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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20640
[Civil]
Date Posted:
5/14/2009
11:26:12 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 3,160
RSS: 13,540
Comments: 9
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Update: School Will Not Have Prayer At Graduation
Author: The Gazette Staff Source: Chillicothe Gazette (OH)
Title: SCHOOL WILL NOT HAVE PRAYER AT GRADUATION
Southeastern High School graduates will not have a clergyperson delivering an invocation and benediction at their ceremony.
Superintendent Brian Justice explained Wednesday he and the board are not anti-prayer, but are obliged to follow the law.
"We will not violate the laws ... (I and) my board of education believe in prayer, but we're not for violating the law. Are we happy about it? No," Justice said.
Issues over the school's tradition were raised by senior Jacob Davis, a practicing Wiccan, who felt the prayer violated the law and provisions for the separation of church and state. Davis issued his concerns through a letter to the editor to the Chillicothe Gazette about two weeks ago before speaking with administrators, Justice said.
Additional Article Link: [Click HERE]
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Community Thoughts: There are 9 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Good For Him! | May 15th. at 8:07:54 am EDT
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SnowRaven (Medina, Ohio) - Email Me
Jacob Davis has my utmost respect and support, good for him.
And can I just say that reading the comments attached to the story on that site cracked me up?!!?
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| Next: | May 14th. at 10:20:13 pm EDT
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Joy (Largo, Florida) - Email Me
'Spontaneous' prayer by angry Christians, who will generally be behaving badly and forgetting how many people will be bringing video cameras to the event.
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| Support Is Needed-Not Division | May 14th. at 9:28:22 pm EDT
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Chassen (Columbus, Ohio) - Email Me
I live in Columbus, OH. I first saw this on the local TV station. I felt immediately that we were portrayed badly, not due to Jacob, but due to the news media. In spite of this, however, we need to stand together and not divide.
We have a strong Pagan/Wiccan/Heathen community here in Central Ohio. We make an effort to extend ourselves in community events, such as our upcoming Interfaith Council. However, if we continue to permit the law to be broken, simply because we are unable to be seen as standing apart, then we will continue to be viewed in a bad light.
Jacob is very much a brave young man. It takes strength to stand up for what you believe in, but it takes even more to be the only one standing. Please, don't let yourselves be saddened by the Christian communities view to us. Sometimes things take awhile to change.
Brightest Blessings to All.
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| Interesting | May 14th. at 9:18:13 pm EDT
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Rowan Foxfyre (Indianapolis, Indiana) - Email Me
Frankly regardless of whether or not he "stood up", Paganism will remain "the bad guy" in the minds of some regardless. So be it. Some will seem to think that this buys into and allows the persecution complex some foster as a badge of honor to be given another "stroke". So be it.
The young man took a stand and did what HE felt was right regardless. Good for him. That is all any of us can actually do.
If others don't like the "controversy" he may have caused by standing up, if they feel that it just gives "the other side" ammo, I urge them to crawl back to the shadows, lock the door and throw away the key. Cowards die a thousand deaths, the valiant taste of death but once.
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| ... | May 14th. at 7:01:50 pm EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
Teach those fundie wingnuts a lesson: Their mythology is not "The One True Religion™."
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| Not Officially Anyway... | May 14th. at 6:39:50 pm EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
But there will be those who will interject it anyway to try to prove a point... And as for the young man who stood up to it, I laud his efforts, but the odd man out always gets the short end-because he dared to speak up anyway. Winning a battle does not win a war.
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| We Should Just Be Passive Again? | May 14th. at 4:50:55 pm EDT
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Batman (Madison, Wisconsin) - Email Me
I cannot stand idly while we watch our civil liberties become infected with theology to the point that they begin to disappear all because of the approach to spirituality that this particular brand of religious extremism has a bad habit of doing. All because they influence those in power which we all know they do.
If the roles were reversed and Paganism happened to be the more predominant path, I STILL don't see us, as Pagans atempting to thwart ANYONE but maintaining a fair environment. Now before I eat crow here I do realize the ancient rivalries that go way back, especially in Rome and other places. But here in the 21st Century, as Pagans, as a whole, ew are usually a group that tends to live & let live, tends to be far more inclusive than exclusive which is the polar opposite of the xtian extremists.
According to them , due to some misguided sense of arrogant predetermination they believe that they don't deserve just a piece of the American pie, they feel they deserve the entire pie and to hell with everyone else.
If anything, bad press or not, the young man who did this is a patriot, and to be called this, one must be brave, especially in a land that most definitely has it's religious extremists willing to kill for what they believe in. This young man could have remained anonymous but instead decided to take a stand. I pray for his safety in every sense of the word, because of those that may attempt to do him harm. I hope he is wise and watches his back.
He not only stood up for his own path of spirituality, but everyone else's who quite simply is not Christian. He stood up for what he believed in and decided for once not to go quietly into the night. And to do this at his graduation!
Bravo! This young man is a spiritual warrior in every sense of the word! Bad press or not, we could all learn from this brave young man as he was not afraid to finally stand up and be counted! This individual deserves to be toasted at the hall of the great ones.
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| Just What Are These Officials Teaching? | May 14th. at 4:31:25 pm EDT
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Ursyl (Murrysville, Pennsylvania) - Email Me
"We will not violate the laws ... (I and) my board of education believe in prayer, but we're not for violating the law. Are we happy about it? No," Justice said.
Now that they've be Caught and forced to, they will obey the law, but if they had their druthers, they'd continue to violate it? Is that really what we expect our school officials to be teaching: get away with violating the law for as long as you can, obey it only grudgingly once your violation (technically crime) is pointed out and you're asked to cease and desist.
And these are the ones no doubt locally claiming the moral high ground. Pathetic. Just pathetic.
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| Pyretic Victory | May 14th. at 1:24:58 pm EDT
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Finn (San Marcos, Texas) - Email Me
I have no doubt that some people will cheer this outcome. There will still be a prayer at that graduation, probably several. They will all be student-initiated. All this bluster did was paint us as bad guys who want to stifle their faith. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, Christians (like many pagans) thrive on this notion of being persecuted. This kind of activity feeds that perception. Consider the following:
1. Christian prayers will still be part of the graduation. In fact, I'm betting there will be more of them than would have been otherwise.
2. We get bad press. All anyone will see in this incident is a single individual insisting on trying to stifle the desires of everyone else there.
3. It feeds more into this mistaken notion of "us versus" them. It becomes harder and harder for me to tell militant Christians from militant pagans.
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