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Christian school threatens to expel students if they have an LGBT family member

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...f-they-have-a-gay-family-member-a7040371.html

I'm assuming the Independent is a good source. See it posted here often.

A Christian school in Kansas is at the centre of mounting controversy after it emerged that it reserved the right to expel students if any of their family members were gay or transgender.

A so-called Statement of Understanding sent to parents who wish to send their children to the private school located in Wichita, requires them to agree that a student who attends can he asked to leave if their home life promotes anything “counter to the school’s understanding of a biblical lifestyle”. All pupils and parents are required to sign the document.

“Given the debate and confusion in our society about marriage and human sexuality it is vital that Trinity families agree with and support the school’s traditional, Christian understanding of those issues,” says the document, first obtained by Patheos.com.
expel1.jpg

“Therefore, when the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home is counter to the school’s understanding of a biblical lifestyle, including the practice or promotion of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) lifestyle or alternative gender identity, the school should have the right, in its sole discretion, to deny the admission of an applicant or discontinue enrollment of a current student.”

There's slightly more at the link but I included the brunt of the thing here.

Just... Why? What the fuck is the point? Even if by ANY means it made biblical "sense" to exclude LGBT people from the school, the fact there is a chance to be expelled simply for being friends or family with a gay, transgender, etc person is just... Mind boggling.

And, according to the article - while there is a law against this in Kansas, religious schools and private schools (of which this is both) are not necessarily bound by it? Why even HAVE the law if you're going to make exceptions for the people who will do it anyways? Just to "look" liberal while being able to keep on doing what you want? Maybe I'm misunderstanding that part. I hope I am.

Lock if old. Searched for both Kansas and Independent.

I updated the title from the article - replaced gay with LGBT b/c the article directly mentions trans people
 

jaekeem

Member
That is awful.

I don't know why anyone would want to go to a school run by backwards-as-fuck idiots like these. There's no way this is an healthy intellectual environment.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
This is why I can't be a Christian apologist.

EDIT: Fuck my tag. It's THOR: THE DARK WORLD THERE'S NO TWOOO
 

Ahasverus

Member
Free acting allowance due to religion reasons is bullshit. Sometimes you gotta force civilization into some dumb people. This is one of those cases. The school should be closed and the directors board in jail.
 

Link

The Autumn Wind
Turning the other cheek, just like Jesus taught.

Forgive my ignorance as to American law but surely this isn't legal?
Republicans/"Christians" don't give a shit about legality. They'll put laws like this into place and then scream persecution when a judge overturns them. Doesn't matter who they fuck over in the meantime.
 

Garlador

Member
I am a Christian. This stuff infuriates me.
It's not even biblical. Just people using their religion as a shield to discriminate.
 
This isn't Christian.

There are times when I think we must be near Jesus's return because holy crap do some fools need to re-learn some things or what.
 
If it's a private school with no federal funding I think it's allowed. You just can't discriminate on ethnicity.
I'm going to go ahead an assume that bills to fix this have been introduced and then shut down because of 'religious liberty'. Pretty shitty.

Private schools get away with a lot of illegal shit.
That's utterly insane. Are most of these private schools religious because its just a nice way to circumvent law?

Republicans/"Christians" don't give a shit about legality. They'll put laws like this into place and then scream persecution when a judge overturns them. Doesn't matter who they fuck over in the meantime.
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of the news that comes out about stuff like this.
 

MJPIA

Member
Probably taking this out of context but Ezekiel 18:19-20 ESV
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
 
Pretty sure this is blatantly illegal too. hopefully the Federal government comes down hard on them.

The US has freedom of religion and association written into the constitution. Private schools like these aren't regulated by the federal government and are only loosely regulated by the state government.

There's a supreme court case ruling that the U.S. government can't force kids to attend public schools instead of a religious school chosen by the parents: Pierce v. Society of Sisters . More recently, the SCOTUS ruled unanimously against the EEOC's attempt to regulate teacher selection in such schools - Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Not sure what law would go against this - this is a religious school and no one forces the parents to go here rather than the free local public school.
 

Nephtis

Member
Yeah before you guys start bashing Christians, please take a moment and realize that school doesn't represent all Christians. It doesn't represent me and none of the people I know that are Christians. We are way past that bullshit.

That school is just trying to build resentment against LGBT folk. I am all for putting them under with a lawsuit or find some way to bring up discrimination charges against them.
 

Kettch

Member
Nice, hopefully more of these bigoted institutions follow suit. The less kids who have to attend them, the better. The only unfortunate thing here is possibly having it done in the middle of a semester, having to make new friends at a new school always sucks.
 
Sounds like an old fashioned witch hunt. I can totally see some mean little shit telling a teacher or principal that they suspect a student has an LGBT family member. And since they won't have a way to prove it, they'll just assume the worst and kick the student out.

These types of "Christians" act more like a dangerous cult than those who actually uses the teachings to help and love others.
 

tokkun

Member
Forgive my ignorance as to American law but surely this isn't legal?

Wikipedia said:
In United States federal anti-discrimination law, a protected class is a characteristic of a person which cannot be targeted for discrimination.[1] The following characteristics are considered "Protected Classes" by Federal law:

Race – Civil Rights Act of 1964
Color – Civil Rights Act of 1964
Religion – Civil Rights Act of 1964
National origin – Civil Rights Act of 1964
Age (40 and over) – Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
Sex – Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Civil Rights Act of 1964
Pregnancy – Pregnancy Discrimination Act
Citizenship – Immigration Reform and Control Act
Familial status – Civil Rights Act of 1968 Title VIII: Housing cannot discriminate for having children, with an exception for senior housing
Disability status – Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Veteran status – Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 and Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
Genetic information – Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act


Individual states can and do create other protected classes, which are protected under that state's law.

