They hate you because of me - Imagine a state funded higher educational system telling student organizations that they could not meet at any time without a school official present to observe and listen to what the students are discussing.
Imagine that you, a member of Christian Student Fellowship (CSF), are talking privately with another student on campus when a college official shows up with a security guard and demands to know what both of you are discussing.
Sound farfetched? Sound like a police state movie? Sound like it couldn't happen in America?
Think again.
NewsMax.com reports that the CSF organization at Florida's Indian River Community College (IRCC) came under the thumb of the community college administrators when they planned a campus showing of the movie "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson.
NewsMax.com writes:
In November 2004, the college banned the Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) from showing the film because it was R-rated, despite the fact that the college has hosted a live performance entitled "F**king for Jesus" that describes simulated sex with "the risen Christ."
CSF students report that after their group wrote President Edwin R. Massey in protest, administrators pulled group leaders out of class and, astoundingly, demanded an apology from them for their actions.
Now, CSF is even unable to officially meet because its adviser resigned after IRCC imposed a burdensome new policy requiring that faculty advisers attend all student group meetings.
The college claims that they banned the showing of the movie because it was "R-rated" and were afraid that underage students would see the film.
I could understand the banning of the movie because of the rating if the college was consistent, but the fact that they allowed "No Shame Theatre" to run the a skit titled, "F**king for Jesus," shows how inconsistent the administration is in moral decisions.
The skit actually sounds "X-rated" to me because NewsMax.com describes one scene where a character is "simulating sex with and masturbating to an image of Jesus."
The CSF organization has enlisted the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to combat the college's heavy handedness.
FIRE stated:
"As a public institution bound by the First Amendment, IRCC has no right to ban either the movie or the play, and it is shameful to demand an apology from students for trying to preserve their constitutional rights. IRCC's arbitrary and authoritarian actions demonstrate that the college has no respect for its students or for the U.S. Constitution."
As to the play, the college is trying to cover their duplicitous rears. According to NewsMax.com they have gone as far as to change the "No Shame Theatre" play title and remove the Internet link to the play's script from their Web page. Of course, at the time of the publication of the NewsMax.com story they script still remained on their servers.
The Great Separation continues.
[Hat tip to the E-Mail Brigade]
