Anti-Islam T-shirts Rile Fla. School

(CBS/AP)  A lawyer for a north Florida school district says a handful of students have been sent home from Alachua County schools this week for wearing shirts that read "Islam is of the Devil."

School district staff attorney Tom Wittmer says the shirts might have offended or distracted others and violated the district's dress code.

The shirts are connected to a local church called the Dove World Outreach Center. Church Senior Pastor Terry Jones tells The Gainesville Sun that spreading the church's message is more important than education.

See a picture of the shirt from the Gainesville Sun

The congregation says a 10-year-old elementary school student was sent home Monday because of the shirt. Three high school students were sent home Tuesday and a middle school student also had to change clothes.

"Students have a right of free speech, and we have allowed students to come to school wearing clothes with messages," Wittmer said, according to the Gainesville Sun. "But this message is a divisive message that is likely to offend students. Principals, I feel reasonably, have deemed that a violation of the dress code."

"The next kid might show up with a shirt saying 'Christianity is of the Devil,'" Wittmer told the newspaper.

First Amendment scholars said the school district's policy is likely legal and constitutional. Ron Collins, a scholar with the nonprofit First Amendment Center in Washington D.C., said courts give public school officials a "significant amount of latitude" in regulating student dress that could disrupt the classroom or a school function, the newspaper reported.

[hungry1968-16]

Musictote,

Correct - my life IS but a drop in the bucket, a tiny blip of time in eternity. And you can try to absolve your god actions because he allegedly lives forever, which is what I'm assuming you mean by "eternity", though I don't understand what one has to do with the other. But his actions are hardly "capricious". Capricious is defined as "on a whim" or "impulsive". Your god's actions are NOT impulsive. They are evil and brutal. You do not order WHOLE cities to be slaughtered - every man, woman, child, and beast - and the city burnt to the ground, "on a whim". Especially when he orders it done at least 6 times.

Was I hurt by christians? Of course!! Organized religion hurts EVERYONE. Those brainwashed by it, as well as the victims they segregate and persecute for simply being non-believers. If you morons would just keep your religious beliefs to yourself, practice them at home or in your church, then I wouldn't have a problem with it.

It's when you inject your bigoted and intolerant views into America's political system, which our founding fathers tried to prevent, that you become most dangerous. Bush was elected in 2004, because Karl Rove started rumors that if Kerry was elected, gay marriages would be everywhere, and abortion clinics would appear on every corner. This brought the religious right out in force to vote for Bush, and he won again - and America lost.

Then comes the "Office of Faith Based Initiatives", which is nothing but "religious profiling". Racial profiling is illegal, but religious profiling is acceptable? Really? The result is that many inner city clinics had their federal funding cutoff, because they distributed condoms and birth control pills, (which is OBVIOUSLY a good thing), instead of preaching "abstinence only" like they were ORDERED to do. The result of that is an explosion of unwanted teen pregnancies which rose to all time highs.

Then there's the discrimination, profiling, and intolerance directed at gays that want to marry each other. "The Home of the Free -- except for you, and you, and definitely not you, not you, not you......"

I have no need for "organized religion". And I'm not just saying "no to christianity" - I'm saying no to ALL of them. There's NO DIFFERENCE between the intolerance and bigotry of islam, than there is in christianity or judaism.

Like I said - you want to worship to an imaginary being, that's your problem. Keep it between yourself and your church. Just keep it out of America's political system. You want to involve your religion in a political system? Then move to the Vatican, Israel, or Pakistan's Swat Valley, where they appreciate bigotry and religion fueled intolerance.

By the way, more and more people are wising up and abandoning organized religion. Pretty soon, your type will be a "fringe" movement like the "birthers" or "tea baggers". And it can't come soon enough for me.

http://b27.cc.trincoll.edu/weblogs/AmericanReligionSurvey-ARIS/reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf

[MrHoBe]

It is about time Christians began standing up for their beliefs in this country, and taking advantage of the same freedoms of speech and protections afforded under the Constitution that other religions and non-believers have used to attack Christianity for many years.

