Sixth Graders Need to Learn About the Ten Commandments, Says Guy With No Grasp on Reality

Glenn Stankis has been putting up the following signs along the side of the road in Magalia, California — because sixth graders just don’t understand that whole “don’t commit adultery” thing… and everyone needs to acknowledge the Christian god in school:

… Stankis alleges some classes within the Paradise Unified School District do not recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily and he hopes his signs raise that awareness.

“I was hoping it would get the attention of the school district officials, that it would encourage the public to put pressure on the school district officials to change some of their policies,” said Stankis.

Stankis ran for the school board on a purely Christian platform four different times — thankfully, he lost each election. Though it’s not hard to see why when you hear how out of touch with reality he is:

“This is a Christian nation the courts have actually ruled that and the district wants to be secular in their outlook,” said Stankis.

At least he’s been getting some pushback. His signs have been vandalized (something I’m not supporting) and the county has realized his signs were violating the law:

Initially, this anonymous complainer was hoping to get the two religious-themed signs removed, but now, Butte County Public Works is looking at Stankis’s signs and others in that area as too whether they meet the letter of the law regardless of content.

…

“The signs in question appear to violate the Butte County code, which makes it a 55-foot setback from the center line of Skyway. These are the signs that we’re asking them to move and re-locate to a position that is outside of that setback zone,” said Shawn O’Brien, Assistant Director of Butte County Public Works.

There’s a great place for relocation, of course — on Stankis’ property, where his signs won’t be a nuisance to the rest of society.

(Thanks to Richard for the link!)

Holytape

* Feigns persecuted Christian Voice.

But by asking him to follow the law you are persecuting him. You want to stiffle his freedom of speech and religion. George Washington, who was Jesus’s friend, would be rolling over in his grave. You are just like the Romans throwing him to the lions. Christian’s don’t have any rights in this country. The only question is should we call you Adolf or Stalin?

The sloth of war
b33bl3br0x

why’s he so particularly worried about the 6th grade? What about the rest of the school grades? I suppose their performance is satisfactory in his morality scale, but those damned 6th graders are damned heathens.
Harold Baize

What I find even more disturbing is the way our local TV reported the story. KHSL gave the nut job a sounding board and didn’t have any secular or anti-religion opinions in their piece about the signs.
Onamission5

Best. blog. headline. ever.
Rich Wilson

Someone on FB speculated that Stankis’s claim that SCOTUS has ruled that this is a Christian nation is from
Holy Trinity Church v. United States 1982 Which is David-Barton-History
http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/arg7.htm
Onamission5

I’m guessing he has a son in 6th grade who just found out that boobs are primarily for feeding babies, and aren’t “dirty pillows” after all.
Kayla Aurit

I live in the country next to Butte, and, frankly, I’m surprised he DIDN’T win a school board seat. This area is practically mini-texas: all cattle, god, guns, and country.
Timeycook

Atheist don’t want freed of religion. They want dictatorship where you don’t have a choice
Timeycook

*Freedom*
Onamission5

You mean religious fundamentalists.

Secularism protects all religious beliefs.

You’re welcome.
C Peterson

Nobody is suggesting he doesn’t have the freedom to post his views on signs, assuming he adheres to the local sign ordinances.

But the same freedoms that protect his expression also allow intelligent, educated people to correctly point out his utter ignorance of history, the Constitution, and American jurisprudence.
Silo Mowbray

You have freedom of speech. You don’t have freedom from being criticized for being a douchebag.
Silo Mowbray

Ridiculous, and yet another example of religious brainwashing.

As Onamission5 mentioned, we want to protect freedom for ALL belief. No single religion should be privileged. Christianity is in the U.S. today IS privileged, and we’re going to put a stop to that.
Annie

Someone should also tell Stankis that “governmental red tape” is not a synonym for “county law”.
pagansister

Guess the grades pre K through 5 and those 7th grade and up are fine—it’s just those 6th graders you have to be teach the “10 suggestions ” to! :o)
Margaret Whitestone

Atheists want real freedom where you can worship whatever god(s) you choose, but you are never compelled to worship anybody else’s god, nor are you compelled to financially support anybody else’s religion.

People like Stankis, on the other hand, want to use public schools (which are funded by tax dollars) to force Christianity on students. That’s not freedom.
Harold Baize

I live in Butte County, and I’m active with Chico Skeptics and Atheists of Butte County. Chico is a college town so it has a substantial base of intelligent people. Unfortunately they’re surrounded by the rest of the County. We’re working on educating those masses. So Butte isn’t quite as backward as, oh maybe Glenn County.
wmdkitty

From what I remember of middle school, yeah… middle school kids are fucking cruel.
Larry Judkins

On the other hand, Glenn County has (so far as I have been able to determine) the only weekly, openly atheist column dealing exclusively with religion and the lack thereof in any mainstream, general circulation newspaper in the U.S. I have been writing “An Atheist Perspective” for the Valley Mirror for more than 17 years.
Rich Rodgers

That’s so awesome! Perfectly on cue. About three comments ago some predicted people would cry persecution. How does keeping your particular religion from being forced on people hurt someone’s “choice” of religion? What you are angry about is we speak out when you force your particular religion and allow people freedom to decide for themselves. If this were about a muslim prayer I can almost be sure that you would not see the situation in this way. We would see it exactly the same. If that’s what you call anti-freedom, I call it something else entirely.
Mike Allen

You’re completely wrong on the fact that this country is built on Christianity. “Under God” wasn’t implemented until the 1950’s. Our original motto is “E Pluribus Unum”, “Out of Many, One”. Our Founding Fathers new the importance of Separation of Church and State. Why do you think they fought the English? It certainly wasn’t because they hated Crumpetts. I suggest Americans learn about their Country’s heritage before making outlandish claims about it.
Nazani14

I’ll just point out that a minor’s pledge of allegiance is absurd. They’re not in a position to take up arms for another country or sell state secrets to another country.
Sharon Combs

Mike, I’m pretty sure that Holytape was being sarcastic. Note the ”
* Feigns persecuted Christian Voice” note at the top.
Larry Judkins

Regarding the Pledge of Allegiance, given that Mr. Stankis is obviously a very conservative fellow, I wonder what his responses would be to the fact that the pledge was originally composed by a socialist, Francis Bellamy, and the argument that the pledge better reflects values generally regarded as socialist (for instance, the subordination of the People to society in general and the government, or the republic, in particular) rather than traditional American values (for instance, subordination of the government to the People, or, as Abraham Lincoln put it, government of the People, by the People and for the People).
Holytape

I really don’t I believe that George Washington was actually Jesus’s friend. They were more like a frenemy. And most historians would agree with me. The two were best buds in grade school. Jesus even made George’s first set of teeth. But then they met Martha in highschool, and she was a looker. Both the boys wanted to take her to the homecoming dance, but she ended up with George. Jesus eventually went on to go steady with Mary, but by then the deep friendship he had with George was gone forever.
Holytape

He probably doesn’t realize that there are grades after the 6th.