Christian Students Suspended for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with Bible Verses

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | September 17, 2010

[topher]

Friday September 17, 2010

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Christian Students Suspended for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with Bible Verses

ROSWELL, New Mexico, September 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New Mexico School principal has penalized three Christian students with suspensions for giving fresh Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with Bible verses to each of their teachers, according to the public advocacy group Liberty Counsel.

This school is already named in a pending lawsuit filed by Liberty Counsel on behalf of families and students who were bullied, and one suspended, for exercising their freedom of religion by distributing abstinence wristbands and plastic models of babies at 12 weeks gestation to bring attention to the life of unborn children in the womb.

According to Liberty Counsel, about 25 Christian students in the group, Relentless in Roswell, decided to express appreciation for their teachers by giving them doughnuts. Since the closest Krispy Kreme shop was in Texas, some of them drove almost six hours round trip, stayed overnight, got up at 3:00 a.m. filled their car’s back seat with fresh doughnuts, and got back to school on time to deliver the doughnuts.

But when the doughnuts were passed out, they included a scripture verse as well. For that, one student was immediately sent home, and two others were forced to spend a Saturday morning sitting alone in the classroom for four hours as a punishment.

"Our motives were not rebellious,” Pastor Troy Smothermon said of the Christian youth group, with which his church is affiliated. “If they were, we would have just bought a box of doughnuts down the street. The whole purpose was to encourage those in the school.”

He added, “We are challenging the constitutionality, but our motive here was to love. Faith without works is dead. We want them to know that we love them and that Christ loves them."

The Christian group has also handed out sandwiches, hot chocolate, and candy canes in the past to the student body and faculty. Some also distributed rocks with affirming words like "U are wonderful' painted on one side and "Psalm 139" on the other, as part of their ministry.

However, Liberty Counsel says that things came to a head when Relentless in Roswell decided to hand out plastic models of unborn babies. The incident, they said, ended up saving the life of a student who said she had planned to commit suicide because of the guilt she felt over her abortion. Liberty Counsel says that when she received a model baby with the scripture "you are fearfully and wonderfully made" she cried and prayed with the students.

However students were afterwards pulled out of class and instructed by Principal Ruben Bolaños to cease their "Christian" acts because they had made their point. He is alleged to have said, "I don’t like Christians. All they do is smile at you and then stab you in the back."

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, commented that given conditions in schools today, to suspend the Christian students is an absurdity.

"Some teachers are worried about their students giving them bullets, and this school suspends students over a Bible verse! These students are living their Christian beliefs by showing kindness,” said Staver. “It is outrageous that the Roswell school officials are mean to these students solely because they are hostile to their Christian faith."

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10091712.html

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[Raycpa]

Why is it that our children can’t read a Bible in school,

My kids do all the time.

[Lurker]

We are called to be obedient to authority, even when they are wrong.

You don't know your Bible very well, do you.

I suppose all them Jews who were marched into the gas chambers at Dachau were being "obedient to authority", too.

Frigging idiot....

[rockinqsranch]

Getting down to the nitty gritty of what to do about the direction of America today the answer is simple, but difficult to do, and that is get the effing Left the “H” out of our government, our schools, our lives.

If it’s Left, DemoRAT don’t allow it to win, don’t employ it to teach in our schools, because it is mentally impaired, and will only screw everything up.

[keats5]

And these are the teacher’s entrusted with the task teaching the first Amendment to these kids?

The First Amendment protects the students, not the school!

[Psalm 144]

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

When there is conflict, Caesar is of no consequence.

[Raycpa]

I know my bible well but I am ignorant concerning yours.

[mountn man]

BUT...Their actions are in violation of the laws of this land. The students are rebelling against “authority” who are disobeying the law in the first place.

[gogogodzilla]

How do you get Bible verses onto a doughnut?!?

:-O

[Delta 21]

I was born in Roswell but moved away as a teen. Yep. Its just as screwed up as everyplace else.

I swiped this from here: http://www.roswell-record.com/article/donuts_plot_or_snack091610?id=190678

Roswell Independent School District’s attorney weighed-in on the issue after about 200 members of Church on the Move protested discipline against students who tried to leave doughnuts with religious messages for their teachers. The parishioners spoke to school board members Tuesday during a monthly board meeting.

“This wasn’t just some nice gesture to give the faculty and staff dozens of doughnuts,” said Jerry Walz, the district’s attorney.

“If it would have been, they would have sought approval from the school district and gone through its normal channels,” he said. “(It’s) nothing but a guise to continue to try to promote their lawsuit and the items in their lawsuit.”

The students who face disciplinary actions for the Sept. 3 doughnut incident are part of Church on the Move’s ministry group, Relentless in Roswell, that has filed suit against RISD for allegedly violating students’ constitutional rights during a separate incident.

