Posted on 04/22/2004 6:49:51 AM PDT by missyme
BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA – Mark Austin is a 17-year-old junior at Watauga High School, active in his community, and working to get his Eagle Scout award from a local Scout troop where he has served as troop chaplain and senior patrol leader. Now Mark is suspended for standing up for his Christian faith.
When Mark heard that the homosexual Day of Silence was coming to Watauga High School on Wednesday, April 21, he decided to counter the propaganda of the homosexual agenda with the truth of God's Word.
Mark designed a T-shirt with the words, "Homosexuality is sin (Leviticus 18:22)," "Hell is REAL (Revelation 21:8)," and "Jesus is the Answer! (Romans 10:9-10)" on the front. The back read, "Shout for Joy!" (Psalm 132:9). He wore the shirt to school Wednesday as a protest of the Homosexual Day of Silence in which homosexual and pro-homosexual students were allowed by the Watauga administration to take a vow of silence in recognition of the "silence" imposed on sexual minorities.
Mark estimates that about 30 Watauga students participated in the Day of Silence, and Watauga High School is listed on the Day of Silence website as an official participant. The Watauga High School administration allowed students to participate in the Day of Silence and to essentially interrupt the school day by their refusal to participate vocally or interact in class activities.
Unlike Day of Silence participants, Mark wore a T-shirt containing a simple visual message based on his beliefs. It was not an interruption of the school day like the Day of Silence was.
But upon spotting Mark's T-shirt while strolling through the hall between classes, Assistant Principal Rebecca Ireland flagged Mark and directed an administrator to escort Mark to the principal's office.
Watauga High School's clothing policy states that, "Clothing or emblems which are offensive to any race, gender or religion shall not be worn." Mark's T-shirt was not directed toward a race, a gender, or a religion. It was a response to the school's Day of Silence celebration that had to do with moral choices. Nevertheless, Principal Gary Childers told Mark that his T-shirt was offensive on the point of gender. Childers gave Mark the option of removing his shirt or facing suspension.
There is a price to be paid in the battle to reclaim America, and Mark Austin is paying that price. "I am not ashamed of what I did today," he told me, just hours after his principal sent him home on suspension.
If the Day of Silence demonstration was protected speech, so too, Mark's T-shirt should have been. As for violating the school clothing policy, Mark says it's a no-brainer, "Last I checked, homosexual was not a third gender. I for one am a male, and I'm certainly not trying to bash my own gender either."
Interestingly, Mark points out that many students at Watauga High School violate the school clothing policy every day and do not face consequences. From my own experience as a public school graduate, midriff on girls, hats on boys, gang clothing and other dress code violations were commonplace habits that routinely went ignored by high-school administrators.
Of course, the issue is larger than Mark Austin's suspension slip now on file in his school record. "This is not just an attack on me," he told me, "it's an attack on America's family, from a religiously fueled school system of secular humanism, which by the way offends Bible-believing Christians with its evolutionary propaganda and anti-Christian bigotry. The homosexuals can have their Day of Silence, but Christians are really the ones that are denied the right to even speak. We're silenced in the face of public affairs, being labeled as bigoted, homophobic, intolerant, mean and fundamentalists, just to name a few."
Mark is so correct. Homosexuals are not being silenced. The fact is that the one group of Americans that is the most vocal of all groups these days is the radical homosexual movement. It has secured the amendment of most of America's major non-discrimination codes to include "sexual orientation." It has invaded our Boy Scout troops and seeks to destroy the Scout Oath and Law. It is working hard right now to undermine the sacred institution of marriage by changing our nation's laws to allow homosexuals to wed.
Homosexuals are not silenced, but Christians are. And the problem is, we've chosen to be silenced. "I'm deeply saddened that the Christians as a majority, didn't say one word about this issue today, nor did any action to stand against it." The Day of Silence came and went at 3,000 schools in America, and we were silent. But it's not too late to stand with Mark Austin.
Carolyn
http://www.wataugademocrat.com/
And most of the have their children there (in a public school) voluntarily.
I was unaware that homosexuality was a gender.
But, here's what the American Heritage Dictionary (as per a Yahoo search) has to say. On this basis, homosexuality would seem to be interpretable as a gender.
NOUN: 1. Grammar
a. A grammatical category used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.
b. One category of such a set.
c. The classification of a word or grammatical form in such a category.
d. The distinguishing form or forms used.
2. Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture.
3a. The condition of being female or male; sex.
b. Females or males considered as a group: expressions used by one gender.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English gendre, from Old French, kind, gender, from Latin genus, gener-. See gen- in Appendix I.
USAGE NOTE: Traditionally, gender has been used primarily to refer to the grammatical categories of “masculine,” “feminine,” and “neuter,” but in recent years the word has become well established in its use to refer to sex-based categories, as in phrases such as gender gap and
the politics of gender. This usage is supported by the practice of many anthropologists, who reserve sex for reference to biological categories, while using gender to refer to social or cultural categories. According to this rule, one would say The effectiveness of the medication appears to depend on the sex (not gender) of the patient, but In peasant societies, gender (not sex) roles are likely to be more clearly defined. This distinction is useful in principle, but it is by no means widely observed, and considerable variation in usage occurs at all levels.
Being labeled "bigoted, homophobic, intolerant, mean and fundamentalists" on this issue is worth every ounce of the price if the truth of the impending judgement is declared.
BTW, GOOGLE has a headliner with your catch on it!
Hope y'all did well!
You cut to the heart of this in a single stroke.
Seems like this would be a perfect case for the ACLJ (Jay Sekelow).
When Mark heard that the homosexual Day of Silence was coming to Watauga High School on Wednesday, April 21, he decided to counter the propaganda of the homosexual agenda with the truth of God's Word.
Next year, organize a "Truth Without Interruption Day" event for your school.
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