Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
This was quite predictable, mostly because it is what always happens in such situations. Remember the situation in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where a teacher named John Freshwater is being investigated for a whole range of church/state violations? It's divided up the whole school and any kid who is viewed as not sufficiently enthusiastic in support of Freshwater is being harassed and bullied.
Beth Murdoch, whose daughter attends the middle school, is one of the parents who has expressed concerns about the sometimes hostile environment at the middle school."You're either for Mr. Freshwater or you're against Mr. Freshwater. There's no in between," Murdoch said. "In the kids' minds, I think, it is just the Bible issue. And who is going to go against the Bible? Nobody. But it seems like the 'Christians' are using that as an excuse to gang up on the 'atheists.'
Some of the details are frightening:
"My daughter Arie told me about a Jewish child who brought his Torah to school when other students brought Bibles in support of Freshwater," she continued. "He thought he was supporting freedom of religious expression, and the other kids just ripped him apart. 'What are you doing?' they asked. 'You can't support Mr. Freshwater, you're Jewish.' So they don't get it."I don't think people realize the depth of what's going on between the students. It's a mob mentality right now. It's peer pressure. To not wear a T-shirt and to not bring your Bible when they say bring your Bible and wear a T-shirt, you're asking for trouble."
Murdoch said one of Arie's friends wore a T-shirt to school that read, "I don't need to wear a special T-shirt to be a Christian." That individual was reportedly pushed into the lockers and called a "stupid atheist b****." That is not acceptable in Murdoch's mind.
This is from a parent of a student. Here's another parent's report:
Christine Hamilton has two sons in the middle school."They have gotten harassed," she said, "because they are friends with the boy [whose parents filed the complaint against Freshwater]. In our country, everyone's allowed their religious opinion, but some of the middle school kids are just jumping on a bandwagon. If you're not for Mr. Freshwater, you are going to be harassed. That is flat out what is happening in the middle school. Therefore, I think a lot of kids are for Mr. Freshwater because they don't want to be harassed, they don't want to be singled out. And who wants to be against the Bible? Nobody.
"This whole thing has divided the community," Hamilton added. "I think a lot of kids who don't blindly support Freshwater have decided, 'Boy, friends that we thought we had, are not friends.' It's even coming out on the soccer field. ... This is the United States of America. You're supposed to accept everybody for who they are, and none of this is supposed to matter. That is very frustrating to me. As a Christian, you shouldn't judge anybody. ... We all believe in different things. I personally might not agree with the way you believe or the way you practice, but we can still be friends."
This is one of the main reasons why church and state are separate, because when they come together it causes enormous strife and divides communities and turns them against one another.
Comments
Isn't it wonderful how religion brings people together?
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | May 8, 2008 9:53 AM
"And Jesus spoketh unto the crowd and said, 'Hate thy fellow man!' And the crowd doth listened."
I can't seem to find this in the Bible. Could someone direct me to the right passage?
Posted by: llDayo | May 8, 2008 10:22 AM
Why don't they just all wear T-shirts that read "Young fascists for Jesus" and be done with it? Because that is exactly how they are behaving.
Posted by: Elaine | May 8, 2008 10:30 AM
Bubba 2:17. It's part of the Sermon on the Science Class.
Posted by: kehrsam | May 8, 2008 10:31 AM
Earlier some of us speculated what would happen if someone brought in a book (other than the bible) to class. Well:
Yep it's all about a first amendment right to express a relgious opinion. NOT! -DJ
Religious wingnuts unite, you have nothing to lose but your tiny minds!
Posted by: DingoJack | May 8, 2008 10:34 AM
A few years ago I read Robert Alley's book Without a Prayer: Religious Expression in Public Schools. He deals directly with specific instances of people who were harassed, taunted, insulted, ruined, and physically harmed for the crime of going against the religious majority and standing on the First Amendment, as opposed to the Bible.
One of the points I remember him making is that, although there are violations on both sides, when the overzealous principal who tells the 3rd grader she can't read her Bible in school is informed otherwise, he or she will almost always back down very quickly. It rarely goes to the courts - and when it does, the student has the backing of the community.
