Like many public school districts around the country, the Whitfield County Board of Education in Dalton, Georgia recently announced some new hires for the upcoming school year. One of those changes is that Mandie Jones, an assistant principal in the district and a longtime former English teacher, will now be the principal at Northwest Whitfield High School.
It’s a huge promotion and, based on comments online, a well-deserved one. Jones’ former students are praising the move because they loved her as a teacher, and she obviously has the administrative qualifications.
She’s also gay. Does that matter? No. Is it anyone’s business? No.
And yet a local Christian parent (and model/actor and graduate of Northwest Whitfield High), Caleb Callahan, is going batshit crazy over her appointment because this is somehow a HUGE DISASTER for everyone in town.
Here’s the post he made Wednesday morning after Tuesday night’s announcement:
… Bye Bye Northwest Whitfield High.
I, or my business, will NEVER Support you again. You had a chance to make a change in direction that was MOST beneficial for our community and children, yet you choose to play politics.
…
I know many will want to push back on this post and tell me I’m rude and uninformed. If your that person I will debate you anytime over:
1) The available candidates
2) Demographics of our area
3) What, we the people, of Whitfield county wanted in a principal.I’m not alive to make friends over truth. I’m not alive to be silent for the sake of peace. I’m not alive to stand by as people make selfish, personal, political and bad choices that abuse their public office, which is supposed to be a SERVANT to your people. I’m alive to speak Truth, Stand for Truth, Pressure choices by holding people accountable, and fight to make sure the next generation is better off. To many people desire to be liked and stay silent these days. To many people don’t want to get in the fight but our children are suffering for it.
Again, my personal money and my business will never again give a dime to County schools, nor would I encourage any parent to send your kids to a county school considering they just told you they don’t care what you “think” or “believe” when it comes to picking OUR county leaders.
Those are a lot of hateful words without ever once naming Jones, explaining why she’s not the best hire, or explaining why a lesbian can’t be principal. It’s just Christian hate.
And then — because bigots like him love nothing more than the sound of their own voice pretending to be persecuted — he made a 30-minute follow-up video that night that was equally insane.
I’ll save you time. He mentions Hitler. He complains about Secular Humanism. He describes himself as “tolerant.” He suggests Christians who don’t agree with him aren’t truly Christian. At no point does he ever explain why Jones isn’t qualified for this job or how her personal life would affect students in any negative way.
It’s just a Christian bigot spewing hate without the ability to even explain why.
(Best bit? At 19:20: “God put a special place in my heart for homosexuals. I’ve talked to more homosexuals than… probably anybody that’s listening to this. I loved (?) the homosexuals for 10-plus years.”)
In fact, his entire Facebook page is full of insane posts, and right-wing memes, and other videos like this one that seem more fitting for an audition with Newsmax. The only good thing about his video are the comments underneath, with people mocking the hell out of him for spending 30 minutes saying absolutely nothing of substance.
As far as I can tell, no one who matters is taking him seriously, just as it should be. Jones isn’t about to lose her job over this. But this is the sort of Christianity that people are being exposed to and it shouldn’t surprise anyone when so many young people decide to run the hell away from any religion that produces assholes like this.
(Thanks to Glen for the link)
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