“Essentially what Relentless students and Church on the Move are trying to do is take over the school and do what they want, how they want, and whenever they want, and the school district is taking the high road here,” Walz said. “They keep missing the fundamental aspect of obtaining approval from appropriate school district personnel before they do these things, and the way that the doughnuts were brought to the school they were done so in, essentially, secrecy.”

Church on the Move officials say its ridiculous to think they tried to keep the event a secret and that the box the doughnuts came in had Relentless in Roswell’s name on it.

“Our goal is not to be rebellious,” said the Rev. Troy Smothermon, the church’s pastor. “Our whole statement is that Christians have civil rights, and that being kind to people should not be something that RISD needs to control.”

Smothermon said he wasn’t aware that they needed to ask permission in order to bring teachers a token of appreciation, citing the longtime tradition of bringing teachers apples. The pastor said he didn’t think the ministry group sought prior approval.

“I don’t believe that we did contact them,” he said. “We didn’t realize that in order to do a kind act towards a teacher was a violation of some kind of school rule.”

However, Walz says the issue of seeking approval has been at the center of the controversy all along. He asserts that some of the 25 students who participated in the doughnut incident likely meant well, but claims there’s an underlying cause for the event.

“I’m sure that there were some well-meaning students ... however, there’s also a significance of them trying to pass out the doughnuts in this manner,” he said. “(Especially) knowing these are some of the very issues in the lawsuit.”

{{....mostly an excerpt}} This "Walz" guy is a real tool.

[Ezekiel]

Passive-aggressive “mitzvah” ping.

(With bonus transfats)

[Greysard]

How do you get Bible verses onto a doughnut?!?

Where there's a will there's a way: silkscreening, for example. There are even edible inks. A good school project, if you ask me. Of course those "teachers" wouldn't know a good project from a hole in the ground.

[topher]

Yes, but things are so badly twisted today. I think the Founding Fathers would definitely have some choice words about some things going on in this country today...

[Joya]

Highlight from the article:

‘Since the closest Krispy Kreme shop was in Texas, some of them drove almost six hours round trip, stayed overnight, got up at 3:00 a.m. filled their car’s back seat with fresh doughnuts, and got back to school on time to deliver the doughnuts.

‘But when the doughnuts were passed out, they included a scripture verse as well. For that, one student was immediately sent home, and two others were forced to spend a Saturday morning sitting alone in the classroom for four hours as a punishment.

‘”Our motives were not rebellious,” Pastor Troy Smothermon said of the Christian youth group, with which his church is affiliated. “If they were, we would have just bought a box of doughnuts down the street. The whole purpose was to encourage those in the school.”

‘He added, “We are challenging the constitutionality, but our motive here was to love. Faith without works is dead. We want them to know that we love them and that Christ loves them.”

‘The Christian group has also handed out sandwiches, hot chocolate, and candy canes in the past to the student body and faculty. Some also distributed rocks with affirming words like “U are wonderful’ painted on one side and “Psalm 139” on the other, as part of their ministry.

‘However, Liberty Counsel says that things came to a head when Relentless in Roswell decided to hand out plastic models of unborn babies. The incident, they said, ended up saving the life of a student who said she had planned to commit suicide because of the guilt she felt over her abortion. Liberty Counsel says that when she received a model baby with the scripture “you are fearfully and wonderfully made” she cried and prayed with the students.’

END OF HIGHLIGHTS

[topher]

I remember reading a little about that article...

What hypocrisy in our country today!

[topher]

One big slide was the removal of prayer from Public Schools.

We had a public school principal, when that was mandated that prayers be ceased, refused to. I imagine eventually the school and he was forced to stop prayers.

But he ignored the SOBs on SCOTUS back at that time (late 60s, early 70s).

Eventually, he was forced to stop, but there are people who will defy unjust laws/decisions until they are forced...

He was one of them...

[Joya]

Thanks for the ping. I assume the Bible verses were on slips of paper attached to the boxes of doughnuts. ???

[topher]

You wrote:

It’s okay for students to worship allah, because in his guise of Satan, he is the same god liberals worship. It’s a sick world.

Agreed. But we must try to change it. Ronald Reagan did. Abraham Lincoln did. Winston Churchill did...

We need folks like these people as our role models for us and for the children...

[topher]

I guess I am a bad boy... ...for using /sarc ...

[topher]

Question:

WWJD is a very good thing for people to do: think about What would Jesus do

But should there also be:

WWRRD

This would stand for What would Ronald Reagan do

This is not meant to put Ronald Reagan on the same level of Jesus, but rather have a role model for people to use in terms of thinking about political matters.

Jesus would obviously call us to love the offending people and help those persecuted, as well as work to convert the non-believers

Ronald Reagan, the great communicator, would open a dialogue and try to get the people in the school to be open-minded and open to the idea that this country does have a Constitution...

I guess some of the folks that run the school need to be educated much more than the students... Truly sad...

[Kevmo]

Another title I thought I would never see in my lifetime. This is happening with increasing frequency.