Cranston School Committee Meeting January 18, 2012 Taylor Grenga and Jessica Ahlquist

I combined the two speeches here because after Taylor speaks out in support of removing the banner, she is booed by the audience. I noted that the boos did not come from fellow students, but from adults and parents who apparently don't know any better. As Jessica prepares to speak, you can hear Superintendent Peter Nero admit that his administration had basically failed in its efforts to provide a safe, protective environment for all students. To their credit, the recent spate of threats against Jessica seems to have pushed the School Committee and the school administration into action.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• prayer banner
• Jessica Ahlquist
• Cranston West High School
• School Committee
• Taylor Grenga

[kiastar67]

@kiastar67 Actually, a true Christian WOULD have murdered her and the entire town for one non believer. I guess you might want to read the bible. Read (2 Chronicles 15:12-13, Also Durt 13:13-19 "encouraging them to worship foreign gods. .. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock." Stop attempting to assign a gentle nature to a violent God.

[jdub94ful]

I want to meet Jessica and shake her hand, giver her a hug, something.

[jazzx251]

The telling-off seemed to work - nobody booed Jessica.

[XXXVIIIXCIV]

Kudos to you Jessica. Epic Win!

[theinfinitemouth]

@lawodis

The point of the Constitution is to both protect religion from government (to the extent that it also protects the liberty of others), but ALSO to protect the government from religion. Secularism does not mean "atheism" - it means that religion has no place in the halls of government, only law and reason. This banner can be seen as nothing short of an endorsement of a religion, and thus is an establishment of religion, as determined by the aforementioned SCOTUS cases.

[theinfinitemouth]

@lawodis

No, it doesn't explicitly state it, it is implied within the words. The founding fathers cemented the implication in both their public and private letters and statements. One simply needs to read the words of Adams, Jefferson and Madison in order to understand that this nation was intended to be in its entirety, a secular one.

This has been reaffirmed outright by 13 supreme court cases on the matter, dating back to 1948 (the height of "christiandom" in the USA)

[alienlifeform11]

@kiastar67 The old 'no true Scotsman' fallacy? You're right, historically speaking a 'true' christian would have murdered her.

[lawodis]

@TheShredworthy The religious clauses of the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". This enshrines separation of church and state in that the state is not allowed run religions like the church of england. The whole point is to protect religion against government, which is the opposite of what has happened here.

[TheShredworthy]

@autum1515 She is trying to enforce the constitution, not step on your Christian values. Those "Christians" very much did themselves in.

[TheShredworthy]

@lawodis No but it's enshrined by the clauses of the 1st amendment of the constitution.

[Mirani2]

Isn't this how it started in Salem? Two or three innocent girls harangued by a religiously hysterical crowd?