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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 18101
[Civil]
Date Posted:
7/3/2007
9:22:48 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 6,690
RSS: 25,044
Comments: 10
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Flyer-Censoring Returns To Albemarle
Author: WorldNetDaily.com Source: WorldNetDaily.com
Title: FLYER-CENSORING RETURNS TO ALBEMARLE
The Albemarle School District in Virginia has decided to restore a policy of censoring the sources of flyers given to children, because of concerns inquiries about the district's policy were taking too much staff time.
The issue started developing more than a year ago when students were banned from handing out flyers promoting a vacation Bible school. As a result of a court challenge the district instituted a new policy allowing any organization to hand out flyers to students.
The result was two flyers – one promoting a pagan Christmas event and another a "freethinkers" summer camp – that offended parents, who complained.
So in a 5-1 decision the board now has voted to allow only school-sponsored and local government groups to send publicity home with students.
Various pagan groups had rejoiced at the earlier court ruling sought by the Christians, immediately providing brochures for the school to hand out under such equal access.
"Dear fundie Christians," wrote "Black Knight" on the weblog with a "witchvox" address. "If you want to move to a country ruled by religion, move to either Vatican City, Iran, or any Central African nation. Every facet of their culture should be familiar to you; after all, Vatican City is ran by the original christians (who have had a millenium's experience at torturing non-catholics) , while Iran and the Central African states have their own religious laws in place. They'll be more than happy to treat you like a second-class citizen based solely on the fact that you believe in bizarro-world christian mythology."
Submitted by and Thanks to: Ian
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Community Thoughts: There are 10 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Censorship? | Jul 4th. at 9:45:24 am EDT
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Lorca (Longview, Washington) - Email Me
The headline screams about the "censorship" being practiced by the school board. This is a common yellow journalism tactic employed by the religious right, use inflammatory terms whenever possible to whip up emotions, thus helping to keep reason at bay. The school board's action WOULD be censorship, IF they had a demonstrable obligation to act as an open forum for free expression. Obviously, it has no such obligation, so the article's author is desperately trying to obfuscate this fact.
On the other hand, during the brief period when the school board's policy was to allow any and all to use the "backpack mail" to distribute their information, we had this response from one teacher to the "Camp Quest" fliers,
"'I took a stand and did not send it home,' the representative said. 'Other teachers did the same thing.'"
Now THAT is censorship, pure and simple.
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| A Good Decision- Derived By Accident | Jul 3rd. at 10:21:24 pm EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
What it amounts to is that someone took high umbrage over the fact that others besides a certain bible group took advantage of the fliers to pass out their own material. My guess is some parents complained but I think the xtian groups complained more. After all, no one else was supposed to pass out fliers but them. And- that freethinker's camp sounded like fun. too bad the teachers wouldn't send them home.
So now the school decided to impliment the common sense procedure of not passing any fliers except their own.
All or none.
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| ... | Jul 3rd. at 9:02:24 pm EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
Wow...the fundies' #1 tabloid put me in their story. They didn't even change my statement one bit...okay, so they omitted a LOT. What about the fact that christians are actually persecuted most of the areas I mentioned in that other thread? That wasn't included? What about the *gasp! shock!* possibility that the $cientologists might send flyers promoting free e-meter checks! Or a Flying Spaghetti Monster pamphlet stating those who are touched by His Noodly Appendage will get a beer volcano and a stripper factory in heaven?
No? So it's best to omit what you don't want your readership to see?
On another note, when the f**k did WitchVox become a blog? Last time I check, Wren's Nest was a sort of news aggregator.
Other than that and like I said in another thread, a broken clock is right twice a day. I'm just surprised that WorldNutDaily got this one partly right.
Partly.
Should we forget that the UUs embrace ALL paths as valid (despite what WND says) ? Or that the ACLU takes more cases from christians than any other religion (despite what WND and other fundie idiots say) ? How about that First Ammendment that not only guarantees our right to practice Wicca but also guarantees their right to rant like an idiot on a streetcorner (something the fundies in general conveniently forget about while crying about a pretend curtailment of their Second Ammendment rights) ?
