Admittedly, we don't know all the details. On its face, it appears the school's administrators fired her as a matter of policy for violating their allegedly Biblical, moral code -- which she knew full well when she took the job. My contention is that the school's wiser choice would have been to keep her on as an example to the children not only of genuine, Christian love, but of how to deal with life's inevitable failures. Instead, they have virtually branded her with the proverbial, scarlet A -- and cast her out to likely be a burden on society.
Compare this case with another recent one. An avowed atheist, protesting over a Nativity scene displayed on a courthouse lawn, threatened to file a lawsuit. Now before you read the article, which action do you think the local Baptist church took in response?
a) marched in a circle around his house while playing loud praise music and binding the demons of atheism in the spiritual realm during a mid-week prayer meeting
b) organized a boycott of the man's business, and forced his boss to fire him
c) stood on the courthouse lawn and prophesied in tongues - with proper interpretation, of course - that he would burn in hell for all eternity because of his wickedness
d) hid their children from him in Wal-Mart while they stared at him judgmentally
e) picketed the man's house with slogans of loving Christianity
f) none of the above
According to the article, "...when the Christians in a town that had reason to be angry with him showed him a gesture of love, he began reconsidering his beliefs altogether. He eventually began to realize that evolution would never have the answer to his questions, he says, and it was at that time he began to believe in God."
Imagine that! Instead of getting angry with the man, they showed him actual Christian love and -- wonder of wonders -- they won him over.
[Side note: as silly as those hypothetical actions sound - and they are - I spent some 25 years in those kinds of circles and believe me, they are very real things that very religious people do.]
Back to the strumpet -- er, lady who lost her job because of PWS. The school and its supporters surely believe they did the right thing. One person noted that if a teacher gets fired over a DUI, then it's equally acceptable for this one to lose her livelihood. This fallacious logic assumes that drunk driving -- which kills many thousands annually in our country -- is equally as criminal as being pregnant, which kills no one. Or that apples compare to train wrecks. (Or, for that matter, Obama compares to Hitler/Antichrist. See what I did there?) That comparison doesn't make sense on any level - but then again, I've been accused of drunken heresy for less.
If the teacher had had sex with a student - which happens daily - then she would deserve to be let go. I would even say that if she had an affair with a married co-worker, then that might deserve the same. I agree that adults who are in charge of kids should be held to a high standard in order to protect the kids -- don't put them in danger, don't have sex with them. This man, for example, is someone who should never have been in front of kids (and someone I once knew).
I certainly wouldn't throw stones at this woman, and some of you know why.
I certainly wouldn't throw stones at this woman, and some of you know why.
But let's keep it realistic here: criminal behavior such as DUI does not equal "pregnant while single" in any universe. Let's review Jesus' example of forgiving the harlot: not only did he not allow her to be punished under the law, he set her free. That is Christian love -- not what these morons did, who apparently decided to just skip over that part of the Bible. Yes, a teacher who gets a DUI obviously deserves to be fired, because DUI is and should be a crime. Pregnancy is not. How many teachers get fired from public schools for the egregious crime of being pregnant while single? At the absolute worst, the woman made a poor moral choice. The school's policy of firing her for it is patently retarded, even if they have (probable) legal standing because they are a private institution. Just because the school might have legal grounds to fire her doesn't make it right.
In fact, a statistically significant number of those girls will have sex before marriage, and many of them will get pregnant...and the school will kick them to the curb as well. Wishing those problems away by firing the teacher doesn't work on any level, spiritual or otherwise -- it only creates more unnecessary strife, and that is the only message they have sent to those kids. If my kids were in that school, I would immediately move them just out of protest if it was feasible -- or else ensure they understand why the school's administrators are wrong.
Besides that, how many more of their teachers should be fired for other non-criminal activity, such as consuming alcoholic beverages, watching R-rated movies, or (gasp!) reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel? Those non-criminal activities, besides being enjoyable, are much more akin to sex outside of marriage (especially the Vonnegut) than DUI.
The school's policy is arcane at best, and at worst it smacks of the very backwards hypocrisy that causes people like Pat Robertson to blame sinful people for natural disasters. No matter how you slice it, Bible-thumpers like these do little more than undermine Christianity. Perhaps if the pedagogical community -- both private and public -- were to teach kids a little more how to deal with life and a little less how to avoid it, our country might be just a little better off. Perhaps if the Christian community would just read their Bibles they so desperately claim to believe in, they wouldn't drive good people away so readily.
Here's the bottom line: if we fired every teacher, or for that matter every person in a position of authority over kids, because of simply poor moral choices, there would be very few teachers left. I'm no Bible-thumper, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't say that we need to cast people aside because of poor moral choices.
There is a faith that builds up, and a faith that tears down -- which one did the school exhibit?
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