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January 17, 2012 at 12:31 pm 
Ed Brayton Jon Stewart once joked that if you think posting the Ten Commandments in schools is going to keep teenagers from doing bad things, you probably also think that putting up a sign that says employees must wash hands is keeping the urine out of your cheeseburger. The bullying and harassment visited upon Jessica Ahlquist for filing the suit that took down the prayer mural at Cranston High School demonstrates this perfectly. Here’s what that banner actually said:
The people who are most vociferous in their defense of that prayer being posted are, ironically, the ones whose actions stand in the most stark contrast to its words. They have not grown mentally or morally, they have behaved in the most barbaric and appalling ways. Rather than being kind and helpful to a classmate, they have bullied, threatened and intimidated her and her family. They have substituted death threats and hatred for the “value of true friendship.” The prayer failed, and for no one has it failed more spectacularly than for those who are the most adamant about its importance.
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Excellent point and blog post.
Well done Cranston West – comprehenisive failure on all points!
A perfect score of zero! [Half-hearted golf clap]
Dingo
Prayer indeed changes things. It changed what might have been a normal polite community into a hateful one. It makes good folks bad and bad folks mean. It is in these cases when Christianity shows its true colors. Why is this not obvious to these folks?
What in the world are these folks afraid of? Their “god” is supposedly the most powerful, most intelligent and most kind entity and they act like they gotta defend him at every turn and in the most mean-spirited ways. I mean, it’s not like they still can’t pray their silly prayers, as meaningless as they are. Somehow they gotta SEE it everyday to make themselves feel satisfied and fulfilled.
As a tool for identifying one’s in-group that seems pretty bland. Big bright-colored hats would work better.
IRONY!!!!!!!
The ‘honest with ourselves and others’ is also transparently lacking. ‘About history, not religion.’ Really? If that were so, why did you choose to remove the entire positive social message when you could’ve just taken out the lines “School Prayer,” “Our Heavenly Father,” and “Amen?”
That banner would have been laughed out of the high school I went to. The school had the usual high number of adherents to superstition, however the students knew sappy obsequiousness when they saw it.
A typical example of religious artefacts being used, not as the instruments of moral instruction they claim to be, but as tribal totems to separate the familiar Us from the despised Them.
An excellent observation. You too Eamon Knight, I think you nailed it also.
Some of them might just declare the current vileness as proof that the banner is oh soooo needed. By removing the banner, there is nothing left to remind them what decent behaviour means. So without their banner(s)/god(s) telling them right from wrong, they just descend into antisocial behaviour.
Just wonderful….
Just like that old soccer chant goes, “You only sing when you’re winning.” Seems like Christians are only nice when they can feel superior to everyone else.
@rizdek:
Not only do they gotta see, they want to force everyone else to as well. And that’s where the Constitution gives them the finger.
While it doesn’t belong in a public school, this is the kind of innocuous aspirational non-prayer that didn’t bother me in the least to recite back in the Boy Scouts. None of the content is remotely troublesome, so why not just rephrase it without the prayer format and leave it up? A hissy fit over being slightly more inclusive is really childish.
See, that’s the problem right there.
All the sentiments on that banner are wonderful, but they are preceded by the clause. “Our Heavenly Father, grant us…”
So instead of actually taking it upon yourself to kind, helpful, honest with yourself, and so on, you just wait around for some fantasy invisible fairy-tale to MAKE you do the right thing.
(Or, the flip side…you ASSUME that you have already been granted all of these wonderful things from the cosmic vending machine, because you said the right magic words once, and thus you are actually doing them regardless of how other people might chose to interpret your actions and words.)
Lofgren @15: None of the content is remotely troublesome, so why not just rephrase it without the prayer format and leave it up?
A good question that has only one rational answer: because the content is not what they want/fight to preserve.
I suggest a compromise in which we allow the Christians to pee on the school’s mailbox, or a tree on school grounds, each morning.
What in the world are these folks afraid of?
Irrelevancy.
Some of them might just declare the current vileness as proof that the banner is oh soooo needed. By removing the banner, there is nothing left to remind them what decent behaviour means.
These are the people who say that people can’t be moral without believing in a genocidal sky fairy. Take away what they believe keeps them moral, and voila! Monsters!
You’d think they’d go out of their way not to make us right about extrapolating their maxims enough to ask, “So you’d do X horrific thing if you weren’t religious?” Because they have, of course.
I guess they couldn’t resist being right about something for a change. Of course… I don’t think they’ve realized that this isn’t something normal people would want to be right about.
An excellent point. I think the same thing has happened to “Merry Christmas”: at one point it was just a way of wishing others a joyous holiday season, on a par with “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings” (I go back far enough that I can remember when no one batted an eye at any of these). Then at some point it became a way to distinguish the Christians from Those Evil Secularists, to the point where Bill O’Reilly now markets bumper stickers with the extremely tribalistic slogan “We say ‘Merry Christmas’” (as opposed to you heathens).
I sometimes wonder how Jesus would feel if he knew that His most fervent followers had turned his birthday from a celebration into a cudgel to beat people over the head with.
