Godless Dave

Buddhists? Terrorist attacks? Non sequitor.

brighid

Well, Sikhs aren’t violent nor are Buddhists, what about Taoists, or Wiccans? He is simply showing his religious bigotry. It’s OK for the Christian propagandists to come and they have such a glowing history of non-violence (as if), but Buddhists etc. would be questionable? There is plenty of evidence in the Bible to support a “terrorist” mentality and justify it, but I suppose he forgets about those parts.

Keep us informed about what happens and if you need any ideas or support, you know where to come!

B

cartman

That was going to be my first suggestion, as well, but I never got around to posting. (Honest!)

It seems you would win your bet.

Mendeh

If it's annoying for people that Christians are coming in and handing out fliers, then is it likely to be any less annoying were another religiously-motivated group to come in and do likewise?

Surely it's better to make an official complaint about your being disturbed by these nutters, rather than go and disturb loads more people from their lunch by doing the same as them to make a point about the school's religious two-facedness?

If the goal is to get the college to stop allowing recruit-groups to shove their literature in unwilling people's faces and distracting them from their lunch, surely it's better to complain than to form ANOTHER recruit-group to shove more literature in even more unwilling people's faces?

Make an official complaint, and make it clear that if nothing is done about it, you'll carry on complaining up the hierarchy until something happens. Don't do something that'll just annoy a load more people who are just trying to eat their lunch in peace, and which will make the officialty less likely to see your complaint as serious.

brighid

I agree, it would be a good choice to file a complaint (I think he has), but the likelihood that this action is going to stop is unlikely without the aide of outside intervention. It is also likely that there is going to be a student and our community back lash because of the Christian contingent in that area. All too often you hear them cry foul when someone opposes Christianity being pushed in public settings, but the MOMENT a non-Christian group attempt to have “equal” access those same Christians are vigilantly asserting their “constitutional” rights of separation of Church and State. I think demonstrating the other side of the equal access issue is an important one to teach students. Frankly, I don’t think ANY group should have unfettered access to school children during the day and in a public school setting I think ALL religious and political organizations should be banned until after school hours and for ONLY those students who freely choose to participate in these events or inquire about their movement. Those Christian parents WILL be up in arms if this school allowed Muslim, Atheists, Buddhists or Wiccans the same access to their children during school hours. If this student truly wants to permanently solve the problem, instead of temporarily relieving this annoyance I think it is imperative that this kind of step be taken to demonstrate the blatant and community sanctioned hypocrisy that is really at the heart of the matter.

B

Mendeh

I'm not an American, so take what I say with a pinch of salt. I'm just going by my experience of college on this side of the pond.

I'm just kind of worried that launching a counter-attack could easily turn more people against your cause than rally them around upholding a constitutional point that doesn't seem to be held in great esteem by that area anyway. Threatening to complain to the governers, and then the inspectorate, and so on up the ranks, might make it too much bother for the college NOT to do something about it. The danger of a counter-campaign is surely that you lose the legitimacy just as much as the Christians, and you rule out being able to press complaints through the official circles.

uprise

Another thing that comes into the spectrum is whether or not many kids in my high school would turn against me - it's a conservative area, and I don't know if I'm ready to accept all of the hard feelings. Making a difference is incredibly important to me - but so is my mental well being.

tragic_pizza

According to federal law, if the principal did not allow the Bhuddist group to meet (providing it met the minimum criteria of a student-led club outside of curricular hours) then he would be breaking the law.

GaryP

I would advise you to tread lightly. If your "mental well-being" is important to you, try to think of a more anonymous approach.

Perhaps you could order some "non-tracts" from the Freedom from Religion Foundation <a href="http://ffrf.org/" target="_blank">ffrf.org</a>

You could put these around where people could find them and feel good about getting your viewpoint out without the potential ill feelings.

Of course, if you can rally several people to your cause, you would not have to bear the brunt of the whole thing.

Then maybe when you are out of school, you could take a more visible route to gaining greater C/S separation in the school.

And I was wondering, I have written to Mr. Haynes also. Is he now with the ACLU, or is he still with the Freedom Forum?

uprise

Well, when I was referred to him, it was because he is affiliated with the ACLU...but I think he is still with the Freedom Forum.