It's very different when it is the Christians overstepping the legal bounds of separation of church and state. The local folk go into a tyrannical frenzy, and it's reflected in the schools. This case sounds like par for the course -- though, as Alley demonstrates, it can get a lot worse.
Posted by: Sastra | May 8, 2008 10:54 AM
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | May 8, 2008 11:11 AM
Christians fighting Christians and somehow atheists are still to blame. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Posted by: Abby Normal | May 8, 2008 11:50 AM
Looks like we have some major cultish activity going on, but since the cult leader (1) hasn't strayed too far from the theology of the larger community, and (2) hasn't been molesting any students [below the eyebrows, anyway], he gets to stroke his martyr complex in public to what appears to be large crowds of admirers.
This whole scandal is highly reminiscent of "The Wave," except it isn't a mind-control experiment gone awry, it's just mind-control.
And the campaign of intimidation and even violence against the slightest expression of dissent is offensive in the extreme.
Posted by: Farb | May 8, 2008 12:02 PM
"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America...In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them. Not that he is in danger of an auto-da-fe, but he is exposed to continued obloquy and persecution."
Alexis de Tocqueville,Democracy in America
Posted by: James Hanley | May 8, 2008 12:11 PM
Posted by: James Hanley | May 8, 2008 12:13 PM
Students supporting Freshwater! "Only christians need apply."
Posted by: tincture | May 8, 2008 12:18 PM
Jewish students can support salt water if they want at Mt Vernon. -:) DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | May 8, 2008 12:20 PM
It's in there:
Luke 14:25-27
25Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Posted by: Wes | May 8, 2008 2:41 PM
So, then, Christianity is opposed to family values?
Well, yes, in a way, it is. But that goes lost on lots of knee-jerk Christians.
And then, of course, "carrying one's cross" didn't ever mean you got to beat anyone else to death with it in the 1st Century; it meant you were going to be nailed to it.
Posted by: Farb | May 8, 2008 2:55 PM
This must be the glorious place to which religion takes you. According to Ben Stein anyway.
Posted by: ZacharySmith | May 8, 2008 4:21 PM
This sounds so strange to me. It would never happen where I am from and it is hard to believe it ever happens. But I have gotten around a lot the last few years and seen some places where religious assholes rule the roost. If the guy is teaching his propaganda then he needs to stop. Even if he is right school is no place to indoctrinate anyone into anything. This goes for all beliefs and views. It is hard to understand what threatens these people so much. What is wrong with other viewpoints? What a bunch of Nazi's
Posted by: King of Ireland | May 8, 2008 5:51 PM
>>>Murdoch said one of Arie's friends wore a T-shirt to school that read, "I don't need to wear a special T-shirt to be a Christian." That individual was reportedly pushed into the lockers and called a "stupid atheist b****."
Not to sound too over-the-top, but is it any wonder how easily Nazism was able to take over Germany in the 1930s? All you need is a universal scapegoat (in this case, a non-Christian), and it's off to the races.
Plus, I wonder if these incidents strike any Christians who constantly grouse about persecution against their brethren in America as ironic?
Posted by: CHV | May 8, 2008 7:16 PM
...but it's ATHEISTS who believe that might makes right. Right?
Yeah, right...
Posted by: Raging Bee | May 8, 2008 9:18 PM
Frankly I think this is all adequately explained by my "children are evil little bastards" theory.
I mean it's not like mob behaviour and ruthless persecution of the slightest deviation from peer mores is unusual for children of this age.
Posted by: James K | May 9, 2008 1:06 AM
I agree with James K. It's pretty much Lord of the Flies out there, and the "Children are evil" theory pretty much explains the pattern of abusive, horrible behavior we've been seeing.
Children are horrid little sociopathic monsters, who are good at little more than parroting, bullying, looking disarmingly cute at the times they know you most want to murder them. And perhaps chasing imaginary wild super-boars. But we all knew deep down that it was only a matter of time before they figured out that children of other religions, particularly minority ones, would be easier targets than imaginary boars or stray dogs.
We all knew this day was coming.
Posted by: Leni | May 9, 2008 2:09 AM
It's a sad state of affairs when kids start adopting the "holier than thou" attitude of their parents.
