Michelle Ammons is furious. Her 16 year old son, a student at Breckinridge County High School in Kentucky, was taken to a church on a school bus by the head football coach, and he was baptised, without her permission or knowledge. About 20 players were on this field trip and about half were baptised.
The school superintendent Janet Meeks was there at the service (it was her church) and did not object to school property being used or the field trip. Supposedly, it was ok because another coach paid for the gas.
According to USA Today:
Meeks said parents weren’t given permission slips to sign but knew the event would include a church service, if not specifically a baptism. She said eight or nine players came forward and were baptized.
“None of the players were rewarded for going and none were punished for not going,” Meeks said
Now why does that NOT make all this alright?
Both the ACLU and the Liberty Counsel have spoken on the issue but at present, are not involved in the case. Matt Staver, founder and general counsel for Liberty Counsel contributed:
[T]here was nothing wrong with trip as long as it was voluntary and no public funds were used. He compared it to a coach inviting players to attend a play or to go see a baseball game.
I guess the fact that the school bus belongs to the county and that the trip was school sponsored has been overlooked.
This is the type of egregious behavior that parents need to be mindful of. In the case of this Kentucky student, one parent was Baptist and one was Catholic. The parents had decided at age 18 the kid could make up his own mind. I guess that right got taken away. Mrs. Ammons concluded:
“Nobody should push their faith on anybody else,” said Ammons, whose son, Robert Coffey, said Coach Scott Mooney told him and other players that the Aug. 26 outing would include only a motivational speaker and a free steak dinner.
“He said it would bring the team together,” Robert, a sophomore, said in an interview….
Mrs. Ammons also was prepared to drop her complaint until she discovered that Superintendent Meeks had been in attendance when her son was baptized. It sounds like that is just what pushed her over the edge.
Well, come on, now…..they handle snakes in KY. Beautiful state, nothing against it, but anyone with even a modicum of awareness concerning religion in the US knows that one can conceivably run into a zealot or two in KY.
lunacy!
Slow, shhhhh, don’t tell anyone. They handled snakes in Virginia also. There used to be an entire cult of snake handlers down in Scottsville, Va, below Charlottesville. (at least according to my mother)
In general, something for everyone here at Anti.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling
I expect stuff like this goes on all the time all over the United States. Not the snake handling…well that too, but taking it upon youself to see that someone else’s kid gets religion. Schools need to stay out of it.
They should be punished, and should lose their jobs. But I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. It’s just a little water on the head undertaken as a mindless ritual performed for a non-existent god.
It FRIGHTENS me though to live in a society with people so dumb that they believe in this kind of stuff.
Gee I wonder how we’ve gotten to the state we’re in of government bailouts and two parties neither one of which represents the average citizens’ interests well? Maybe it’s because people are so stupid that it’s surreal.
If they had forcibly circumcized the kids I’d be more upset.
Hmmmm….sounds like REAL indoctrination here, doesn’t it?
Rick, I think what happened in Kentucky was way, way, way out of line and definitely punishable, but do you really have to go on the attack for beliefs that some of us hold dear? Baptism is sacred to some of us–how about a little respect for that?
“but do you really have to go on the attack for beliefs that some of us hold dear? ” I do feel compelled sometimes, yes.
“Baptism is sacred to some of us–how about a little respect for that?” My dad thought it was important too. Perhaps the word “baptism” triggered me on this.
Still though I would welcome debate with rational people about how or why people should choose to believe in demonstrably false fairy tales. It seems to me a template for irrational behavior.
I for one DO NOT ascribe to the philosophy of respecting the diversity of religious beliefs in this world. I don’t respect any of them.
There is the unknown – the unknown cause to our effect, and the unknown set of questions. To take the set of what’s unknown and put the label “God” to it is not a meaningful exercise.
I also doubt that we are building a better world by believing in afterlives and justice after death. Certainly the Salem Witch Trials, the Spanish Inquisition, and the spectacle of a Christian Nation slaughtering Jews systematically 65 years ago, raised questions as to what is being acheived by empowering merchants of fairy tales.
Religion is the practice of mass-marketing snake-oil solutions. False tales told in trade for money and power. It is asinine.
I don’t have all the answers, neither am I the happiest person on the planet. However, I am demonstrably right on this.
I don’t think anyone here has forced their religion down anyone’s throat or really even mentioned it in much detail. Therefore, I am with Emma on this one.
To me, the affrontery of any school system allowing this incident not only to happen, but to be sanctioned and encouraged by the superintendent, goes beyond the pale.
I hope the parents sue the pants off the school system. In most Christian religions, baptism is one of the sacraments. This school system trespassed and trampled all over this kid’s rights and the parents rights. Rick, it isn’t what you believe, it is what that family believes.
People are always sneaking their religion into schools and other work places. It shouldn’t happen in public schools or the work place. I guess some people feel it is their duty to do this. I find it bordering on illegal.
“I hope the parents sue the pants off the school system. In most Christian religions, baptism is one of the sacraments. This school system trespassed and trampled all over this kid’s rights and the parents rights. Rick, it isn’t what you believe, it is what that family believes.”
Well let me take the other side on this, for discussion’s sake. How is this much different from me sending my kid to school and finding afterwards that they said the Pledge of Allegiance in its current (non-original) form, complete with reference to us existing “under God”, who I don’t believe in? What if I were a virulent atheist? Should I be able to sue? Isn’t that pretty much the same thing only without splashing water?
Yes, and what’s frightening is here it’s performed by a man who leads a football team….which is more leadership experience than what sits in the oval office!!
@Emma
I’m with Emma on this, too.
Freedom of religion is a basic Constitutional (and I would argue human) right.
We all have ways of expressing our beliefs. And we have reasons for believing what we do.
We do NOT have the right to inflict our beliefs on others, however. Baptism by Coach is way out of line.
Coach probably believes that God will be on his team’s side if he has a lot of baptized players. One can never be too sure, you know.
Hey, this kind of mind control is alright to force upon children, a speech about staying is school is WAY over the top though. HUH?
Huge difference, Rick. For starters, I happen to agree about ‘God’ being in the pledge, mainly because I am a ‘seperationist-er.’ It doesn’t personally bother me to say or hear ‘one nation under God’ but I can understand why some people might not like it.
In the Kentucky situation, the school system (the state) took the kid to receive something many people consider one of the most important things you can do in this life, without his parents’ permission.
People with strong beliefs and people with no beliefs might come together on this one and equate it to a kidney transplant where one nation under God might be getting your ear pierced.
You might feel that way, but a rabid atheist might not.
No, a rabid atheist might not mind at all. Obviously not all the parents minded, but 1 set did. And that’s all it takes.
As for the pledge, it just isn’t going to be the sword I am going to fall on– Neither are the coins. But I understand those who do want to remove the wording. I don’t know what else I can say.