Court allows student to wear religious t-shirt
From Agape Press...
A federal judge has told an Ohio school district it can no longer bar a middle school student from wearing a t-shirt with a Christian message.
Judge George Smith has ruled that Sheridan Middle School in Thornville violated the constitutional rights of student James Nixon by prohibiting him from wearing a t-shirt bearing a quote from the Bible verse John 14:6. The front of the shirt reads: "Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'" The back of the shirt contains the statements: "Homosexuality is sin. Islam is a lie. Abortion is murder."
Although no complaints were filed over Nixon's t-shirt, a few school officials -- described by the student's attorney as "overzealous" -- deemed its message may be "offensive" to some individuals and "potentially disruptive," and thus could not be displayed.
Nixon's attorney, James Nelson of the Orlando-based American Liberties Institute, says the decision handed down by Judge Smith has a "broad, sweeping significance," especially for students in the southern district of Ohio, many of whom he says were watching for the outcome.
While I personally wouldn't wear such a confrontational message, it seems to me that with the way government schools attack Christianity in the curriculum, that they'd at least see the need to allow students to voice their own opinions. I don't understand this concept of disagreement equals offense. Every single Muslim on the face of this planet is supposed to believe that Christianity is a lie. Does that bother me? Of course not. It's my job to convince them that they're wrong. Hiding behind the pretense that we all agree and the assumption any disagreement is offensive, intolerant and should be banned — is closed-minded and leads to ignorance. Homosexual activists seem to have no hesitation in claiming that Evangelical Christian are all homophobes, yet want those same Christians to be silenced when voicing their opinion about the morality of homosexuality. Tolerance is a two-edged sword.
Posted by Danny Carlton at August 23, 2005 09:30 AM