Hercules Grytpype-Thynne – I think Jesus would be puzzled at:
a) why people celebrate his birthday at all, whilst ignoring what he preached (particularly the Sermon on the Mount)
b) why people celebrate a day he wasn’t born on (just because it’s a festival day in several other religious traditions)
c) what’s with the jolly, fat guy in a red suit?
Dingo
Well since Mary was a Hebrew woman from the Middle East, but Jesus was a white guy with blonde hair and blue eyes, I figure he would probably assume Santa is his dad.
Is it just me or does the symbol at the top of the prayer banner look remarkably like the Nazi party symbol? Just sayin.
You are conflating several different things. Defense of the banner does not equal agreement with it, nor does criticism of the plaintiff equal a claim of adherence to the banner’s values.
Certainly you’d be the first to say that just because a person criticizes something religious doesn’t mean they’re an atheist.
Besides, the “prayer” has done nothing but hang on a wall for nearly 50 years. Do you think its mere presence in the building — which even the plaintiff didn’t see on her own — would affect conduct? You seem to have higher expectations than those who do believe in prayer.
Daily Affirmation by Stuart Smalley and the recalcitrant Christian community:
JD – “Defense of the banner does not equal agreement with it, nor does criticism of the plaintiff equal a claim of adherence to the banner’s values“.
No but bullying, harassment and death-threats directed toward the plaintiff would show, at least, antipathy toward her stance*.
“Certainly you’d be the first to say that just because a person criticizes something religious doesn’t mean they’re an atheist“.
True – but irrelevant, since it’s the hostile actions of others toward the plaintiff we are talking about (presumably to enforce conformity with the bullies’ own views*).
“Besides, the “prayer” has done nothing but hang on a wall for nearly 50 years. Do you think its mere presence in the building — which even the plaintiff didn’t see on her own — would affect conduct? You seem to have higher expectations than those who do believe in prayer“.
Two issues here. The first, it is irrelevant whether the plaintiff had to be guided to find this blatantly religious message, the school cannot endorse (or condemn) any religious sect. It’s the law. The second is the obvious one, if the prayer has no effect on conduct why have it? Removing it should cause a collective Gallic shrug. (But it hasn’t. Any theories on why this unimportant decoration is causing such irrational hatred from one group* toward the plaintiff?)
Dingo
—–
* Strangely this group seems to be lead by religious leaders, politicians with strong religious views and a general population that strongly correlate with religious believers. Why is that I wonder?
@22: In what way is the banner NOT a prayer (you implied this with the sneer quotes surrounding that world)?
JD writes:
Given your past inability to form a cogent argument, consider me skeptical.
JD writes:
Ed never argued defense of the mural equals agreement with it, which is why dishonestly and impotently failed to quote him. Instead its ironic that the people who wish to keep the mural in place can’t meet the laudable counsel noted on the banner. We’re all perfectly cognizant this isn’t about the good stuff on the banner, but instead that this mural serves to symbolize that Christians enjoy a privilege in this government venue that others do not, in direct violation of the establishment clause and the religious freedom rights of a hero like Jessica Ahlquist. Heroism is something traitors* like yourself have difficulty discovering. And while I hadn’t read Ed’s blog post since this morning, I’m at all surprised to see him write:
JD writes:
Citation requested. From my perspective it sent a signal to some students over the years and onto others who enjoyed privileges and whose constitutionally protected rights were not going to protected. We then saw my assertion validated in this very case where both the school board and some of the Administration sought to maintain their ability to infringe on people’s rights like Jessica Ahlquist. And just like you JD, they were found to be more than willing to lie about their motivation for doing so.
Your big lie of course JD is your denying you violate the Constitution in spite of continually advocating certain types of Christians violate it to promote your beliefs and exploit the power of government to deny others their rights, e.g., your traitorous abandonment of your comrades who happen to be gay.
JD writes:
Are you lying or just incredibly stupid? No one argued the mural should be brought down because they’re harmed by magic conjured up with help by the mural. They were harmed by being treated like a second class citizen by their own government, which was easily validated in the school board hearings and the findings of fact in the court case. It was a symbol, a totem, and obviously one cherished by Christianists who hate others given the threats and harrassment we’ve encountered.
*For those who don’t know JD, he’s an officer in the military who openly and continually violates his oath to defend the U.S. Constitution. He does this by advocating for Christian domination of the military at the expense of other military personnel’s protected rights. He celebrates his victories in spite of the fact his positions directly harm his fellow comrades. He also seeks to violate the constitutionally protected rights of even Christian personnel if they don’t happen to believe in his type of Christianity. I know of no one I’ve ever interacted with I hold in more contempt than JD, precisely because he’s the only traitor I’ve ever encountered.
Ahhhhh, so we’re afflicted now with the execreble excresence that is JD, lyingfuckbag and fighter pilot for JESUS.
Dude, I STILL haven’t gotten your note with the contact info for your boss; I’m sure it’s an oversight.
Have a shitty day, you KKKristolunatic asshole–and don’t forget to say hi to your navy counterputz, Gordon Klingsontoshit.
[...] just want to point out two things about the wording of the banner itself. First, the text is clearly identified as a “prayer”, which opens with “Our [...]