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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) dark_christian
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) theonides | |
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I went back through the archives for the last two months looking to see if anyone had posted on this story, and I didn't see anything, so let me start at the beginning. John Freshwater is a public school science teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Or at least, that's what he's supposed to be doing. The story broke in April that he was seriously deviating from the state-approved curriculum and introducing creationist materials in his classes, he was asking his athletes whom he mentored as part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to proselytize to their peers and provided them free Bibles with which to do it, posted the Ten Commandents in his classroom, kept a Bible in plain sight on his desk, used his authority to attempt to intimidate students who spoke out against him, AND used electrical devices as part of a "science" demonstration to burn crosses into his students arms. The reaction to the story is about what you'd expect it to be in a rural Ohio community. Some were outraged, but the majority of the community rallied around him, and the controversy was portrayed in the press as being about whether he could keep a Bible on his desk or not, and not about the Bible as part of an overarching campaign to influence his public school students in the direction of religion. Freshwater was asked to remove all religious materials from the classroom, which he did except for the Bible. Rather than being sent home on leave during the investigation, Freshwater was supervised in his classroom by an administrator. The investigation concluded with no action being taken against him for harming a student, or for him removing the Bible from his desk. Because of the inaction of the school board, the board and Freshwater were recently sued by several parents, including the parents (Christians, I might add) of the child who was burned. I've collected some links to articles from The Mount Vernon News, and The Columbus Dispatch. The articles are dated here YY.MM.DD in reverse chronological order, and there is one on the end for "context". Dispatch: 08.04.18 Students support teacher by taking Bibles to schoolMount Vernon News: 08.06.17 Lawsuit filed against school, teacher05.05.29 Group repeats demand for answer to Bible question08.05.28 Group stages protest outside of offices08.05.13 Large crowd addresses MV school board08.05.06 Parents express concern about environment at school08.05.05 Investigation under way against Freshwater08.04.29 Tesla coils used to show electric current08.04.25 Experiments typical part of curriculum08.04.24 Freshwater controversy continues08.04.22 Teacher conduct subject of investigation08.04.19 ACLU supports MV school board decision08.04.19 Students rally in support of science teacher08.04.18 Video of student rally08.04.17 Crowd shows support for MV science teacher08.04.16 Wednesday afternoon rally in support of teacher06.12.16 Spreading the word about faith and football Current Location: Columbus, Ohio
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For the love of .. *#&$^!! .. where do I start?!
1) Child abuse (and possibly assault or aggravated assault) under color of authority: In December 2007, the complaint continues, Freshwater burned an easily identifiable cross into the arm of at least two eighth-grade students with an electric device manufactured by Electro-Technic Products Inc. The complaint states, “Mr. Freshwater knew that the electric device, model BD-10A, could cause harm if placed in contact with human skin. As the eighth-grade science teacher it is Mr. Freshwater’s duty to understand and follow the manufacturer’s advice regarding the proper use of science equipment.”
2) Astroturfing: Early this morning, a group calling itself the “Minutemen” waited outside the administrative offices of the Mount Vernon City Schools. The group was reportedly protesting the administration’s directive that middle school science teacher John Freshwater remove his personal Bible from his desk. (Who are these Minutemen, and how are they able to organize and target this specific issue this quickly? And are they connected to FCA or other dominionist orgs known to be involved?)
3) Cult of personality: “You’re either for Mr. Freshwater or you’re against Mr. Freshwater. There’s no in between,” Murdoch said. “In the kids’ minds, I think, it is just the Bible issue. And who is going to go against the Bible? Nobody. But it seems like the ‘Christians’ are using that as an excuse to gang up on the ‘atheists.’ .. “My daughter Arie told me about a Jewish child who brought his Torah to school when other students brought Bibles in support of Freshwater,” she continued. “He thought he was supporting freedom of religious expression, and the other kids just ripped him apart. ‘What are you doing?’ they asked. ‘You can’t support Mr. Freshwater, you’re Jewish.’ So they don’t get it. ("Freshwater==Bible==good. !Freshwater!=Bible, !Freshwater!=good. Any questions?" Given the tendency teenage kids *normally* have toward fanatic beliefs and cliquishness of various sorts, and the tendency of this sort of polarization to amplify both, this is disturbing at the very least. And this guy is clearly feeding it and milking it for all it's worth, which is so far beyond irresponsible as to defy description.)
That's only scratching the surface. I'm not sure what's most offensive about this story, because it seems it's made of solid squick no matter how I slice it. Where does one even *start* to go up against this sort of thing? (The cult of personality and student intimidation was particularly cringeworthy, because I can say for certain that if I had been in that school when this was happening, my dead body would have been found stuffed in a locker somwhere.)
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And in case I haven't said it enough, I'm sick to death of this attitude that anything "Christians" do "in the name of Jesus" is by definition good and moral, and anything "atheists" (which by their rules means anyone not as rabidly on board with the cult as they are) do is by definition bad and evil. I'm sick of it. It has no truth to it, and it's being exploited in too many ways that seem to go unanswered. This teacher isn't by any means the only player in this story, FCA (and FGBMFI, by already documented connections), these "Minutemen" (whoever the hell they are), and probably many other individual players and organizations we don't know about yet, are all stirring this up for all they're worth and playing it up to the hilt as "good Christians fighting off the evil atheist school system". (As well as "righteous Christian teacher and loyal students rooting out evil non-Christian students and showing them the error of their ways" .. again, teenage Inquisitors roaming the school halls is one of those things that scare the shit out of me, because they learn to carry those "enforcer" roles out of school when they graduate.)
It's time this attitude was challenged to these people's faces, and challenged everywhere it tries to find fertile ground. There may be a correlation of some sort between Christianity (the religion) and some definition of morality, but it's by no means an absolute correlation even in that best case. These "Christians" left morality far behind a long, long time ago, and I'm fed up with them getting a complete pass on that because they trot out fake "Christian" language and clothing. Behavior like this is inexcusable from people of *any* religion, and goes unanswered far too much of the time for my comfort.
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