AFA Cries "Oppressed Christians!".....this time for an OH teacher with a bible on his desk....

[marmar]

from the American Family Association's OneNewsNow, which is to news what Spam is to haute cuisine:



Christian teacher faces persecution, sues school
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 10/13/2008 9:55:00 AM



An Ohio school teacher who was suspended without pay for refusing to remove a Bible from his desk is getting a chance to plead his case.

John Freshwater has been working odd jobs in order to make ends meet while waiting to plead his case in an open hearing. The hearing will determine whether Freshwater will be able to keep his job as a science teacher at an Ohio public school.

Freshwater was accused of burning an image of a cross on a student's arm and violating separation of church and state by keeping a Bible on his desk, but attorney R. Kelly Hamilton says the evidence does not support the charges.

"I've had a tremendous feeling that the evidence would exonerate John of any and all charges. Now that we've actually commenced with the hearing, it's been a wonderful opportunity to find out some new information, and it's been very enlightening; it's been very revealing," Hamilton contends. "I think the citizens of Mount Vernon, Ohio, are going to be particularly informed and a bit alarmed after learning some of the information that goes on through these hearings."

Hamilton also believes the charge of burning a cross onto a student's arm is outrageous. "Absolutely John Freshwater did not burn a cross onto any person's arm -- not his own, not his family, certainly not any public school student," he adds.

The particular experiment in question involved a Telsa coil and, according to Hamilton, had been conducted for several years by more than one teacher without any complaints. Hamilton adds that Freshwater plans to sue the family who made the accusations and the school board.


http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=281642 (if Rick-rolled by the site, you can access the story from the afa's homepage www.afa.net , scroll down to the OneNewsNow area)

[msongs]

1. rape torture murder incest genocide - bibles should be kept away from children under 18 nt

[TornadoTN]

2. He burned an image of a cross into someones arm?

I need more info about that - it seems a little out there, even for most fundies.

[tanyev]

10. Original article with picture. From FOX news, no less.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,369549,00.html

[TornadoTN]

12. Wow - this guy is a certifiable lunatic. Thanks for the link!

If that was my son that this was done to, I would absolutely be throwing a fit and lawyering up. This guy kept this stuff up for years apparently and it finally reached the breaking point when he took his right-wing idiocy beyond the confines of being an insipid idiot and started burning crosses into kids arms.

I don't care if its temporary.

[jakefrep]

3. "Telsa coil"?

Shows how seriously these nutcases take science.

[garlicmilkshake]

11. Made in Okalhoma?

:rofl:

[atreides1]

4. What A Great "Christian"

"Hamilton adds that Freshwater plans to sue the family who made the accusations and the school board."

Practicing forgiveness, just like Jesus?;)

[SidDithers]

5. Off topic, but was OneNewsNow the site that word-filtered Tyson Gay...

into Tyson Homosexual?

Sid

Edit: spelling

[marmar]

7. Yup.....Rocket scientists over there.

n/t

[patrice]

6. Not sure about this case, but the RW has been stacking our teachers' jobs the same way they've

been stacking our courts - for decades - and then outfits like the AFA use the old Rovian tactic that claims the OPPOSITE of everything that is actually going on.

[spanone]

8. let an olive-skinned teacher lay a koran on his/her desk and see how they respond

[Political Heretic]

9. The idea tha keeping a bible on your own desk violates church and state is stupid.

However, this guy sounds like a potential nut.

[TornadoTN]

13. I agree and I'm about as anti-religion as they come

I've never had a problem with it and growing up in the bible belt, I had a lot of teachers that had bibles in their classrooms. I even had a few that had the Koran as well! They never forced it down peoples throats and I don't recall any of my teachers bringing religion into the classroom at all. The bibles were just there and I respected that.

But this guy is just insane, as are most teachers who think its their job to stray outside the boundaries of the curriculum and start turning their classrooms into religious revivals and hate fests.