Posted on 04/11/2012 11:02:40 AM PDT by rawhide
In an incredibly bizarre situation that appears headed for a legal challenge, a Dallas-area volleyball coach and science teacher was fired by the Christian school at which she worked for becoming pregnant before being married.
As first reported by Dallas Fort Worth network WFAA, Rockwall(Texas) Heritage Christian Academy volleyball coach and science teacher Cathy Samford was fired during the fall semester after she became pregnant out of wedlock. Samford had led the volleyball program for three years and had been named the school's coach of the year once during that span.
Still, that couldn't help save her job when she first admitted her pregnancy during the fall semester, with the school terminating her based on a violation of her contract's morals clause because it was determined her pregnancy meant she was could not serve as "a Christian role model."
"I looked it up and thought, 'They can't do this,'" the 29-year-old Samford told WFAA. "We all have different views and interpretations. It's not necessarily the Christian thing to do to throw somebody aside because of those."
While Samford and her lawyer, Colin Walsh, are working toward filing a discrimination suit against the school, their case may be complicated by the fact that Heritage Christian Academy is a private school, and recent Supreme Court decisions have defended the right of Christian schools to exert more influence on their hirings and firings because they consider teachers to be "ministers in the classroom."
"The Supreme Court, as a matter of fact in the last month, has ruled 9-to-0 that a Christian school does have that right, because this is a ministry, so we have the right to have standards of conduct," Heritage Christian Academy headmaster Dr. Ron Taylor, who acknowledged that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had contacted the school, told WFAA.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Oh, and it is not an 'incredibly bizarre situation', as the biased reporter wrote.
Searching on ‘pregnancy’ brought up no hits, so I posted it. Oh well, sorry I guess?
More like “In an unsurprising situation”...
Actually it is not duplicate.
No, my bad. If I could delete my own posts I would have done so. Different source, additional information.
I used to love reading the old National Review and The New Republic’s articles on the same events. Between the two you could get the whole picture.
Contract, duh. She’s got no case. Seems not too bright.
I’m a little surprised a woman sports coach is even heterosexual, actually.
I think it is possible to agree with the school AND to feel sorry for her.
Yes, this Christian school has the right and obligation to uphold a moral standard.
But we can also have mercy for people who make mistakes.
.... also, I am glad she decided to keep her baby.
She could have taken the easy way out and done the ‘convenient’ thing but didn’t.
The congregation can support her as a charity case, if necessary, without allowing her to violate her contract and continue as a model for impressionable children.
And can we stop saying “make mistakes” when we mean “sin”? There’s a difference.
“But we can also have mercy for people who make mistakes.”
We could and should. In the interview snippet she seemed more bewildered than anything else though, and conveyed a very nonchalant “that’s my morality” attitude about the event. If that is a fair reflection of her attitude, the school may have had little or nothing to work with. Mercy follows repentance as I understand it.
Agree that at least she is following the right course with her child. That is a start.
I was referring to “mistake” as in the Greek definition of “sin.”
- “a missing of the mark” (Vine Expository Dictionary Of NT Words)
Yes, she made a mistake. Yes, she “missed the mark.”
And yes, I agree with you that local Christians in the church or school could (and even should imo) help this woman who is now without a job and without health insurance.
Additionally, if Christian brothers and sisters don’t help support her financially, taxpayers probably will have to.
You may be correct. I did not see the interview.
But I do know that many people, when sins are uncovered, go through a period of denying responsibility and/or blaming others. Hopefully, this attitude is temporary.
If you are teaching in a Christian school, you are required to model Christian behavior for your students. This woman didn’t, and she deserved her firing.
She should be teaching in government schools where there are no moral requirements.
She violated a Christian moral standard that was a condition of her employment.
Does "incredibly bizarre situation" now mean "easily understood chain of action and consequences"?
Not a duplicate.
This is the fallacy of semantic obsolescence (adopting an obsolete meaning for current (NT)). "hamartia" (v. "hamartanein") may been used in some ancient contexts to mean "miss the mark". However, in the Bible it means "transgressing the law" (anomia). See 1 John 3:4 -- "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
Read D.A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, chapter 1, for common word fallacies. It's not perfect, but it is approachable by most.
Here are some related links:
Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek
Chuck Vine's.
Understood and corrected at 6
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.