North Carolina Christian school orders families to sign anti-LGBT ‘Biblical Morality’ pledge

[Galraedia]

Source: Raw Story

A Christian private school in Wilmington, NC has announced that it has adopted a so-called “Biblical Morality Policy” that allows the school to expel or refuse to admit LGBT children or children from families with LGBT members. According to Salon.com, the letter was written by Myrtle Grove Christian School President J. Stacy Miller.

The letter (embedded here) begins by evoking the childhood game “Duck Duck Goose.”

“Do you remember playing circle games like ‘Duck Duck Goose’ in elementary school?” Miller asked. “In order to form a circle, we would gather in close together, hold hands, and then back up away from the center” and form a circle.

“If we move to far from the center, we can’t hold hands anymore,” the principal warned.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/22/north-carolina-christian-school-orders-families-to-sign-anti-lgbt-biblical-morality-pledge/

---

The Star News in Wilmington reports that Myrtle Grove Christian School, which is eligible to receive taxpayer-funded private school vouchers beginning with the 2014-15 school year, will also begin denying admission or continued enrollment to gay students and children from gay families in 2014.

Source: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/11/19/gay-students-and-children-from-gay-families-barred-from-private-christian-school-eligible-for-taxpayer-funds/

[Swede Atlanta]

1. And they isolate themselves more and more..

they will hate other ignorant or hateful members to join them in signing the pledge but...

long term they will go the way of the dinosaurs......I give them 10 years before they fold.

[RKP5637]

3. I can smell the stench of their evilness and hatred from here. n/t

[warrant46]

35. This Worthless Scum needs this flag flying in their Churches

[RKP5637]

38. Yeah, that sure sums it up quite well! n/t

[Major Nikon]

17. I'm not so sure

The stupid seems to be growing exponentially. These people really believe homosexuality is a contagious disease. They preach this garbage from the pulpit. It's inevitable that more and more states are going to adopt gay marriage, but the result will be more of these flat earth morons isolating themselves.

[Katashi_itto]

32. +100

[RKP5637]

2. These supposed religious people are so damn evil. They need to hold a mirror up and

see how vile, ugly and hateful they are ... in fact, exceptionally creepy.

[KamaAina]

4. Why don't they just move to Russia?

[warrant46]

36. Russia? --- NO Saudi Arabia !!

The Cesspool of the Earth

[KamaAina]

39. It'd never work.

Saudi Arabia has way too many brown people. They even let some of them drive!

Russia, on the other hand, is both bigoted and largely white. Perfect!

[warrant46]

42. Yes you are right

[SwankyXomb]

5. How very "Christian" of them

[sulphurdunn]

6. I have no problem with this

so long as these pitiful religious bigots get not one cent of public money either directly or indirectly to aid and abet their bullshit.

[FreeState]

14. The School is eligible for taxpayer-funded private school vouchers beginning with the 2014-15 n/t

[sulphurdunn]

33. Yes,

that's the real problem. The religious haters we have with us always. These voucher scheme are de facto end runs around the Establishment Clause and have become a very serious constitutional matter.

[Major Nikon]

34. They also create an additional entitlement

Just because you don't use the public education system doesn't mean you are entitled to additional funds. If I buy my books at Barnes and Noble I can't go to the library and pick up a check. If you choose not to use government services nobody owes you anything. The voucher argument was flawed even without the Establishment Clause.

[Veilex]

7. "Biblical morality"...

In this case, it's an oxymoron. All these Biblicans (You know, a republican who hasn't bothered to actually READ the bible?) apparently don't know about that little section in the bible that says love thy neigbor... or how about the passage that says (and I'm paraphrasing) that which you do to the least of my children, you do also to me.... or any of the bazillion passages that ultimately say "don't be a dick".

I despise the veiled hatred that Biblicans represent.

[yuiyoshida]

8. Haters gotta Hate...

baka, doji manuke!!!

