Ohio Teacher Refuses to Remove Bible From Students' View

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — An Ohio middle school teacher says he won't obey an order to remove a Bible from view of students.

John Freshwater said Wednesday he agreed to remove a collage from his classroom that included the Ten Commandments, but that asking him to remove the Bible on his desk goes too far.

Officials with the Mount Vernon School District say they don't oppose religion but are required by the U.S. Constitution not to promote or favor any set of religious beliefs.

Freshwater says being forced to keep the Bible out of sight would infringe on his rights.

Mount Vernon is about 40 miles northeast of Columbus.

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okay, soooo...if some other teacher -- ANY TEACHER -- was to display a copy of the Torah, Koran, Baghavad Gita (sp?), Tao Te Ching, Confucian Dialects, Book of Mormon, or even a book the teacher him/herself wrote as the scripture of his/her own newly-created religion. . .THEN it would be alright, cuz having diversity means not promoting or favoring any one set!

hey, better remove Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, On the Origin of the Species, and all those other once-banned books that promote horrible things like racism, prejudice, prostitution, sciences. . .
OH! also, get rid of Hop on Pop!, which promotes patricide! (or at least violence towards fathers) not to mention Green Eggs & Ham, which is clearly pro-carnivorism! don't even try telling me there aren't people in this world who are RELIGIOUS about their meat-eating.

PLUS. . .hooboy, this slope just keeps on slipping down. . .no Brett Favre books/magazines, given all those Packers worshipers!
no economics books, favoring those whose god is money! no geology or earth sciences books, that would endorse the earth-worshipers!
GREENBACKS VS. GAIA! OUR CLASSROOMS ARE TURNING INTO A RELIGIOUS BATTLEGROUND! this is the polar opposite of the Missouri schools pulling all books having anything to do with evolution. . . i guess that adage is true: if you live long enough, you will see both extremes of absurdity for any given subject. (if that's not an adage, it or some variation thereof should be!)

and, i just now realized, having the Ten Commandments displayed does NOT promote or favor one religion! it pertains to THREE of the four LARGEST religions in the world! (which encompasses...what, 60% of the planet's population? 70%?)

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Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done...

-Matthew 6:10