“Your Excellency, Sir William Morrison, and gentlemen. I am afraid tonight,
owing to the rain we have had in this island of Springs,
I am batting on rather a sticky wicket. We have just heard Sir William Morrison make,
in my opinion, a magnificent speech. I do not hope or think of living up to that.”
the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner, April 1930:
(stem of my lovely bumpy pumpkin / Julie Cook / 2016)
Recently, having read an article about a school district ordering its elementary schools teachers
to immediately remove any and all references to Christianity from within their classrooms, sent a
familiarly eerie warning siren sounding within this old educator’s head….
No bibles were to be on their desks, no verses or images containing scriptures
were to be posted on the walls or in the halls,
there were to be no tag lines on their emails with any religious reference,
no mention of Christmas, or Easter…no religious images were to be displayed,
no references whatsoever of the Christian faith were to be evident…
end of sentence, period.
The district’s orders were indeed that, dictatorial orders.
No sort of explanation or conversation but rather strictly a “do as we say or else” sort of directive.
As an adult and educator, I always hated when the powers that be spoke down to their teachers as though they were, well yes, children.
It’s one thing for those in charge to say, “hey, we’ve received some complaints, or even a threatening law suit, etc, so we are asking that you please refrain…”
Instead it is the dictatorial command from up above…
laced with a threatening tone as well as a heavy dose of fear mongering.
Teachers were however told that they could continue wearing religious “trinkets”,
i.e. a cross necklace,
but anything that was considered too showy or attention grabbing or
blatantly displayed was strictly forbidden.
I can remember several years ago when I was still in the classroom and many of the current music entertainers had taken to wearing large crosses and rosaries…so our students, ever the fashion conscious, were quick to sport their own versions of the large showy crosses and rosaries around their necks.
To say that I was disappointed seeing prayer beads worn around ones’ neck as
something urbanely trendy was an understatement
as I’ve always felt prayer beads were just that…
for prayer….
but I digress.
I wonder if this particular school district, which just so happens to be in my own state,
has issued letters home to their parents asking that their children refrain from
bringing anything Christian related to school or wearing such…
or even that of the soon to be Christmas fashion world?
Or heaven’s forbid anyone talk about what happened at Wednesday night church…
Yet there was no mention as to removing anything Jewish nor was there
mention of anything of the Muslim faith..
no removing any stars of David, no removing prayer rugs,
no removing the kippah from the heads of young Jewish boys…
no removing henna tattoos from the hands of young Muslim girls,
no forbidding of any reference to Rosh hashanah or Yom Kippur
or Ramadan or Eid…
strictly a Christian sort of edict.
As a long time educator, I understand full well the whole concept of the separation of church and state…as we don’t want our schools endorsing or promoting any set religion…
for schools are simply to educate by following a set curriculum…I get that.
But as an educator, I also understand the undeniably woven nature of the
Christian faith in our history as a people of Western Civilization.
It is in the history of our DNA…whether we like it or not—
and no matter how hard we try to erase it from our very being as a people…we simply can’t.
There are very appropriate times when Christianity, and or the study of such,
is very much a part of a lesson.
I find it almost comical when our society tries to neuter the Christian faith.
Dare we not talk of the Pilgrims offering thanks that first Thanksgiving,
thanks to God that, quite frankly, they’ve actually survived thus far,
let alone why they came here in the first place…
to worship freely?
Dare we not speak of the Judaeo / Christian tenants which are the
basis of our own laws and legal system as we look at
the role the Ten commandments have played.
That whole thou shall not murder thing…
Dare we not look at the treasures offered to us artistically,
culturally, musically and even architecturally in the artwork, literature,
music and architecture which has reflected the endearing faith of Western Civilization…
Who among us didn’t read Pilgrims Progress or the Canterbury Tales, or works by
JRR Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or even Martin Luther in a lit class?
What of the music of Bach, Mozart or Beethoven?
As an art teacher, my room was rife with images of the Renaissance.
Images from both Latin West and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
Images from Africa, Asia, Native American….
along with the images of the importance spirituality played in each culture…
because like it or not spirituality and man have always been linked…
and from that came man’s desire to create, encapsulating that spirituality…
and that might be good spirituality or bad…
but such is to the eye of the beholder…
We explored the written words of the Latin, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Greek,
indigenous Indians, Arabic, and even Druid societies
as we looked at the history and relationship the
written word has to our visual understanding.
‘Over the top’ is the best way to describe how I often feel school systems
react when they feel threatened in some way…
They will bend over backwards, at the expense of their personnel,
good well trained personnel, if they feel that they might be sued,
cited or possibly lose critical funding…
should they not bow to the pressure of a few.
Sadly it is the local, state and even federal governments
who are putting the pressure on their own school systems to conform to
this current trend of across the board neutering…
Neutering of not all religion, but blatantly to just one…
It would be one thing if they had said absolutely no to all references to each and every religion,
but this district was very specific in referencing the Christian faith only.
For that, I cry foul.
Then shortly after having read the first article, I next came across the following article
citing the current persecution of Christian believers taking place in Uzbekistan…
over the possessing of any and all Christian material…
and to the extreme measures the Uzbek Government is taking to
curtail and punish all offenders..
