Loading ...‘Freedom from religion’ trumps freedom of speech
flockwoodThe cheerleaders were waving banners bearing Scripture verses. Then somebody complained. And school officials, fearful of lawsuits, stepped in.
For more, click here.
This is the constitutional amendment, by the way, that unambiguously guarantees freedom of speech. To see the constitutional amendment that unambiguously prohibits cheerleaders from sharing their faith, click here.
September 29th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
“Mr. Scott said the ban prompted a rally tonight in support of the cheerleaders outside the Chick-fil-A restaurant on Battlefield Parkway so people can show their support for the cheerleaders and their signs.” Chick-fil-A indeed; they have a policy of not being open on Sundays because it is apparently a sin in Georgia to eat chicken (or at least a chicken samich) on Sunday.
It always amazes me that people will turn out for a protest (at a Chick-fil-A no less) for an ultimately meaningless thing like this, when they DON’T protest the fact that our public school systems put more emphasis on things like cheerleading (which is what got this thing started) and sports than they do on academics, leading to the graduation each year of students who can barely read and write. Maybe if these folks had ever read anything other than the Bible verses on their signs, they’d be more worried about an education and less worried about trying to put Bible verses on anything that doesn’t move.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Caleb,
Chik-fil-A gives its employees Sundays off so that they are free to worship and spend time with their families. Now being a lawyer and all, I know it might be difficult for you to image working fast-food jobs that can often keep you working all day Sundays. Having spent my undergraduate years frying fish, I knew many people who struggled to get quality time with their families- and struggled to attend church. In our 24/7, go, go, go world, I greatly appreciate the plight of the low wage workers who rarely work a 9-5 weekday shift, and even that of the managers who typically work 50+ hours a week.
Having lived in two largely secular and “socialized” European nations where most businesses are closed on Sundays, I really wish we’d more willing to take a day from our endless consumption off. Motivated by faith, concern for workers, or whatever, I am glad at least a few successful businesses choose to close down on one day a week.
September 29th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
UKLutheran, that’s a good point about Chik-fil-A giving its employees the option of taking their religious day off, but my point was that they choose the Christian day of rest, not the Sabbath itself (Saturday), observed by the Jews and Seventh Day Adventists, or Friday, the day of rest observed by the muslims. I take the point, of course, that there are few -Jews, Muslims, or Seventh Day Adventists in Georgia, but Chik-fil-A is a national chain now.
About work schedules, yes, I sympathize and think people should be given time off to worship, but trust me, the average lawyer, doctor, or professional person in general works far more hours per week, and far more on the weekend, than the average blue collar worker. Of course, professionals get paid better, which is presumably the draw.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Caleb, how can you be sure that the day we call the Sabbath is the same day the early Christians called the Sabbath?
September 30th, 2009 at 11:08 am
perplexed:
Depends on which early Christians you have in mind. The earliest Christians kept the Jewish sabbath.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
That’s right, Niall and Perplexed. The actual Sabbath, even for Christians, is Saturday. The early church decided to substitute Sunday as “the Lord’s Day” on the theory that this is the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, but actually because this was the day on which people in the Roman Empire worshiped the sun, which is why it’s called Sun-day to this day.
In AD 321, the Emperor Constantine decreed that Sunday would become the Roman “day of rest,” and in 363 AD the early church (now the dominant religion in the Roman Empire) forbade the use of Saturday as the “day of rest.”
So, Perplexed, we have a pretty good historical trail about the change in days of rest. BTW, that’s also why we celebrate Jesus’ birth in December, even though no one knows when he was born; the Romans celebrated a festival on the winter solstice which was morphed into Christmas.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
If you factor in the changes in time since the conception of the earth, there really is no way to determine what day is truly the Sabbath. Historical records have a beginning and the time before record keeping came into play leaves a large hole in determining what day was which. On the flip side of that, what would it matter to God which day would be the Sabbath as long as you acknowledge Him.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am
Well, perplexed, your second point is the one that I’ve always pondered. There has been discussion on this board about churches substituting Saturday or Monday services for people who don’t want to worship on Sunday, and I’ve always figured that God is probably pretty glad anytime people worship him, no matter the day. However, one thing I always notice about conservative Christians is that no rule is either too small or too silly to follow, and you’ll get emotional outbursts about how great Sundays used to be before the blue laws were repealed.