The Christians Are Coming!

[KnightofChrist]

[img]http://www.faithmouse.com/catholic550.jpg[/img]

[url="http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/4/5/153607.shtml?s=ic"]N.J. School Portrays Christians as Terrorists[/url]


A New Jersey high school has sparked outrage by staging a mock school shooting and hostage drama – with right-wing religious fundamentalists as the gunmen.

In late March, the Burlington Township High School – in an effort to prepare students for a real-life crisis – staged the mock attack, with two police detectives portraying angry Christian men armed with handguns. They entered the school with force, pretended to gun down students in the hallways, then took 10 students hostage and barricaded themselves in the school’s media center.

The fake gunmen were described as "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the ‘New Crusaders’ who don’t believe in the separation of church and state.”

The men were purportedly seeking revenge because the daughter of one of them had been expelled for praying before class.

Before the exercise, Superintendent Chris Manno said that students and teachers needed "to practice under conditions as real as possible . . . in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they’re as effective as possible,” according to the American Center for Law & Justice.

The ACLJ is a public interest law firm that seeks to protect the constitutional rights of citizens, particularly in regard to religion.

Bob Pawson, National Coordinator of the Scriptures in Schools Project and a public school teacher in Trenton, called the exercise a "grotesque scenario saturated with Christian-bashing prejudice and bigotry, a scenario which could never possibly occur.

"Because, as all Burlington school officials know full well, it is perfectly legal for any student or staff member to pray in a public school,” Pawson wrote for WDC Media News. "They know that no student can ever be expelled for praying before class.”


In a letter to Superintendent Manno, the ACLJ declared: "Many Christian students, parents, and members of the community were stunned and appalled by the school’s mockery of their religious beliefs . . .

"It is both inappropriate and unconstitutional for a public school to single out one religious group for negative, disparaging treatment. We demand an official apology by the Burlington Township School District.”

[alicemary]

We are talking NJ here. Strange, hardly. The unexpected is the norm there. And hey, don't yell at me, I am South Jersey through and through.

[1337 k4th0l1x0r]

Man, I wish I could have been a student there. I would have laughed first and then jokingly ask to join there group.

[Socrates]

Sigh . . .

Silly, but sadly typical of the anti-Christian propaganda currently fashionable in p.c. liberal circles. Simply more pushing of the absurd, but now oft-repeated liberal fantasy that "right-wing Christians" are somehow inherently dangerous and prone to violence, or that American "conservative Christians" are just the same as Islamic jihadists. It's like they think if they can repeat the lie long enough, it will be accepted as truth.

I'm sure the actual percentage of violent crime perpetuated by "right-wing Christians" is extremely low, if one studies the statistics. Christian-motivated violence and terrorism exists mostly in hollywood fiction.

And if this exercise was for the purpose of preparing students for a real-life crisis, what's with all the "Christian" stuff? Why not have the crazed gunmen not have any particular religious agenda?

I'll bet one thing, that if they had decided to make the "terrorists" fanatic Muslims (which would actually be a much more likely scenario, if "realism" truly was their goal), the school would have never let the exercise get off the ground, and there would be much screaming about "bigotry" and "perpetuating negative stereotypes"!

Edited April 12, 2007 by Socrates

[Didymus]

this is such a load of trash. Like always, nothing will be done and the school will get by, cuz its only christians that they're bashing

[Didymus]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1239141' date='Apr 11 2007, 08:22 PM']I'll bet one thing, that if they had decided to make the "terrorists" fanatic Muslims (which would actually be a much more likely scenario, if "realism" truly was their goal), the school would have never let the exercise get off the ground, and there would be much screaming about "bigotry" and "perpetuating negative stereotypes"![/quote]

yeah, I was thinking that too.

[BG45]

While I do find this to be more of the unfortunate same when it comes to Christian bashing becoming more and more acceptable in our society, we have to remember there are self described "Christians" who have committed acts of terrorism unfortunately. Other than that minor point...I'd probably be laughing my way through this drill if it had happened in my high school a few years back.

[Socrates]

[quote name='BG45' post='1239350' date='Apr 11 2007, 10:00 PM']While I do find this to be more of the unfortunate same when it comes to Christian bashing becoming more and more acceptable in our society, we have to remember there are self described "Christians" who have committed acts of terrorism unfortunately.[/quote]
Usually only in situations where there is already much violence on political or ethnic grounds (e.g. Catholic/Protestant violence in Northern Ireland). Hardly ever do Christians commit terrorist acts just because they're Christian. The idea that "conservative" Christianity tends to lend itself to violence is unfounded in reality. (Though this idea is actually "seriously" argued by quite a few secularist liberals.)

[BG45]

Agreed. Most people who call themselves Christian and perpetrate the ideas of using terrorism as a weapon are people that I don't tend to associate with Christianity. However, being new, I'm uncertain how far I could go in describing by what I mean about that, so I'll just give a couple of examples of self-described Christians who seem to advocate terrorism: The Christian Identity movement. The Army of God.

I don't think that conservative Christianity lends itself unto terrorism; for one thing there would be a lot more of it going on. Though in Ireland, at least from news reports, it seems that people are setting aside a good bit of the political violence and trying to build a better future for their children, something to truly be grateful for.

[RezaMikhaeil]

Does anyone know exactly what school this is?

[BG45]

[quote name='RezaLemmyng' post='1239367' date='Apr 12 2007, 12:21 AM']Does anyone know exactly what school this is?[/quote]

Burlington Township High School according to the article...somewhere in southern to middle of NJ I believe, but might want to ask someone from NJ. Been a while since I've been there.

[KnightofChrist]

If youre wondering why the 1st picture doesnt match the story, its because I copied the wrong url the one I copied changes day by day, any ways thanks Dan

[img]http://www.faithmouse.com/cartoon584.jpg[/img]


I got mentioned on [url="http://faithmouse.blogspot.com/"]Faithmouse[/url] y'all thats pretty sweet, oh and phatmass too, which is also pretty sweet.

Edited April 12, 2007 by KnightofChrist

[Mercy me]

This Christian bashing does get tiresome. In this effort to be politically correct it seems that the only ones that it is alright to bash are Christians.

[homeschoolmom]

As an aside and not to get off topic... the idea of doing these terrorism drills, is, imho, really, really bad. Educating the staff on procedures is fine (though I doubt it's very effective, or needed), but to spend school time in mock situations like this is rediculous. I have a friend who is preparing to go overseas as a missionary and they did mock hostage situations-- it was scary. It's not necessary for children (who will likely NEVER be in such a situation) to undergo the fear that their school might be taken over by terrorists-- of any kind.

[BG45]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1239753' date='Apr 12 2007, 09:13 AM']As an aside and not to get off topic... the idea of doing these terrorism drills, is, imho, really, really bad. Educating the staff on procedures is fine (though I doubt it's very effective, or needed), but to spend school time in mock situations like this is rediculous. I have a friend who is preparing to go overseas as a missionary and they did mock hostage situations-- it was scary. It's not necessary for children (who will likely NEVER be in such a situation) to undergo the fear that their school might be taken over by terrorists-- of any kind.[/quote]

Really have to agree. In my high school we had school shooting drills (albeit this was in the years following Columbine) and the first few scared people. However, after those, we realized we were probably never going to use them. After a while, we never took the drills seriously, and it all became more of a "Well we can't do anything but talk and play cards" thing. There's not much point in staging drills with students, at least in my humble opinion.