[dembotoz]

9. a voucher school so we pay for their bigotry

wonder if this is aimed at any family in particular

suspect some poor fam is about to be outed.......

also love how is is spring during a semester
so if you disagree do you pull your kid out mid term

seems the school cares more about being an asshole than caring for the kids

[uppityperson]

10. They need to lose their tax payer funding as well as be mocked.

[freshwest]

21. +1,000

[HockeyMom]

11. I was asked to sign allegiance to the Florida State Constitution

when I started working for a Public School District. I refused to do so. Given that this state voted to ban Marriage Equality in their State Constitution and I have a married (in NY) lesbian daughter, how the hell could I support Florida's Constitution?

Fortunately, they accepted my decision, and never asked me why.

[MsPithy]

12. Eggggxxxxaaactly what Jesus would do.

Don't they remember Jesus and the lepers, who were seriously feared and hated back in the day. Much more ostracized and shunned than "the gays," are today.

Kind of makes me wish there really is a heaven, just so these motherfuckers can strut up to the gate and with incredulity on their faces, get booted down to the lake of fire.

[LittleGirl]

15. that was brilliant.

exactly WWJD...

[Zambero]

26. Not to mention Mary Magdalen

Hypocrites that they were, the Pharisees (the religious right equivalent of those times) took fiendish delight in establishing guilt by association, in this instance the subject of disdain being a known prostitute. At least in those times an act of vigilantism could be quelled by asking the perpetrators which among them had never sinned, as a means of enabling who should cast the first stone. Today's moral hypocrites would display no such hesitation or acknowledgement of their own past transgressions.

[Paladin]

27. Clearly, these people are worshiping Right Wing Jesus.

You know, the Jesus who:

1. Looks like Brad Pitt, only whiter;

2. Hangs out with the money lenders, because poor people are a drag;

3. Always has an AR-15 strapped across his back, with a couple of spare magazines handy; and

4. Carries a well-thumbed copy of "Atlas Shrugged" with him at all times.

[JEFF9K]

13. I don't think there is anything in the Bible about lesbianism. ...

But I know there is a Commandment against lying, which is the conservative stock in trade.

[zazen]

16. wait ... could they ban Blacks or is that covered under Title IX?

I'm embarrassed I don't know the law better.

Also, would the voucher system support private Wiccan schools that exclude theists and supporters of patriarchy? Could those types of schools also get voucher support, legally? Or strict Sharia law schools, assuming NC's GOP hasn't banned it yet? I wouldn't want my kid at any overtly ideological school, but if the law is applied equally so that separation of church and state is sort of maintained because freedom of religion is maintained, that's a different matter than if only fundamentalism is maintained.

[Major Nikon]

18. That was settled by the SCOTUS in 1976

Regardless of whether they receive federal funds or not they can't discriminate on the basis of race.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1981

[Sgent]

19. Not so sure about that

Religious institutions are given very wide latitude on these issues if its an article of faith. I'd be surprised if they couldn't ban a race if its a religious tenant (see Mormons until the 70's).

[Major Nikon]

20. The SCOTUS decision made it pretty clear

Religious private schools can teach racism, but they can't exclude black students.

After they had been denied admission to petitioner private schools in Virginia for the stated reason that the schools were not integrated, two Negro children (hereafter respondents), by their parents, brought actions against the schools, alleging that they had been prevented from attending the schools because of the schools' admitted policies of denying admission to Negroes, in violation of § 1981, and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and damages. The District Court, finding that respondents had been denied admission on racial grounds, held that § 1981 makes illegal the schools' racially discriminatory admissions policies, and accordingly enjoined the schools and the member schools of petitioner private school association (which had intervened as a party defendant) from discriminating against applicants for admission on the basis of race.

...

2. Section 1981, as applied in this case, does not violate constitutionally protected rights of free association and privacy, or a parent's right to direct the education of his children. Pp. 427 U. S. 175-179.

