well, we can. We're not Muslim, so it's OK."
In 2006, however, when Stone and Parker wanted to depict Mohammed in an episode, Comedy Central wouldn't let them. After all, Muslims worldwide had rioted over insulting depictions of Mohammed in a newspaper in Denmark." (emphasis mine)

A lot of people, like Michelle Malkin, warned that this was going to happen.

Matt and Trey didn't back down. They knew that this capitulation was wrong.

"It seemed odd to the creators of "South Park," who had been and were still allowed to depict Jesus in any number of profane ways. In fact, the episode in question, "Cartoon Wars," shows a cartoon (supposedly created by al Qaeda) in which Jesus defecates on President Bush.
Open Season on Jesus
"That's where we kind of agree with some of the people who've criticized our show," Stone says. "Because it really is open season on Jesus. We can do whatever we want to Jesus, and we have. We've had him say bad words. We've had him shoot a gun. We've had him kill people. We can do whatever we want. But Mohammed, we couldn't just show a simple image." (emphasis mine)

It's not ok to insult Islam or Scientology but it's open season on Jesus! Something that Christians have been saying for a long time! Even better though - the lads were willing to "speak the truth to power"!

"During the part of the show where Mohammed was to be depicted — benignly, Stone and Parker say — the show ran a black screen that read: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."
Other networks took a similar course, refusing to air images of Mohammed — even when reporting on the Denmark cartoon riots — claiming they were refraining because they're religiously tolerant, the South Park creators say.
"No you're not," Stone retorts. "You're afraid of getting blown up. That's what you're afraid of. Comedy Central copped to that, you know: 'We're afraid of getting blown up.'" (emphasis mine)

Couple this with the Scientology/Tom Cruise fracus and you can see where Matt and Trey wondered if last year was "it".

"As soon as we can't make the show we want to make, we're not going to make it anymore. At the beginning of the last run I thought we were really close. I thought it was like this might be it. But then, you know, we were able to still do a Mohammed show and do it the way we wanted, which was to do it and then say, 'All right, Comedy Central, you're a network, you have a right to do with this what you want, so we're making it this way. And then if you want to take out the image of Mohammed, that's fine, you can do that, but we're also going to make the show about you taking out the image of Mohammed.'"

Last year was tough, but they are moving forward into season 10 with an attitude that won this skeptic over.

"Part of living in the world today is you're going to have to be offended," Stone says. "The right to be offended and the right to offend is why we have a First Amendment. If no speech was offensive to anybody, then you wouldn't need to guarantee it." "

Point taken gentlemen.

Maybe I was wrong about "South Park". I think maybe I will have to sit down with the Logical Husband and the Junior Logician and watch "South Park" a couple of times this season.