"World Nut Daily" is an accurate statement of this tabloid. The Weekly World News contains more factual info than WND does.
Find More info -- HERE
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| For Those Coming Here Via The WorldNetDaily Link | Jul 3rd. at 7:51:47 pm EDT
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David K. M. Klaus (St. Louis, Missouri) - Email Me
The WorldNetDaily articles characterize the inclusion of a Unitarian Universalist church flyer in this fashion:
"Pagan Christmas ritual pressed on young kids"
"Elementary-age children given handout pushing heathen 'Yule' ritual"
How is it that this church flyer is "pressing" and "pushing" and the Vacation Bible School flyer is not?
The true answer, of course, is that a piece of paper cannot "press" or "push" anything. In both cases, the flyers merely inform families of church-sponsored events which the families are free to choose to attend or not, events in both cases sponsored by churches who have as members families whose children attend local district schools.
That WorldNetDaily deliberately chooses to falsely characterize one church's flyer in this inaccurate but emotionally disturbing manner is an indication of religious bigotry -- a false witness, or in a word, a *lie*, in specific violation of a Commandment of God.
Is a website given to bearing such false witness reliable? Is a website given to bearing such false witness Christian?
You may want to give some prayerful thought to those questions.
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| Memetic Framing | Jul 3rd. at 4:43:44 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
Before noticing the source as WNutDelusions, I was thinking, another incompetent reporter who didn't bother to notice that a UU pagan Yule celebration is in fact a Yule celebration, and that mention of other people holidays or secular perversions of them by mainstream mall brothels to capitalism as being proximate on calendars in no way changes that. I was also thinking of how people's thoughts are affected by linguistic framing, such that after Barry Lynn used the term "pagan star" regarding the suit and Rulemaking with the Veterans Administration at a religion and law session, I had an extended discussion with him about the benefits of word shortcuts versus harm from not bothering to explain to an audience which may need to be educated, in the halls of the ACLU conference.
Rev. Dr. Lynn's "excuse" that he intentionally chose an imprecise word shortcut due to time pressures is credible, though he understands why it's also undesirable. In the VA Rulemaking public comments, his same staff counsel which litigated the "Pentacle Quest" suit made an extensive, authoritative, and one of the most substantive, comments of over 500 submitted. It's unclear whether WNutDelusions has functionally illiterate reporters, or if their erroneous in some cases word choices, or memetic framing, is conscious and malicious fraud, to indoctrinate even less literate readers with a defamatory but factually flawed perspective. (That's known as editorial writing treading the edges of libel, not news reporting or bona fide journalism. "Yellow fishwrapper" is also a traditional framing of it.)
After the "pagan Christmas event" distortion, WNut cites a "Star of David" as a proper name, but can't muster the type of cross shown (a Calvary Cross being far different than a St. Andrew's Cross, popular to chain slaves in BDSM scenes linked to archaic religions) . It's suspicious that the use of "pentagram", not "Pentacle", is intentional. Also clearly intentional is the button pushing via a non-sequitor about Satanism, while failing to mention use of crosses as prison and criminal street gang symbols, by more people than likely exist in the USA as Satanists.
Another notable editorial distortion, attributed to teachers but framed in WNut staff editorial terms, is the suggestion that teachers who violated the law as government agents fear "retaliation". A more accurate depiction might have them fear discovery of illegal acts, reckless disregard for both the law and their obligations to taxpayers and as role models to kids of responsible adult behavior, and of personnel discipline or legal action based on their flagrant violations of law. WNutDelusions has so much as admitted they're hiding specific evidence of crimes and have failed to turn it over to authorities, which is another interesting balance of legal issues test, where reporter's privilege of confidence is not unrestricted in such cases. It's quite possible there are grounds for Camp Quest operators to litigate disclosure of that evidence for use in prosecuting both the school district and the scofflaw teachers, potentially caging WNut criminal conspirators indefinitely for contempt if they evade legal duties which makes them accessories to illegal acts, not merely neutral reporters.
