Posted on 10/04/2014 4:28:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
The folks in the drama department at Cape Fear Community College are just fine with staging productions about rape and incest. But when it comes to staging a show with Christian themes – well, that’s a problem.
So says Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious advocacy group that claims the school’s drama instructor ordered a student to “dumb down” the religious nature of an upcoming production because it might offend and anger people.
ADF attorney Travis Barham wrote a letter to the college alleging that drama instructor Jack Landry told Justin Graves he “could not support the overtly Christian show” because the Wilmington, N.C., college is a publicly-funded institution.
Justin is a 17-year-old homeschooler who has dual enrollment at the college. A Christian and an up-and-coming magician, he proposed a faith-based magic show featuring skits and illusions that “illustrate a life changed by Christ.”
“So you ordered him to minimize or ‘dumb down’ the religious content until it was not ‘obvious,’” Barham wrote in the complaint.
“You explained that the content could anger taxpayers, prompting lawsuits; that you did not want anyone to feel ‘offended,’ (although you apparently had no such concerns when the drama club sponsored productions that included rape and incest this year); and that this production would violate the First Amendment if it included religious content.”
A college spokesman confirmed that the school received a copy of the complaint.
He declined to comment and refused to let me speak with the drama instructor.
Justin is a 17-year-old homeschooler who has dual enrollment at the college. A Christian and an up-and-coming magician, he proposed a faith-based magic show featuring skits and illusions that “illustrate a life changed by Christ.”
His fellow drama club students loved the idea and unanimously approved the project. But Landry, who is also the school’s drama club adviser, overruled the students, ADF claims.
They said their client, Justin, was told the show could not go forward unless the Christian themes were dumbed down.
“It’s not the adviser’s job to dictate what a student can and can’t say in his own production,” Barham told me. “Universities seem to think they have to go on this quest to purge their campuses of all things religious.”
Justin told me he was surprised and disappointed by what happened.
“I’ve been homeschooled for most of my academic career,” he said. “But I love to get different viewpoints and ideas and discuss them with people. I thought college would be that sort of place.”
Sadly, many colleges and universities around the nation are cracking down on religious liberty. Just ask the folks at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. The prominent college ministry was de-recognized by the California State University system because they refused to sign a non-discrimination document that would have put them in conflict with their religious beliefs.
Perhaps someone at Cape Fear Community College could explain specifically how Justin should “dumb down” his production.
“My faith is my life,” Justin told me. “To me, you can’t get one or the other. I can’t dumb down knowing what my God did for me.”
I’m still trying to figure out how the college can justify sponsoring plays with themes about rape and incest while banning the Christian production. Graves said the other stage productions are “House of Yes,” which includes a theme about incest, and “Tape,” a show has a theme about rape.
“It’s absurd to say that a Christian message is somehow offensive if you are allowing all this other content to be portrayed,” Barham said.
Clearly, he said, the censorship of Justin’s production is a violation of the First Amendment.
“The Supreme Court has clearly indicated that public universities cannot single out religious speech for special, detrimental treatment,” Barham wrote in the complaint letter. “Indeed, when the government targets not subject matter, but particular views taken by speakers on a subject, the violation of the first Amendment is all the more blatant.”
Barham has given Cape Fear Community College until Oct. 10 to reverse its decision and allow Justin to proceed with his show.
So consider this the end of Act I. I’ll let you know what happens after intermission.
Don’t want to “anger and offend” anyone - except Christians. Anger and offend them all you want.
What has happened to America???
““I’ve been homeschooled for most of my academic career,” he said. “But I love to get different viewpoints and ideas and discuss them with people. I thought college would be that sort of place.””
Silly boy. Colleges are the last place you will find different viewpoints and ideas.
evil is here to stay until the return of Jesus Christ.
“...to purge their campuses of all things religious...”
Nah.
It should read, “...to purge their campuses of all things Christian.”
The enemy of Progressive Revolutionaries is Christianity and they will hide behind the first amendment in order to eliminate it.
IMHO
Note bene that this happens all the time. Why would adult college students need an advisor for their club? It’s all about control.
Harper College in Palatine had a student government that they claimed “ran things”. When they voted down a Gay, Lesbian, Straight Club they were forced to reconsider it. They voted it down again at which point the advisor took over and with the help of the administration forced the club through.
It’s not teaching. It’s indoctrinating.
Find another college Justin, the one you are at is run by communists.
All positions within academia are political positions. To become the boss of a drama department, you have to walk the walk, talk the talk, wear your kneepads, and poison the water of your competition (including your comrades). Imagine this scene at a low-rent community college. So imagine the character of these people.
It’s not teaching. It’s indoctrinating
A nation turns from God, persecutes His people and then is shocked when some ugly plague arrives on our shores.
Vladimir Lenin’s 1917 nine item, “Communist Rules for Revolution.”
Corrupting the young and getting them away from religion is rule #1.
In May 1919, at Dusseldorf, Germany, the Allied Forces obtained a copy of the “Communist Rules for Revolution.” Nearly 95 years later, they have nearly succeeded in every area.
1. Corrupt the young: get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial; destroy their ruggedness.
2. Get control of all means of publicity. Get peoples’ minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books, plays and other trivialities.
3. Divide people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
4. Destroy the peoples’ faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule and . (speak against, condemnatory utterances)
5. Always preach ;true democracy; but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
6. By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit; produce fear of inflation, rising prices and general discontent.
7. Foment strikes in vital industries; encourage civil disorders and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward these disorders.
8. By special argument cause a breakdown of the old moral virtues; honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness.
9. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext with a view of confiscation of them and leaving the population helpless.
Don’t want to “anger and offend” anyone - except Christians.
It’s all about the name of JESUS. Every knee must bow to the name of JESUS.
Christianity is JESUS.
“Vladimir Lenin’s ‘Communist Rules for Revolution’”
How amazing that this took place in America, with libraries everywhere, an open and free press and the free and open exchange of ideas.
They sure did a good job in subverting everything they could, turning everything free into tools for indoctrination, imtimidation and strict compliance to the rules of the revolution.
How absolutely amazing.
IMHO
Amazing.
If he said he was going to do a show on muslime ROP themes it would be okay. Well, unless he was going to hit on “actual” mulime ROP themes like pedophile, slavery and beheading.
The election of Obama in 2008 was the start of a communist revolution that is still going strong. Some people just don’t realize it yet.
The communists won the Cold War by infiltrating the West. Some people don’t realize that yet, either.
Looks like the Free Speech mavens have undercut their entire philosophy.
I’m sorry, but that reads like one of those FWD:FWD:FWD....emails.
While I don’t doubt that those could be the tactics, I do doubt that the author would have couched them in those terms.
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