(a) While, under the principle that there is a First Amendment right "to engage in association for the advancement of beliefs and ideas," NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U. S. 449, 357 U. S. 460, it may be assumed that parents have a right to send their children to schools that promote the belief that racial segregation is desirable, and that the children have a right to attend such schools, it does not follow that the practice of excluding racial minorities from such schools is also protected by the same principle. The Constitution places no value on discrimination, and while

"nvidious private discrimination may be characterized as a form of exercising freedom of association protected by the First Amendment . . . , it has never been accorded affirmative constitutional protections."

http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/427/160/

[Sgent]

22. The school in RUNYON is secular

not religious. Your correct that a secular school cannot discriminate, and that's fairly well settled.

Its also well settled that within the bounds of church schools that many ant-discrimination laws do not apply. I can refuse to hire non-Catholics in my Catholic school (although they generally don't), I can refuse to hire unmarried pregnant women or fire those who become pregnant and aren't married. Its fairly well established that the free exercise clause overcomes the anti-discrimination laws when dealing with a religious entity.

There hasn't been (to my knowledge) a case litigated about race and students. That being said religious schools (even ones that provide a secular education) are allowed to discriminate against students which are not of their religion -- although it would be illegal for a secular school to do the same.

This has been litigated in regards to other issues -- a church can refuse to rent their social hall out for an intermarriage, etc.

One final note... all this assumes that the above is a closely held tenet of the religion in question. The courts can look to see that they have applied the rules consistently when making a ruling.

[Major Nikon]

24. The latter part of what I posted covered this

A religious organization can discriminate on a number of basis because there is nothing that says they can't. Race is a different matter because this is covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was passed after the Civil War. I linked to the relevant section in my first response. The fact that the schools in question were secular is irrelevant. SCOTUS was well aware their decision would apply to religious schools. One of the respondents argued that even though they weren't trying to cite religious reasons for their discrimination, such a decision would apply to religious schools which made up 90% of all private schools at the time. The justices weren't impressed by this. Religious private schools still enter a contract between them and their students and as such are subject to section 1981. If a religious school wanted to discriminate on the basis of race, assumedly they would cite their rights to freedom of association and freedom of religion found under the 1st amendment and SCOTUS specifically said the 1st amendment doesn't allow anyone to discriminate on the basis of race when entering a contractual agreement.

I'm not sure a church can refuse to rent something out on the basis of race as I can see no reason why this same decision wouldn't apply. Churches can discriminate on the basis of race when it comes to membership or officiating a service, but if they enter a contractual agreement, I'm not so sure they can discriminate on the basis of race. I'm not familiar with the litigation in which you are referring so there may be other issues involved, but when it comes to private schools, religious schools enjoy no such right to racial discrimination. You can read the oral arguments on Runyon for more info.

[Glorfindel]

23. “If we move to far from the center, we can’t hold hands anymore,” the principal warned.

They have the nerve to charge tuition and accept public funds for teaching such ungrammatical garbage?

[DreamGypsy]

28. Yeah, my initial reaction was from my internal grammar policeperson as well...

...but then I checked the Raw Story article and found the link "The letter (embedded here)".

The actual letter uses "too". The Raw Story writer and editor messed up.

[Glorfindel]

40. Thank you! I should have investigated more fully.

I blame early-morning drowsiness. I'm a bit less grumpy after I've had my coffee.

[Zambero]

25. "Love the sin but hate the sinner?"

My recollection is that the phraseology used to be the other way around for these people, but they seem to be taking vehemence to a whole new level to include guilt by association. Since the perception of what constitutes "sin" is generally in the eyes of the beholder, it really doesn't make much difference. Hate is still hate.

[Sunlei]

29. They can't discriminate against anyone. Past refused enrollment or kicked out should sue them.

Even if they are private. there are educational standards, state & federal laws they must follow.

Federal law trumps everything.

[truthisfreedom]

30. His analogy is broken from the start.

“If we move to far from the center, we can’t hold hands anymore”

FIrst off, editor, it's TOO, not to. But my point is this... in duck duck grey duck the only way you are inclusive so you can all hold hands is to not let go. And his instruction is to LET GO OF HANDS. Which is a certain way to guarantee that you CAN'T HOLD HANDS ANYMORE.

[Brickbat]

37. Are you from Minnesota?

[valerief]

31. Disgusting. nt

[olddad56]

41. consistent with my image of christian leadership.