Posted on 04/30/2005 8:39:23 PM PDT by caseinpoint
This is the first vanity I have posted. I need some help from some of you really clever thinkers there.
We have an active Gay Straight Alliance Club which has succeeded in pressuring a high school math teacher to resign because of a private comment that teacher made at school regarding his views of homosexuality. I have made my views known in a column I write for our local paper that teachers ought not be gagged, especially in private conversations that either were accidentally overhead or deliberately set up by an activist (I'm not sure which happened). Anyway, the damage is done and the kids are feeling mighty proud of themselves for destroying a teacher's career. They are now gunning for others and pressuring all teachers to put up gay support signs in their rooms.
That being the case, we now have received word that the "Reverend" Fred Phelps' church is planning to drop by our community on the day of our graduations at the two high schools and demonstrate against the gay agenda. For those who don't know this "gentleman", his church likes to demonstrate with signs like "God hates all fags" and "Fags are going to hell" in-your-face protests.
The kids at our schools don't need this kind of notoriety. Most of them are just trying to get through school, keep their heads down, and enjoy their graduations.
I am opposed to the gay agenda and we in the community are fighting against this bullying by the Gay Straight Alliance but someone like Phelps will only hurt our cause. So what I am asking is some ideas for counter signs to demonstrate against Phelps without supporting homosexuality. I can think of serious ones, but I am hoping some of you can come up with some clever ones that will make people laugh. I think we need a light-hearted approach on this serious subject and I am lousy at comedy--at least the intentional kind.
Any ideas would be appreciated. I am hoping to organize a group of people to display counter signs to Phelps and let him know that his hatred isn't the answer. Yet I don't want to be construed as in support of the homosexuals.
In advance, thanks much.
"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
--John 3:17.
Probably the best retort to Phelps.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
The Bible is not to be taken in pieces.
Is speaking against sin and protesting against it the same? I am saying that the correct solution is to talk to the preist about protesting the homosexuals. If he does not listen is it still your job to protest the preist? I say, talk to the homosexuals about sin, if they do not accept it, let God judge, you have done your job.
Mutual destruction can be VERY entertaining, and instructive, in some circumstances. The 'surviving' kids will have learned (if they're not terminally stupid) that:
not everyone agrees with them,
they have no right to demand that everyone agree with them,
the world can be a bad place when you don't keep your mouth shut,
that all actions have consequences (and if you haven't completely thought things through you deserve what you get - in spades),
they can be ruined just as easily as the poor guy THEY ruined,
and many, many more things equally useful in getting through life.
I'm a Christian, but I don't believe it is a Christian responsibility to judge and seek restitution. If you believe God is in control, why won't you let him control? What is your job as a Christian, and what is His job as God?
Oh gee, guess you shoulda used that one before they ran off the teacher...
I agree. But I didn't have time. The information came up in a newspaper article about a school board meeting. I chanced to talk with someone a couple days later who was at the closed board meeting and she let me know the facts behind it (the newspaper was entirely sympathetic to the gay kids and very sketchy on the details).
I was scheduled to publish my column three days later so I wrote it defending the teacher and questioning the substance of the kids' complaints. But on the same day the column appeared, the paper reported the teacher had resigned effective at the end of the school year in June. He had been under fire for another matter: he had dared threaten 40% of his math class with flunking if they didn't get with the program. A dad had complained about him in the meeting before that. I have a feeling we are losing a terrific teacher here.
Frankly, my impression is that the school board supported the teacher. While they might have made some public statement about warning the teacher, I believed they were going to defend him. I think he just got fed up with the hassle and quit voluntarily.
We live near the Bay Area, in an exurb where parents take off every morning at 4:30 am and come home about 8 pm. Their kids are on their own with their fancy cars and designer clothes and almost total parental neglect. There are a lot of mixed up kids in the school, which is why I removed my own from the public schools here a couple of years ago. My daughter graduates this year but not from these schools so her own ceremony isn't threatened.
The problem is the GSA kids made a big stink out of the matter and national news picked it up. So Reverend Phelps' church has gone on record that they intend to protest at the graduations. They are ugly protestors.
I do not feel sympathetic to the kids. Just the opposite, and I am taking flack for it. But I am concerned that if civilized people don't speak up, the publicity will go entirely towards the Phelps as representatives of the local Christians. Like Zell Miller said in his new book, "there are times when silence isn't golden, it's yellow." I feel that Phelps in his way represents as big a threat to Christians as homosexuals. Phelps will get us gagged entirely.
So thanks all for your responses. I will carefully consider them all.
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
Very interesting vanity, by a student who attends the school at which the teacher just resigned, apparently for the hideous crime of making a non-"gay" supportive statement.
Student wants input on how to counter Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps, who may show up, naturally making conservatives look bad.
Phelps is either psychotic or a leftist homosexual supporting plant; but I repeat myself.
Let me know if you want on/off this ping.
Note: I don't know anything about this student, nor have I checked "in forum"...just to let you all know.
This is the very last ping'o'the night!
A similar protest happened on UCR and I cannot say I approved of either side. The GSA chose to use bible verses out of context (because they chose to omit the verses that condemn homosexuality). However, I'm quick to ask "What would Jesus Do?" in this situation. I feel that he would share the Bible in its context to the homosexuals, not protest them with bullhorns and signs of hatred. It is a touchy subject, but I'm sure all of us will keep you in our prayers.
Just so you know. I am not a student at the school. I am a mother of two teens and a member of FR for a year or so. I am also a citizen of this town and I have already gone on record opposing the homosexual agenda of the GSA with a column in the newspaper. For starters, I have been ripped in a letter to the editor and had my car keyed (don't know if that was definitely connected but the timing was suspicious). My column appeared a week ago.
I just don't believe Phelps is much better as a representative of civility than the GSA group. Two wrongs don't make a right. My hope is to make it clear that we can oppose the homosexual agenda without being ugly about it. The kids have too much sympathy right now as it is. They will milk this for everything they can and claim that the local Christians supported Phelps' actions. I want to counter that before it happens.
Why don't you just stay home?
The kids are going to claim the locals support Phelps anyway. At least if you stay home, you can respond with "prove it!"
Sad to say, when dealing with a group intoxicated by "righteous indignation," and by that I mean both sides, if they like you there's nothing you can do wrong, and if they dislike you there's nothing you can do right.
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