Redo the Cranston High School West Banner January 22, 2012

Redo the Cranston High School West Banner

By Hemant Mehta
January 22, 2012

Tired of seeing that Cranston High School West banner?

Well, Richard Brum created a Banner generator so you can make your own version!

It’s almost too easy to use…

What can you do with it? 🙂

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  • I tried using the Koran…. doesn’t work…

    بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
     
    2 الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
     
    3 الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
     
    4 مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ
     
    5 إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
     
    6 اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ
     
    7 صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ

  • george.w

    A Muslim version. For Christians who have difficulty imagining what it’s like to be an outsider. 

  • This is one way to look at it.

  • JohnJay

    It can easily be changed into a secular statement.  Change “School Prayer” to “Our School”.  Remove “Our heavenly Father”…  then just start with:

    “May our school  inspire in us each day the desire to…”

    Then leave off the Amen.

  • Here’s a good one on that from an unlikely source 
    http://www.wnd.com/2005/10/32839/

  • “Be Excellent To Each Other, And Party On, Dudes.”

  • John Michael Strubhart

    Anyone who says that prayer earnestly has ducked personal responsibility by begging an invisible friend to help do all those nice things.  It takes much more courage and character to find it within oneself to do all those nice things.  

  • I’m shocked Gary didn’t try to sue the Air Force for pulling him out of his bubble and force him to acknowledge his Christian privilege. I would think most Americans in that situation would use it as an opportunity to proclaim oppression of Christianity.

  • The sentiments in the prayer would have made an excellent credo for anyone to follow, if it had simply been presented as a personal commitment rather than an appeal to have these virtues instilled from an outside supernatural source. Essentially cutting off the top and bottom of the prayer would have solved the problem.

    Unfortunately, most of the people of Cranston demonstrated that the top and bottom of the banner, the parts saying “School Prayer,” “Our Heavenly Father,” and “Amen” were the only parts that they cared about. They certainly failed to live by the principles in the main part of the message.

  • Could not resist a pre-hispanic Mexican version. Enjoy!

  • george.w

    From

  • Anonymous

  • Wheeee! That’s me! Thanks for the mention, Hemant!

    If there are any problems, please let me know. Somebody mentioned that the hashtag character (#) doesn’t register. I’m working on that at the moment. This has been fixed. 🙂

  • This could be because the font I used doesn’t support extended characters. Although it is Futura, which should support it. I’ll check it out. Thanks!

  • Yes, something like “We vow to…” rather than “Grant us the ability to…”, the latter of which makes the students sound weak and incapable of doing anything themselves without external help.

  • and that surely won’t prompt the Christian crowd to say we’re altering the history and tradition of the banner.

    This one was specifically designed to be a prayer and nothing else. To remove the religion from it would make it redundant with the secular creed the school already has on the opposite wall of the auditorium.

  • Know ye, O Prince, that before the days of the sinking of Rhode Island and before the rise of the Sons of Arya, there was an age undreamed of…

  • Too bad they refused to change the banner and wanted it kept up, in tact.

  • That is what I think they should put in place of the prayer banner, to show everybody just how inspiring the prayer itself was to all those people.

  • Ray

    That is an *excellent* suggestion!

  • Mine reads as follows:

    Let us begin each day with the desire to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers, to be honest with ourselves as well as with others.  Let us be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win.  Let us learn the value of true friendship.  Let us always conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston West High School.

    Now, how difficult was that to do?  Very, very difficult, according to the people of Cranston.

  • BlzBob

    We the students
    and faculty of Cranston High School West, in order to form a more perfect education,
    to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind
    and helpful to our classmates and the faculty, to be honest with our peers as
    well as ourselves, to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we
    win, and to always conduct ourselves to as to bring credit to Cranston High
    School West, do ordain and establish this credo for our school.

  • Funny how, at the time this was going down, nobody from their side wanted the banner changed, as that would have been near-blasphemy… but now that they lost, a lot of them are crying about how the option to change the wording on the banner should have at least been offered… lol.

  • Wintermute

    But, to be persnickety, if you’re saying “grant us,” then to whom are you addressing your request?