There is a misinterpretation amongst Christians that they should allow themselves to be walked all over. In Luke 22:36: Jesus says "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." To everything there is a season and sometimes Christians need to protect and defend themselves and their beliefs.

[Musictote]

So let's see, hungry...you say God is atrocious, full of misdeeds and evil. Right?

You have neither eyes to see nor ears to hear. You are foolish, yet you call yourself wise. You don't see that your life is but a drop in the bucket, a tiny blip of time in eternity. You see God's actions on earth as reprehensible but have not an iota of His sense of eternity. God sees with eyes that go forward and back; what we may consider to be earthly, capricious actions He considers to be timely and just, with eternity in mind.

I notice that you have quite a bit of free time here. You've made many posts over two days, defaming Christians, hoping to convince people that you, a hater and defamer of God, are superior to "organized religion" and even superior to God.

So what's up with that? Who are you to judge God? What are you so angry about? Why is it not okay for people to go on believing in Him--why do you have to spend two days flaming the Almighty, throwing written arrows at His believers?

Were you hurt by Christians? If so, I'm sorry. No Christian is perfect, but we should do better than to inflict pain on others. Sometimes we fail, but the point is to look to Christ, not to us, for salvation.

If not--if your hatred is philosophical rather than personal--I assert that you could make better use of your time elsewhere and that you also make a VERY poor case for atheism. Who would want to follow you, to believe what you believe, when you're so obviously miserable and have so much time on your hands to flame other people's beliefs?

At any rate, you have my prayers today. If nothing else, your flame war with Christians have driven boatloads of prayer to you, whether you want them or not.

[hungry1968-16]

by ToolMangler1 August 26, 2009 11:06 PM EDT
by hungry1968-16 August 26, 2009 4:12 PM EDT
"I don't understand why CHRISTIANS are attacking this "church". They're following GOD's WORDS closer than any other christians are!"

No they aren't, because Jesus himself had no use for "Organized Religion"
Go read the Christian New Testament and discover that Jesus himself called "organized religion" a "Whited sepulcher". That was his sole purpose, to make GOD reachable by the common man, to give GOD back to the people that the organized church had stolen for themselves. But so many lump him in with the thieves of the organized church that his sacrifice is ignored and hidden. That is the biggest shame of mankind that I know of.







Jesus isn't the "religion". Your "god" is.

And there is no more evil or despicable "entity" in the pages of the bible, then "god" himself.

He makes radical islamic extremists, look like a girl scout meeting.



Funny too how you ignore the old testament. Do you also ignore Abraham and Sarah? (And the fact that Abraham pimped out the "Mother of Israel"?) Do you deny the existence of the old testament, simply to absolve your god of the atrocities of leviticus, exodus, genesis, and ESPECIALLY deuteronomy?

Keep in mind that you have to acknowledge the old testament to recognize "creation", "the seven deadly sacraments", "the ten commandments" etc, so if you're going to deny the atrocities that he committed / ordered to be committed, then you're also going to deny these silly myths.

So where do you stand? Do you deny "creation" and "Noah's Ark", or do you properly denounce that "god" as the most immoral and inhumane being that ever existed?

Which is it?

[Resin-Smoker]

I logged back in after about an hour to discover that so many of the comments have been removed... last time i was on I saw 111 comments and now there are 13, not counting this one.

What the hell is going on at CBS where user comments are being omitted and removed after they are posted?? Very shady to see censorship here, this definetly undermines your credibility as news source.

[Resin-Smoker]

Imagne if all the religious zealots, bible thumpers, politicians, corperate CEO's, lawyers, criminals and wako's, were on a planet together. On this planet they could each cheat, lie, steal and kill each other off as they see fit. Of coarse it would all done in the name of religion, profit, ideology...

Ain't it strange how this concept sounds just like the planet we live on now.

