Teacher Suspended for Taking Students to Hooters Restaurant

Thursday, December 17, 2009

 From the Associated Press
PHOENIX —  A Paradise Valley music teacher whose students performed at a presidential inauguration event has been put on administrative leave after taking 40 students to Hooters.
School district spokeswoman Judi Willis says that choir director Mary Segall accompanied choral students to an event last week, and during the outing the students ate lunch at a Hooters restaurant.
She says that Segall explained to officials that the restaurant, known for its waitresses' somewhat revealing attire, was the only place that could accommodate a group of that size. Segall could not be reached for comment.
Willis says the district believes there were other options for lunch in downtown Phoenix.
Hooters spokesman Mike McNeill says he's unfamiliar with the incident and could not comment.
Segall plans on retiring in January, and Willis says she does not know if she'll return before then.

JMC Ministries Response

written by Jeremy Caverley

It show a lack of irresponsibility on the teachers part saying that the only place where the children could be fed for lunch was at hooters.  There are fast food restaurants and other places for example McDonald's, Burger King etc. that accommodate bus loads of people sometimes on a daily basis. For the teacher to say that there was no other place to go is just ridiculous. 

It is outrageous when a 3nd grader is told by her teacher that she cannot read her bible during quiet time in class.  While another child a 2nd grader draws a picture of Jesus the teacher says the picture was too violent and is told he has to under go psychiatric evaluation. But a teacher can take children to a place like Hooters where there is scantily clothed women and where beer and alcohol is served and no one does anything until after the incident has happened not one child should have ever been exposed to that.

School is no longer a place of learning. It is a war zone where we send America's children everyday, and pay taxes to those schools so they can treat our children this way.  When will you the parents take a stand and say this is enough NO MORE!

1 Corinthians 6:12,13
¹²"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Pastor allows women to be tattooed during Church Service in front of Congregation

The sight of a woman being tattooed live on the altar accompanied by the sound of a buzzing ink gun provided a startling backdrop to Sunday's evangelical sermon.

Your parent's church service this was not. In the drive to stay relevant, the Gold Creek Community Church has been hosting a series called "Permanent Ink" that featured Sunday's live-tattoo finale.

The Mill Creek church is not exactly staid — booming 20-minute rock sets launch regular sermons — yet the pastors acknowledge this series was pushing societal norms.

"We've said from the start that we are not advocating tattoos — nor discouraging them," said pastor Larry Ehoff.

"We think of it as amoral. It's neither immoral nor moral, it's just the choice of a person."

Ehoff said the church is telling the same story of Jesus as always, it's just finding different ways to tell it.

Sharon Snell was one of several congregants who volunteered to be tattooed Sunday. At the noon service, she got on stage and faced away from about 150 parishioners while tattoo artist Matt Sawdon worked on the image of a police shield on her lower back.

It was Snell's third tattoo and represents her husband's work as an Everett police officer. Snell said last month's shooting death of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton forced her to confront the fragility of life and the dangers inherent in her husband's job.

"Anything can happen at any time," Snell said. "Him being an officer is a big part of my life and of who I am."

As Snell's tattoo took shape, pastor Dan Kellogg told the congregation that permanent markings, both good and evil, are mentioned in the Bible. The most famous symbol, he said, is "666," the sign of the devil.

But there's also mention in the Bible of markings on Jesus, saying he is the king of kings and lord of lords, Kellogg said.

Another congregant who volunteered was Erica Armendariz, who was getting work done on an arm tattoo she calls her "faith sleeve." "Surprisingly, I was not nervous to get up on stage," she said, adding that the tattoo process, which in her case stretched through two sermons, was getting painful toward the end.

Click to read full article at the Seattle Times

JMC Ministries Response

written by: Jeremy and Miranda Caverley

We found out about this article from the Jesse Woodrow show today and knew we had to share it.  We also recorded a audio clip from Jesse's show where he interviewed the pastor of this church who had the tattooing.

Comment | Copy This

The show was a very heated debate not only between Jesse and the pastor of the church, but also in the chatroom.  People appalled that a pastor would allow such things to take place not only in the house of God, but even in the pulpit. But, the pastor in his own words said, "there was nothing wrong or sinful about allowing someone to be tattooed in the church" Even after bible scriptures were shared that clearly stated that it was sin in the eyes of God and should not be taking place especially in God's house the pastor still maintained that it was not going against the teachings of the bible.