As I am left to simply scratch my head as to why Governments and Nations and even
School districts fear
the mere visibility of Christianity….
May we be mindful of our past…
In the field of education, everything was done to ensure that the youth of Germany was brought up in the atmosphere of National Socialism and accepted National Socialist teachings. As early as the 7th April, 1933, the law reorganising the Civil Service had made it possible for the Nazi Government to remove all ” Subversive and unreliable teachers “, and this was followed by numerous other measures to make sure that the schools were staffed by teachers who could be trusted to teach their pupils the full meaning of National Socialist creed. Apart from the influence of National Socialist teaching in the schools, the Hitler Youth Organisation was also relied upon by the Nazi Leaders for obtaining fanatical support from the younger generation. The defendant von Schirach, who had been Reich Youth Leader of the NSDAP since 1931, was appointed Youth Leader of the German Reich in June, 1933. Soon all the youth organisations had been either dissolved or absorbed by the Hitler Youth, with the exception of the Catholic Youth. The Hitler Youth was organised on strict military lines, and as early as 1933 the Wehrmacht was cooperating in providing pre-military training for the Reich Youth.
Excerpt from the Nazi Jewish Party
The Nazi Regime in Germany
The Jewish Virtual Library
For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens,
to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
Matthew
24:24
cookiecrumbstoliveby 
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
I really hadn’t the faintest idea how bad it is becoming in America this article is scary
I found this to be disturbing also. If it had been an across the board directive on all religious indicators, that would be one thing, but this a blatant attack against Christianity. If I were a teacher in that district, I’d get my financial affairs in order at home and then be an American of the first order—a revolutionary. I’d post a large copy of the first amendment to the constitution on the door of the classroom and we’d recite it after the pledge of allegiance. I’d keep a bible on my desk and have a bible verse on my necklace—flouting the illegal edict without preaching my “religion” to my students.
I know that as Christians we are called to submit to the governing authorities, but I would refuse to hide my faith for a bully school administration, especially when they are violating my constitutional freedom. Teachers aren’t there to preach their religion, but they are also not required to be parrots for the government. They are to stimulate critical thinkers. It cannot be done when the state demands conformity.
[…] [The] […]
What about the respect paid to those who have special prayer times during the school day? How about the indoctrination of tolerance for all kinds of behavior, sex education in 5th grade, transgender, homosexuality, etc? How about parents who change the sex of their child at age 8 because they think it’s what the child would prefer? This is not to mention the safety of our schools. Our world is insane. The Judaeo/Christian values have been replaced with “anything goes” teachings. Thank God I had the opportunity of teaching in a Christian school.
Oh so true wise JarJar—and that business about transgender awareness for elementary kids and sex changes for not just minors in their teens but for children, as you say ,as young as 8 or even younger—smacks of child abuse—
what 8 years old, who has yet to go through puberty or any real physical sexual awareness is actually of sound mind, whose minds mind you are not physiologically fully developed, can grasp the complexity of such, the psychological implications– which will last for a life time…let alone being of any legal age of consent—
These parents think they are making their child’s life complete, writing the wrong of an obviously ill advised and confused Creator….it is absolutely beyond my soul—-
Paul actually had a student who went through a sex change at the age of 8. Poor child and how co fusing for his classmates.
That is asinine — there are a couple at the high school here– but at 8 that should border on criminal
This appeared in my inbox this morning from a ministry in Israel that we are supporting:
“There are titanic shifts taking place in Washington D.C. Under the watch of President Barack Obama, a flock of Muslim aides and advisors have been welcomed into the White House. They have surely had a strong influence in the Muslim-leaning policies the president has initiated in the last eight years. One might hope the next president, whoever that may be, would not have this heavy bent toward Islam.
Wrong. There is a strong chance there will even be greater Islamic influence impacting the White House with the next administration. Why? Because although the New York Times doesn’t know this, nor does CNN, ABC or NBC, Islamists have a single ultimate goal, an all-consuming and focused mission to the world – to conquer all nations for Allah and to establish his Sharia law.
Devout Muslims deeply believe they will bring world peace to the globe by converting the entire human race to Islam. Their explicit mission can be found in thousands, no hundreds of thousands of documents. In countless video clips you can witness Islamic clerics, authors and scholars preaching their gospel. From the mouths of multiplied hundreds of Jihadist militias, gangs and armies, they promise terror and death to the infidels – all who refuse to convert to Islam.”
The article is headed by a pic of Hillary Clinton in discussion with her Islamic aide.
Read more at: http://www.maozisrael.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=11531#1
The end is near…
Truly– and thank you Don for sharing, I will in turn pass this on — mainstream Christianity– those LAISSEZ-FAIRE which seem to be in the majority, will only finally remove the scales from their eyes when this is all much too late
I encourage all to fully read the article. It is scary truth. We can no longer sit back and see our once great country destroyed from within.
Amen
It is so sad that we have taken God out of our school districts. We need God back in our schools and in our countries! We need to pray for this so much ! Thank you for sharing !
You are right, we need to pray, and pray earnestly for our Nation and its woefully inept leadership
What a sad, sad state of affairs this once great nation that honored God and enjoyed His never-ending blessings has come to!!! đŸ˜¦ đŸ˜¦ đŸ˜¦