[babooph]

Parents sending a 10 year old out with that foolishness on?They should be investigated in case they are doing some serious harm to the child.

[hungry1968-16]

by mrdavidkolds August 26, 2009 6:36 PM EDT
In Muslim majority countries Muslims do more than wear t-shirts; they persecute and kill Christians, just because they are Christians. They are taught to hate Christians and Jews in their text books! Why don't I hear Saeed R. Khan complaining about that? The Dept of State puts together the INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT every year. Google it and read it. Be warned. It may be a little "offensive" (sarcasm).







And here's this nonsensical argument again: "The OTHER religion does it, so we can do it too!!"



Bad news for you dude, ALL religions are the problem!!!

[mrdavidkolds]

In Muslim majority countries Muslims do more than wear t-shirts; they persecute and kill Christians, just because they are Christians. They are taught to hate Christians and Jews in their text books! Why don't I hear Saeed R. Khan complaining about that? The Dept of State puts together the INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT every year. Google it and read it. Be warned. It may be a little "offensive" (sarcasm).

[hungry1968-16]

by hungry1968-16 August 26, 2009 5:13 PM EDT

You worship at the altar of Liberalism, yet defame organized religion, who's only goal is sprirituality and love for one another.






Love for one another, huh?

Let's take a peek at your bible and see what it says about this universal love fest:


"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death." (Leviticus 20:10) I guess someone should go and take care of Mark Sanford and John Ensign now, right?


"A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9) WOW!! All of those kids that are experimenting with sex without being married, must all be put to death, huh?


"Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed." (Exodus 22:19) There are approximately 2.1 BILLION christians on this planet, and according to the US census the world population is now 6,780,000,000. That's 4.68 BILLION people that you need to put to death. Where are you going to start, "Mr. Peaceful and Loving Religion"?

[ToolMangler1]

Have you ever read the entire Christian Bible? I doubt it. Do you know the difference in Mosaic Law and Christian Law? I doubt it. let me give you a quick short intro...



Those that enjoy science always see it as the ultimate answer. Using 'science' they have found thousands of possible reasons for existance. The Mathematically gifted have seen the 'universe' in an equation. and that is answer enough for them. For me the answer is still unfolding with the realization that GOD has a reason for making us and it wasn't to have someone to praise his name. he can do that with a thought. So in my mind and heart I ask, "what could GOD need from a species that is so hard to teach? I have pondered this most of my life and once in a while I think I might have a faint glimmer. When ever I come to that point, I always wish I had written it down after it has gone. This time is different. I have this vision of GOD as I have always known him but with a difference. This time I get the impression of a lonely entity with all powers, but that of competition with him/herself, 'competition' is probably not the word I should use but right now it is all I have. If I were a 'All powerful" I would want to share, 'everything' for eternity. Being the only one would be a drag (even if I were a 3 in 1 (tripartite) being. 'One' is a lonely number, like the song says.


My puny mind sees the the universe as a petri dish (even that is wrong, but again...) That we have 'self determination' goes without saying. The 'creator' has given us free will and the ability to discern right from wrong. he (for lack of a better word) has given his commands for us to follow and time after time has revamped his way of dealing with us. Making us in his image (reasoning, self-aware and innovative) he tried to guide us (the beginning) in his way of doing things, that having not gone the way he hoped, he turned us loose to live or die by our own hands. I see him gently nudging us along and every body resisting (parental guidance) and going our own way. It looks like at more than one time we got too big for our britches and needed reigning in and also at one juncture we almost were eradicated but he stopped short and allowed life to continue because a few had started to resemble the beings he was interested in having around him later on. By no means am I trying to assign a timeline to this exercise in thought because time has no meaning to a (to us) eternal being. Impressions are all I have to work with. The many attempts to form a 'GODs' people came very short of the goals that had been set. In the latter days a modified policy was born in the form of a human frame for one portion of this tremendous being, that form was shown as something 'man' had not created by having been born of a virgin.