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not legally protected classes at a federal level.

Additionally, the protections generally don't extend to membership in private organizations, and among private organizations religious institutions get additional leeway. For instance, despite the fact that sex is a protected class, the Catholic Church is free to only allow men to become priests.
 
I almost went to this school. The whole contract they make you sign is ridiculous. No non-christian music(or "wild" Christian music)at home, and you aren't allowed to watch movies in a theater.
Stupid, crazy stuff. We had to beg my parents not to send us there. Luckily, they were also terrified by the prospect.
 

finley83

Banned
Yes, the key message that Jesus taught us was intolerance, absolutely. A++++ well done, clearly paid attention

God these people make me sick
 
If there isn't a seat in hell reserved for these asshats, God can frankly, go fuck himself.

It's one thing to be an intolerant shit-head, it's a whole over story to take advantage of a seat of power in order to make people intolerant on your behalf. Seriously fuck these people.
 

kadotsu

Banned
Ezekiel 18:20

The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

Also, just stop being fucking assholes, bigots.
 

cameron

Member
Discriminatory and students are "guilty" by association. What a loving and compassionate educational institution.


"the school's understanding of a biblical lifestyle"
I wonder what that lifestyle is, in detail.
 
Ezekiel 18:20

The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

Also, just stop being fucking assholes, bigots.

So why is the original sin still a thing? That verse goes against what I was taught in catechism.
 

Linkyn

Member
So why is the original sin still a thing? That verse goes against what I was taught in catechism.

The Bible is filled with retcons, and it's practically impossible to reconcile the early and late books. There's a reason that Christian teachings mostly focus on the new testament.
 

KevinCow

Banned
I almost went to this school. The whole contract they make you sign is ridiculous. No non-christian music(or "wild" Christian music)at home, and you aren't allowed to watch movies in a theater.
Stupid, crazy stuff. We had to beg my parents not to send us there. Luckily, they were also terrified by the prospect.

That's insane. Not more disgusting than the, "No family or friends who are LGBT," rule in the OP, but still insane. I don't understand why anybody would agree to go to a school that tries to control absolutely everything you do, even outside of school.

Furthermore, isn't it kind of missing the entire point of Christianity to say that you must live a 100% pure and sinless life to be a "proper" Christian? Like isn't the story basically that God gave man free will, Eve fucked it up, everyone fucked it up, then God sent Jesus to die for our sins because he realized that giving us free will basically means it's near impossible for a human to live entirely without sin? He expects us to sin, that is literally the reason Jesus died, and Jesus's death is kind of a big part of the whole Christianity thing.
 

Apathy

Member
It's getting to the point where I'm hardly surprised by this kind of behavior coming out of the mid and southern US, and that fills me with a lot of sadness, that shit like this is not making me shocked.

These people are on the wrong side of history, and just like bigots during the civil rights era, we're, including their own descendants, are going to look back at them in a few decades as pathetic human beings.
 

Meowster

Member
How ridiculous. I feel like this is the type of school my cousins would have gone to. Still find it funny that my conservative extremist southern Baptist extended family has at least three gay people in it. We have to protect each other lol.
 
Canonically, the original sin died with Jesus on the cross.

Ezekiel is OT though.

The Bible is filled with retcons, and it's practically impossible to reconcile the early and late books. There's a reason that Christian teachings mostly focus on the new testament.

Yup, my catechism was split roughly 50/50 between OT/NT, despite the fact that NT is tiny compared to OT.
 

Furyous

Member
I'm not surprised because this is the era of religious freedom. Religious freedom means an organization can discriminate against a group of people under the pretense of following religion. It's such a weird few year run for discriminatory bullshit policy religious freedom with one organization going out of their way to refuse to allow children of LGBTQIA parents to get baptized and now this BS rule.

SMH at organizations making up rules to drive people away and force members to conform or leave. Someone needs to get the federal government involved with this because practice should be illegal.
 
They absolutely have the right to do this. Thankfully sane parents absolutely have the right no not send their kids to this school, and hey, if someone gets expelled because of this BS they are honestly better off.
 

MJPIA

Member
http://ksn.com/2016/05/20/trinity-a...ort-of-expelling-students-with-gay-relatives/
Trinity says in a statement to KSN News that it would not and has not denied admission to a student simply because they have a sibling who is gay. They go on to to say they would neither necessarily deny admission to a student with same-sex attraction. Trinity says they do not condone sexual activity of any kind for their students whether heterosexual or homosexual.
https://lintvksnw.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/statement-may-20-2016.pdf
The foundation of Trinity Academy’s success is that we are dedicated to partnering with our families for the education of their students. Because of this dedication, our entire application process is designed to make sure new families know who we are and what we believe. Trinity Academy holds biblical views on human sexuality and gay marriage and we want prospective families to understand that. We feel that this is only fair given the disagreement and discord in our society over such issues. It is then up to the family as to whether they feel they can partner with Trinity and support these biblical Christian views.

Trinity would not and has not denied admission to a student simply because they have a sibling who is gay. Neither would we necessarily deny admission to a student with same sex attraction. We do not condone sexual activity of any kind for our students whether heterosexual or
homosexual.

Again, Trinity’s whole intent is to make sure families know what we believe so we can partner together successfully for the good of the students.
 
I almost went to this school. The whole contract they make you sign is ridiculous. No non-christian music(or "wild" Christian music)at home, and you aren't allowed to watch movies in a theater.
Stupid, crazy stuff. We had to beg my parents not to send us there. Luckily, they were also terrified by the prospect.
This is legit terrifying.

Feel really bad for the kids who go, though I imagine most of those rules aren't followed. But the fact that they exist is really, really unsettling.
 
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