Posted by: NP | May 9, 2008 2:43 AM
RE: "children are evil"
They were taught this crap by adults! They are expressing in public what their parents are saying in private. The hostile ones are indeed little fascists. But that's what they were trained to be. The soldiers who reported the abuses at Abu Graib were also vilified in their small town redneck communities. President Bush said, "You're either with us, or you're with the terrorists."
Posted by: uncle noel | May 9, 2008 9:36 AM
"Children are horrid little sociopathic monsters" when their elders allow and encourage them to be. When I was in grade-school, we all made fun of the "unusual" kids from time to time (the Jew, the atheist, the kid whose ears stuck out); but it NEVER lasted or really got out of hand, because the adults set a clearly contrary example, and punished the kids who didn't follow it. Even those of us who didn't get directly punished, eventually gave up being bigots simply because the attitude wasn't fed or reinforced.
This incident is ENTIRELY the fault of adults who are encouraging kids to be their worst, not their best. They're bullies, cowards, and poisoning the kids' minds just as surely as a sexual molester would. They should be treated as molesters; that's what they are.
Posted by: Raging Bee | May 9, 2008 11:14 AM
Somewhat OT:
In Billings MT (my home town) 20 years ago, there was a case of anti-semitism. Crosses were burned on Jewish lawns, rocks were thrown through the front windows of Jewish houses. The bigots kenw which houses to target, because they had Menohrahs(sp?) or the Star of David displayed in their front windows. As the violence escalated, several of the local Christian preachers, not content with simply preaching against the bigotry, began distributing Menorah window signs to their congregations. In a few days it was hard - if not impossible - to figure out which houses to target, because so many had these signs of support.
I wonder how this case would play out in Mt. Vernon Ohio in the current culture?
Second rhetorical question:
Would you be willing to place a Star of David in your window to fight anti-Semitism? A Star-and-Crescent?
And how many "Christians" in your neighborhood would do the same?
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | May 9, 2008 5:06 PM
Because violent abuse is not something we can all agree is wrong.
Posted by: Scott Hanley | May 9, 2008 8:37 PM
From the comments at the Mt. Vernon News website, April 17:
Wow, imagine if it was .... [/irony]
Posted by: Scott Hanley | May 9, 2008 8:53 PM
uncle noel, Raging Bee: They may have been introduced to this conflict by adults, but I firmly believe that their behaviour is entirely natural. Children will naturally form factions and ruthlessly persecute outgroups. Getting children to act like civilised human beings requires about a decade (or more) of socialisation. Until this socialisation has taken place, children are either (as Leni puts it) "horrid little sociopathic monsters", or as I prefer, evil little bastards.
Posted by: James K | May 10, 2008 12:48 AM
Raging bee, I agree with you. The parents are responsible for the behavior of their rotten little monsters.
Posted by: Leni | May 10, 2008 10:43 AM
Article from the Columbus Dispatch today:
Posted by: Coin | May 13, 2008 3:42 PM
Wow, you know I've never heard of this one, honestly. In my area it was the Christian kid who got harassed to the point where her family had to move. Death threats, teachers telling them they are bad people, etc.
I figured it had to happen somewhere but I didn't expect it to be so... harsh. As a Christian I am ashamed that anyone would say they come to show God's love and do such horrific things.
Posted by: Javits | October 3, 2008 9:38 PM
The Christian militancy in Mt Vernon is nothing new. In 1960 in Boulder Colorado, a group of Jewish parents tried to request quietly that their children not be required to participate in the school Christmas program, singing religious Christmas carols. The school board retaliated with a hugely publicized meeting at which Christians "protecting" their "right" (or whatever) to impose their Christmas agenda on everybody turned out en masse -- it was a regular mob scene. One Christian stood up and screamed (to applause): "I'm a Christian & by God I'll kill anyone who isn't." And these were the parents & other adults! So the support in Mt Vernon for John Freshwater's assaults on "non-Christians" is right in line with the militant Christianity any time its hegemony is threatened. For the last 2 decades, these assaults on basic American liberty have been monitored and coordinated at a national level. Onward Christian Soldiers, indeed!!
Posted by: Livy | October 5, 2008 3:11 PM