Leviticus 19:28

²⁸ " 'Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

Matthew 5:17,18

¹⁷"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.¹⁸I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

1 Corinthians 3:16-19 

¹⁶Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.  ¹⁸Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"

1 Corinthians 6:19,20

¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

These were just a few of the scriptures that were shared during the show.  Many listeners called in asking the pastor how he thought allowing this in the house of God was not wrong or sinful. Many times the pastor did not answer the questions, or simply tried to change the subject.  He did say, "God doesn't look at the outside, he looks at the inside." Jessee Woodrow then asked him, "so if a prostitute, or stripper comes to your church and gets saved does that mean she doesn't have to stop wearing her stripper clothes and mini skirts?" The pastor simply answered, "God focuses on the inside.

Want to share you opinion on this? You can vote on our "Do you think professing Christians getting a tattoo is a sin?"This poll will end on January 4th 2010

EFN Press Release:The Rutherford Institute Defends Second Grader Forced by School Officials to Undergo Psych Evaluation for Drawing Crucified Jesus

12/16/2009

The Rutherford Institute Defends Second Grader Forced by School Officials to Undergo Psych Evaluation for Drawing Crucified Jesus

Contact: Nisha N. Mohammed, The Rutherford Institute, 434-978-3888, 434-466-6168 cell, nisha@rutherford.org
TAUNTON, Mass. -- The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of the family of a second grader who was allegedly forced by school officials to undergo psychological evaluations after he drew a picture of a stick figure Jesus on the cross with X's over his eyes.

A copy of Jalen's drawing is available here.

"This is a case of overreaction by school officials," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Jalen's drawing was simply a reflection of something he saw at a Christmas light show. The psychological damage to this family is appalling, and it is a clear-cut violation of their constitutional rights."

On December 2, 2009, Jalen Cromwell, a second grader at Lowell M. Maxham School in Taunton, Mass., was taken to the principal's office where he was questioned without the presence of, or even notification to, his parents regarding a drawing he had made earlier that day depicting a stick figure Jesus on the cross with X's over his eyes. The drawing reflected Jalen's impressions about a recent family trip to the Christmas lighting festival at LaSallette. However, Jalen's parents were later informed that, in keeping with school policy, he would not be permitted to return to school until he had undergone a psychological evaluation. Jalen has since informed his parents that he no longer trusts his teachers and does not want to continue attending the school due to the anxiety caused by this incident, a sentiment shared by his parents.

After being contacted by Jalen's family, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute agreed to intervene. In a letter to the superintendent of the Taunton Public Schools, Institute attorneys pointed out that the effective suspension of Jalen from school deprived him and his parents of their constitutional rights to due process and punished Jalen for engaging in expressive activity protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In light of the fact that this incident has made Jalen's continued attendance at Maxham School untenable, Institute attorneys have also requested that the school arrange for Jalen to be transferred to an out-of-district school and for his parents to be compensated for the associated transportation costs. The Rutherford Institute has requested a response to its demand letter by 5 pm, EST, on Tuesday, December 22, 2009.

Click to Read full article at the Rutherford

70% of world population does not have Religious Freedom

By Frank James at The Two Way

About one third of the world's nations, accounting for almost 70 percent of global population, lacks religious freedom, according to a new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Pew reports:

Global Restrictions on Religion, a new study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that 64 nations - about one-third of the countries in the world - have high or very high restrictions on religion. But because some of the most restrictive countries are very populous, nearly 70 percent of the world's 6.8 billion people live in countries with high restrictions on religion, the brunt of which often falls on religious minorities.

Some restrictions result from government actions, policies and laws. Others result from hostile acts by private individuals, organizations and social groups. The highest overall levels of restrictions are found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, where both the government and society at large impose numerous limits on religious beliefs and practices. But government policies and social hostilities do not always move in tandem. Vietnam and China, for instance, have high government restrictions on religion but are in the moderate or low range when it comes to social hostilities. Nigeria and Bangladesh follow the opposite pattern: high in social hostilities but moderate in terms of government actions.

Among all regions, the Middle East-North Africa has the highest government and social restrictions on religion, while the Americas are the least restrictive region on both measures. Among the world's 25 most populous countries, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India stand out as having the most restrictions when both measures are taken into account, while Brazil, Japan, the United States, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom have the least.

Click to read article from THE TWO WAY