Desperate times require desperate measures

Well, here we are with the return of football season, and with it comes those wonderful times to be enjoyed at our local high school on Friday night again! Once again we can all flock to our public high school football stadium to watch and cheer our home team on to victory, right!? Not so fast there friend. Once again our local “Christian” populace has other ideas in store for us. They have a different war strategy planned and are once again waiting and lurking in the wings to launch yet another attack on the federal law and to once again show that the ACLU is not going to win the battle. So they think and hope at least. This time at least one of the local church's youth ministers has enlisted an army of children to go out and do his dirty work. That’s right, a youth minister. What they are now doing is giving these children a hand full of business card like cards to shove into anyone’s hand that will take it, not knowing what it is yet.
Now let’s have a look at these cards. On one side of the card there is the “Lords Prayer” printed and at the bottom is the request that the holder of the card joins with the rest of the people at 7:20 pm in reading aloud this prayer. Now I ask you, just what does this action accomplish? So you get a group of people to read aloud from this card in their hands the “Lords Prayer”, so what? Alright, you prove that people can read. Big deal! If you are looking to glorify God you have failed miserably. If you are looking to defy a federal law and snub your nose at the ACLU, well, you may have gained a little ground. Are you looking to win souls to God? Not happening, failed again.
Alright, now let’s look a bit closer at these cards. As I stated earlier, they have the “Lords Prayer” on one side with the request that the holder join in at the prescribed time to read them aloud. So, if that were all there was to the cards and they were used in some different venue then it could possibly be taken that they were meant to accomplish a different goal. With just the message on one side of the card the focus of the card is mostly, if not completely on a prayer to God. Not too bad, commendable effort. However, on the reverse side of the card guess what we find! A list of sponsors! A list of the names of those whom I guess aided in covering the cost of these cards! So now what do we have? You got it! Advertising! And what better way to get your advertising material out and into the hands of the public but through your own personal army of children who are misguided into thinking that they are doing something good and for their God. How utterly shameful! So now you see the shift in the focus of the cards? With just the message on one side the focus of the intent of the card is to a prayer to God. However, when you add the list of sponsors on the back you end up with the focus now directed at the sponsors. People will then think of them instead of what the cards are purportedly meant to accomplish. They will then think, “Hey! I know him. He is one of our local Vets. He must be a Christian, the next time my cat is sick I should take her to him!” You will never convince me that this was something that these people were doing as a means of glorifying God. If that were the case then they would not have wanted their names on those cards. They wanted people to know and see what they had done for the cause! Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war! See the contribution that I have made toward the war effort against these infidels! Well, you know what? I don’t believe God would have a part in this war, and he certainly wouldn’t participate in the manner in which this is being done.
These people, including it would seem the pastors in the local churches are teaching these children that it is quite alright to harm and disrespect others when it comes to matters of your faith. You are not to concern yourself with whether or not you are insulting or offending someone else, all that matters is that you are permitted to force your religious practices and beliefs upon others anywhere and at any time you may see fit. If they are offended, tough! You only need to respect the feelings of other Christians. If they aren’t a Christian then they aren’t worth consideration. It is the duty of all Christians to stick together and bully others either into leaving or into submission. This is the message that the actions of the Christian population here in the Pace, Florida area are sending out to the community. They have pushed this war to the extent that they are causing some of their own members now to question the wisdom of their actions. Their own young people are beginning to tire of hearing their mantra preached over and over in church every Sunday. If they aren’t careful they will begin to chase away some of their own flock. Perhaps God is tiring of seeing his name being used to forward an unjust cause and is beginning to move among his followers. These ministers should maybe beware and reconsider their stand and allegiance with someone who chooses to blatantly violate the law unnecessarily and supposedly does so in Gods name. God does not advocate violating the law of the land, he never has. Frank Lay, by his actions is teaching our young people that it is acceptable to violate the law, disrespect others and violate the civil rights of other citizens of this community. Is this what we want our children to learn? Is this what we call a “good Christian role model?” Not in my household. He holds the title of principal. We as children are taught to identify principal from principle by the “pal” at the end of principal. This person is supposed to be a “pal” to the students in his charge. Well, in this case, Frank Lay is obviously only a “pal” to those students who are of the Christian faith.
Soon I will myself have to decide what action I may have to take considering the effect that this is now having on my own two children who attend Pace High School. This mess has become such a distraction that it is beginning to interfere with their ability to keep their focus on their studies. They are and have continuously been “A” to “A-B” honor role students and participate in advanced placement classes. So I now find myself having to consider the negative impact this is beginning to have on my children. I wonder if this is even something that the School Board has considered. Another thing that we are now seeing is that students who are of the Christian faith are beginning to boldly harass and badger other students that they know to not be of the Christian faith. Now isn’t that just wonderful? Well, what do you expect considering the example that they are being given to follow by their principal, pastors and parents and other adults within the Christian community? You are now finding that children at school who were once friends now don’t even talk to one another because of this mess. This community is also very quick to lay the blame for this mess at the feet of the two children whom it would seem did what they felt they had to in order to protect themselves and their rights. It is very easy for them to ignore or even completely dismiss the fact that this wouldn’t have ever come to pass if Frank Lay had not violated the law in the first place. Frank Lay is such a good Christian man that the blame can’t possibly be his, it has to be the fault of the two children who are so obviously not of the Christian faith. This is the glaringly obvious opinion of this Christian community and evidenced by some of the call in opinions left with our local Santa Rosa Press Gazette Paper where statements such as;

Sunday, 9 a.m.Yes, this is Lynn. I would like to congratulate Pace for standing up for what they believe in. Good luck to you and I appreciate the great job you did at your graduation. The two who wanted to cause all of this mess you should have been home schooled and not caused this mess or not go to school at all.

Friday, 8:38 a.m.This is Jessie from Pace. I would like to talk about this stuff going on about the schools. The two students who filed the lawsuit. They will have to answer for there’s later. But what they messed up on is when they took God out of the classroom. Now students are taking sexual photos of themselves on the bus and they bust out peoples windows. God bless Frank Lay. The two cowards need to be rain out of the country on a split rail.

Now I ask you, aren’t these just a couple of fine examples of a good Christian community? I just know that the community is proud of the stand that these two brave individuals have taken against these two children who chose to take steps to protect themselves from the wrongs being committed against them. Simply amazing!
Well, I suppose I have covered this latest event in the ongoing Frank Lay, prayer at school debacle here in Pace, Florida pretty well. Who knows, maybe things will get better after September 17, 2009. Who am I kidding? It will probably only get worse no matter which way the court rules. If Frank Lay wins, it will only serve to empower them even more. If he loses then there will be even more blatant and viciously outraged outbursts from the Christian extremists. I guess this is what we get though for allowing them to get away with violating the law for the last fifty plus years. Oh well, better late than never huh?