A Chattanooga, Tenn., area cheerleading team has been ordered to stop printing Bible verses and religious messages on banners at school football games. Since 2003, the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School team has displayed messages like “Commit to the Lord” and the banner to the right featuring a passage from the Book of Phillippians in the New Testament. When recent complaints came to local officials, the school system halted the practice. Local residents are outraged that the cheerleaders would be told not to use religious messages in their banners; They’ve responded with a rally at a local Chick-fil-A, and religious leaders are speaking out as well:
“The cheerleaders are not trying to push a religious cause, to shove religion down someone’s throat,” said local youth minister Brad Scott, who was LFO High’s class president in 2004. “The cheerleaders are just using Scripture to show motivation and inspiration to the players and the fans.”
A Chattanooga, Tenn., area cheerleading team has been ordered to stop printing Bible verses and religious messages on banners at school football games. Since 2003, the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School team has displayed messages like “Commit to the Lord” and the banner to the right featuring a passage from the Book of Phillippians in the New Testament. When recent complaints came to local officials, the school system halted the practice. Local residents are outraged that the cheerleaders would be told not to use religious messages in their banners; They’ve responded with a rally at a local Chick-fil-A, and religious leaders are speaking out as well:
“The cheerleaders are not trying to push a religious cause, to shove religion down someone’s throat,” said local youth minister Brad Scott, who was LFO High’s class president in 2004. “The cheerleaders are just using Scripture to show motivation and inspiration to the players and the fans.”
Messages on the Chattanooga Times Free Press Web site paint the picture of a deeply religious community:
I think that this is crazy..If you have a problem w/ the sign DON'T GO TO THE GAME!!! … We have so many people that have different religious beliefs and some people forget that GOD is who brought us here and I think that it is great that you have young teenage kids wanting to show scriptures from his book….
This ban truly is a travesty, but we must continue to remain strong together to overcome such oppression in these times where sin reigns supreme….
I was taught that in this country, the Majority rules, not the minority. If the majority votes to keep the signs, then I don't see a problem, except that the liberals won't like it. To bad.
Wow. If you don't want to listen to religious doctrine, don't go to your team's football games? Majority dictates law? Sin reigns supreme? I bet gay people have no trouble growing up or living in that community.
Hat tip to Bad Jocks.