  • Yeah, that was kind of my point. 🙂 Even removing “School Prayer,” “Our Heavenly Father,” and “Amen” still leaves an entire call for external help.

  • Daniel

    Mine reads, “ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”  ;p

  • Anonymous

    Equal time for Cthulhu!

  • I’m trying to do one in lolspeak.

  • Gordon Duffy

    Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn

  • Anonymous

    Something that hasn’t been discussed is the graphic above the prayer. The wings are very similar and almost identical to the logo used by the Nazis. Also the lamp and open bible appear in christian graphics.

  • Gordon Duffy

    Why not keep the bit they like and edit the middle to be more accurate:

    Our heavenly father
    Grant us each day the inability to see that we are bullies,
    the unwillingness to change, and the pig headedness to
    support any immorality if it is done in your name.
    Help us to be poor sports when we lose, and justify our
    many abuses when we throw a tantrum. Teach us to
    disregard friendships and to bring discredit and
    shame to Cranston West

    Amen

  • For Cranston it should have some words like:

    Fearfully attack anyone who disagrees with our god indoctrinated by generations past and teachers present, for our god cannot prevail over facts and reason without sustained threats and deliver thus no flowers.

  • Bob Lai

    I invoked the Wizard of Oz and asked for the brains to grow mentally, the heart to be kind to our fellow students, the courage to set aside religious myths, and remember there’s no place like home. Click, click, click.

  • guest

    I still don’t get it, they act as if they have been asked to burn the banner. They were just ordered to take it down (it’s a banner, not a painting, right?) put it in someones home or one of the church rooms.. how hard can it be?

  • Anonymous

    It’s a piece of paper that was painted into the wall.  However, all you need is a saw and a few minutes takes it out.  Then, I think it would do well in the local museum as a showpiece.  I don’t feel it should be destroyed, any more than a  Gutenberg Bible; it’s a piece of history that would be most appropriately displayed in a venue that places its message clearly within the context of the times.

  • Anonymous

    Why doesn’t school remove reference to a religious being that can’t exist because atheists are smart enough in their own minds to have proof. The result is moral guidance that is sorely needed.

    Personal Goals (Consistent with Harry Potter)

    I will do my best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically.
    I will be kind and helpful to my classmates, teachers and my parents.
    I will be honest with myself and others, to be a good sport whether win or lose.
    I will value true friendship and conduct ourselves so as to be a credit to our school.

    Try that one in court. No more threat, big saving and they all lived happily ever after.

  • Bruce Burdick

    Is there a way another interpretation of  “Our
    Heavenly Father”?  There is the
    common interpretation of a God, the Creator of heaven and earth, living in a
    heaven far away.

     

    However, this
    interpretation does not fit with Luke 17:21 in which Jesus says “the kingdom of God is within you.”

    Also, science has
    not found strong evidence of a God who answers our prayers for other people.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_on_intercessory_prayer

    Can the words “Our
    Heavenly Father” have meaning for a scientist and an atheist?

    Let us define heaven
    as a place where beings care for other beings.  This fits with the Bible’s heaven where Christens go after a
    life of “loving thy neighbor as thyself.” 

    Let us define
    “Father” as the Source of all life and all matter.  The Roman Catholic Church and scientists can differ over
    whether there is a God who knew He was going to create man before man evolved
    from the ancestors of all mammals.

    Where is there a
    place where beings care for other beings? 
    Your body is alive because all your cells care for all the other cells.  All multicellular organisms are alive
    because their cells care for other cells.

    For an atheist “Our
    Heavenly Father” can mean “those conditions which are present and then beings can
    care for other beings.”

    The prayer at
    Cranston High School could remind students that they are alive because of their
    cells caring for other cells, and the students might try to care for each other
    and their teachers as well as their heart cells care for them, and as well as
    all of their cells care for them.

     Is this a help?  May you find a way to unite science and
    religion at Cranston High School,
    Party On!
    Bruce 

  • Nigel

    Standing up for your faith is the easy way.  It is so much more difficult to do or say nothing or repeat whatever is being said whether it is right or wrong.  Personally, I cannot imagine how someone can be offended by the word “God” or any of it’s alternatives.