Skip to main content

And the Christian Legal Society shall lie down with Lambda Legal Defense...

When conservative Christian groups agree with gay rights groups, when arch-conservatives in the vein of Ann Coulter line up with the ACLU ... can moshiach be far behind?

For those who haven't heard: Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court rendered its controversial decision in Morse v. Frederick, in which a high school student was suspended for displaying a banner that said "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" across the street from his school. The student claimed that he simply meant the sign to be funny. It appears that he was seeking attention during the Olympic torch run past his school, and probably wanted to annoy his principal. The principal and the school defended their actions, claiming that this banner was a pro-drug message and they had the right to suppress student speech regarding drugs.

The case attracted attention across the political spectrum, and garnered a remarkable array of amicus curiae briefs (arguments by "friends of the court," people not directly involved in the case, advocating one side or the other). Both conservative Christians and drug legalization advocates lined up with the student ... drug advocates presumably agreeing with the "bong hits" part of the sign while Christians favored the "4 Jesus" part. Gays and conservatives both sided with the student, recognizing that their points of view are offensive to some and that this case could allow schools to censor their side of a debate. The ACLU has a lengthy list of pro-student amicus briefs on their website, linked below, and the ACLU list links to the complete text of each brief.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court took the side of the school, but conservative Christians will be pleased to know that the court took issue only with the "bong hits" part of the sign and not with the "4 Jesus" part of the sign. The High Court upheld the suspension on grounds that preventing illegal drug use is part of the school's mission.

The following links go to sites not under my control. They were accurate at the time I wrote this post, but may disappear at any time:

Comments

reddhairedgirl said…
I haven't been able to find a way to contact you, so I'm doing it here! :) I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate this website!! I am a gentile and a Christian. As I study the old testament and try to understand the context of Jesus' upbringing as a jewish infant/toddler/boy/man I am grateful for the insight you have provided me and the interest in the jewish culture, history and faith you have stirred in me!
8/09/2007 10:25 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Moses know he was a Hebrew?

It seems to be a common notion, perpetuated by movies like Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments  and Disney's Prince of Egypt , that Moses grew up as a high-level member of Pharaoh's household with no idea that he was a Hebrew. But does that notion fit in with what it says in the Bible, or what Jewish tradition teaches about Moses? This week's Torah portion is Shemot, the beginning of the book of Exodus, so it's a good time to examine this question. We actually know very little about Moses' childhood from the Bible. Pharaoh had ordered all male children to be thrown into the Nile River at birth (Ex. 1:22). While that order was in effect, a boy was born to a man of the tribe of Levi and his wife, also of that tribe (Ex. 2:1-2). The parents are later identified (Num. 26:59) as Amram an Yocheved (that "ch" is pronounced like a throat-clearing noise). Yocheved could not bear to throw her beautiful new son to his death, so she hid him away for three mont...
Read more

Being Jewish at Christmas

Last March, I heard a DJ talking about March Madness, the annual insanity surrounding a college basketball tournament. She wasn't interested in it, but everyone in her office was obsessed with it. They had an office pool, a constant barrage of emails and parties to watch every game on TV. The DJ didn't want to be a part of it, but her co-workers pressured her to get involved. They tried to get her to participate in the pool, but she insisted that she didn't even know the names of the teams. Her co-workers assured her that it didn't matter who she bet on, it would be fun to play. They wouldn't take no for an answer. She wasn't trying to spoil their fun, but she wanted to be left alone. As I heard her talk about her frustration, I thought, "Now you know how it feels to be Jewish at Christmas." Think of something that you're not interested in but that everybody else seems to be talking about. Maybe it's a sporting event: March Madness, the Superbo...
15 comments
Read more

Genetic Genealogy and the Ashkenazi Problem

Today is National DNA Day. DNA testing has become increasingly popular for genealogy purposes, and the Jewish community is no exception to this trend. This is clear from this year's IAJGS conference on Jewish Genealogy , which is boasting in-depth DNA workshops and has more than 20 lectures related to DNA on its schedule. But DNA testing for genealogy purposes poses a special problem for Jews, often called the Ashkenazi Problem: Jews tend to marry Jews, and Jews who do not marry Jews tend to drop out of the Jewish community, and we have been doing that for so long in such a small population that we all tend to have a lot of DNA in common. The technical term for this is "endogamy," or in other words, inbreeding.  As a result, one study found that the average Jewish DNA tester matched 54% of all testers with any Jewish heritage! Compare this with gentile testers, who matched less than 1% of all testers with gentile ancestry. But if you are Jewish and interested ...
Post a Comment
Read more