It's unfortunate that we WV members as well as the UU pagans used some sloppy grammar or spelling, beyond a slight finger slip on a casual post here. However, don't look now, but WingNut itself could red pencil at least 4 grammar violations outside direct quotes. One might also raise flags about how they singled out the WV comment with significant typos, and ignored others posted by a teacher (they might not know that) , or discussing illegal actions by bible thumper state employees, and neutral standards of child abuse where a school in many cases has an often ignored legal obligation to report rabid fundie parents engaging in emotional or physical abuse driven by pathological versions of religion to child protective authorities. When the evangelical camp is likely on both sides of that issue, promoting child abuse alongside lawful activities, there could be messy legal grounds to censor their announcements while passing along most other church and nonprofit ones. Thanks to WNut, we now see in print that beyond time spent dealing with misguided parents, the school system has staff management problems which could demand discipline or firings, and additional potential for litigation when teachers are fired for intentional repeated violation of legal duties and violations of law as government agents, but would likely sue claiming the same empty frauds as county commissioners have done trying to pander prayers as part of government meetings, or the specific case I listed (full cites available on request) regarding a litigant to whom Virginia paid money damages on top of other legal relief, because of such bible thumper employees wantonly and repeatedly violating the law.
An interesting aside of this article is the crossover between the two events and fliers posted, and issues where many in the second camp group likely are in denial about or hostile toward many heathens and naturalist pagans, including scientific pantheists, Gaians, etc. As neurobiology advances, it might be interesting to see some of those atheism by denial dogmatists who viciously deny they too have a zealotrous religion, see increasing pools of evidence rationally explaining how other humans use different forms of religious practice or belief to shape interactions with difficult life issues. They might find those of us with science, math, or engineering backgrounds, and strong rational personalities, very difficult to grasp, as that "strict atheist" meme presumes someone who views pantheons and deities as human symbolic tools, to shape thought or communication, as if a despised supernaturalist as many pagans, and most Abrahamics, are. Many of us can rationally explain the use of mythos as human fabricated stories, which far simpler Native American traditions also recognize them to be, which upsets those who presume any and all mythos must be fiction presented fraudulently, and never for some legitimate human purpose.
As one religion site has explained things, "all religions are weird religions". That makes sense when one considers how people use religion to deal with personal emotions and confusing or conflicted aspects of society. It's rightfully a non-issue to anyone outside yourself or tribe, except when those practices get twisted to the point of moving from parental or religious rights into child abuse or motivation of crimes, where the religion is merely an explanation as being angry at a boss or parent or neighbor might be, not the crime per se.
Since the WNutters chose to pick on UU pagans, we might remind them that UU-ism overall reports the highest audited membership with postgraduate degrees of any large corporate sect, and is in fact also host to a huge faction of self-described humanists, atheists, and Brights.
We might also remind them that Thor's Hammers, Awens, and Pentacles are found on teachers in Virginia and other states, while pagans with them are also found with MSW and PhD credentials in policy setting roles inside some child protective state agencies, as well as Federal agencies. Many of the Baptists acting illegally in government are instead hired by waiving such occupational standards, due to problems finding enough qualified applicants. While perhaps not as highly funded as Rabid Religious Reich cults and tactical legal predator corporations, we also have pagan litigators, and pagans inside ACLU Board meetings, and other organizations through which we magnify resources.
Moderate and liberal Christian churches are proactively considering how they need to adapt to issues like global warming relative to overpopulation and personal lifestyles (issues where pagans are leaders) , and child abuse neutral criteria for an exponentially diversifying society, where some dogmas have become pathological. WNutter promoted hate cults might think hard and long, about whether they prefer to join the effort to grow up and evolve, or prefer to die off as hate cults whose members simply become unable to raise another generation without acting as rightfully criminal child abusers.
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| *speechless* | Jul 3rd. at 2:41:48 pm EDT
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Sea Raven (New Haven, Connecticut) - Email Me
World Nut actually got a story sort of right in their own twisted way.
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| WOAH! | Jul 3rd. at 12:10:59 pm EDT
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WitchPoet (Claremont, California) - Email Me - Web
I am flabergasted at the reaction to the Humanist camp flyer. Those teachers should be reprimanded in their records!!
This district is in big conflict with reality.
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