A few kids in Gainesville, Florida (including a 10-year-old fifth-grader) were kicked out of their public schools for wearing the following shirt:
It seems obvious why this type of shirt would not be allowed in schools — It’s offensive speech and it would disrupt classes. (I wonder how many Muslim students go to these schools…)
That doesn’t seem to bother Wayne Sapp, senior pastor at Dove World Outreach Center. He got the shirts printed up:
Wayne Sapp said he believed the school district’s dress code allowed too much room for subjectivity when principals and school administrators determine what is offensive or distracting clothing.
He added that his children decided it was time to “stand up for what they believe instead of saying the rules might not let me do it” and said that society has grown “so tolerant of being tolerant” that free speech is eroding.
Jones said that, to him, spreading the church’s message was “even more important than education itself.”
Leave it to a pastor to knock down real education in favor of superstition.
You have to wonder, though: What would Dove members be saying if other students wore shirts saying, “Christianity is of the devil”?
Turns out someone asked them that very question:
All of the Dove members interviewed said that, while they would not like a student wearing a shirt with an anti-Christian message on it to school, they believed students have the right to do it.
I’m sure they would support and defend those students wholeheartedly…
Or, more likely, they’d act hypocritical and start whining about the anti-Christian hate speech. I’d bet on this option.
The school made the right decision in sending the offending students home.
(Thanks to mudwasp for the link!)
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