It comes as no surprise this happened in a small southern town. The brains of most of those kids in the marching band are still developing, and they lack the ability to put things in perspective. Come graduation day most will know better, and there will be an exodus of young people who go running for the cities as fast as they can. It is this exodus that keeps concentrating religion in small towns. Few people want to move to these towns, and those who do seldom stay. Thus, religious sentiments keep getting more conservative.
And the people who are made uncomfortable by these overt displays in a public school setting will rarely say anything out of fear of retaliation. Life in a small town.
While making those signs, no one thought this might not be a good idea? Like screaming “SINNER” in all caps is a normal thing in public? What kind of people think it okay to scream judgement like this? Were no parents involved in the development of this?
The gendered clothing is troublesome, but the tent revival comes from a small sect of Christianity, and plenty of Christians try to avoid the judgement inherent in these images, so I’m surprised that there weren’t Christian parents taking issue with this theme.
So, this was a competition, did they win? What are the rules? Should they have just been disqualified for this? Perhaps the governing body of the competition could address the themes by ensuring they are constitutionally consistent. If it’s public schools participating, then public schools should have to follow the constitutional guidelines of the first amendment (the establishment clause specifically). You can’t tell me the entire band came up with this and that it wasn’t the band director.
I can't find the footage now, but I remember the Nazis in Germany marching in a nighttime parade that included forming an illuminated spinning swastika.
This on-field Christian Tent Revival reminded me of it.
Oh, really? "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Remember that one, cristers? You should. You'll find it in Romans 3:23. You pious, self-righteous hypocrites are just as much sinners as those you so readily condemn.
Speaking for myself, I can honestly say I've never sinned. Sin is an imaginary construct devised by Christians.
OT: Hunter Biden is going to be indicted (again) by the Department of Justice, this time on tax charges. When will the partisan weaponization of the Biden DOJ ever end?!/s
As a conservative, white male southern, that picture does disturb me. There is just so much wrong with that picture. I almost don't know where to start. That picture implies that are girls going to school. That's so wrong, I am almost at a loss of words. And that those girls are not in direct supervision of their fathers, their brothers or if they are over 10 their husbands, or if they are in Alabama all those. And they are showing off their ankles like wanton harlots. Beware, these are the daughters of the queen of Babylon!
Even at 73 years old, I'm going to quit pretending that I have, to use the well-worn phrase, "seen it all," certainly as it comes to religious chutzpah. Of COURSE, they had to pull a high school marching band into the mix and of COURSE they had to proselytize in 4/4 time! What was the band playing, "Onward, Christian Soldiers?!?"
It's good to see that the FFRF has fallen on these idiots with both feet. I hope the organizers of this foolish exercise find themselves in court about this, though I'm sure than any court costs will come out of the city's coffers. Heaven forfend that those responsible should have to pay out of their own funds. 🤦♂️
Y'know, I can almost see this as a clever parody. But the problem with parodying Christian fundamentalists is Poe's Law kicks in:
"Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article."
I was at the competition in Indianapolis where this performance took place and saw it with my own eyes. I also sat next to the mother of one of the band members.
I can offer some insight into several things that posters here have been curious about.
Firstly, this music, choreography and theme were created by one person, the band director. This was told to me by the mom that I sat next to and spoke with. She was quite proud of the fact that "he didn't have to pay anyone to make it for us."
Secondly, she told me that this was their routine that they had been working on all year. It was not a one-off or part of a "showcase of religious themes." This was it, this was the whole show.
Last, the BOA competition rules say nothing about excluding religion as a theme. I checked.
I will say that the atmosphere in the stadium while these kids were performing was...tense. One could feel the cringe.
Overall, it was entertaining to watch. The young man playing the fiddle was very good. I had the exact same reaction that some here have posted: what about those kids who didn't buy into the Christian theme? I chose not to engage the mom about any of that at the time due to the setting.
I remember high school band, it was awesome and awful in equal measure. I also remember what a jerk the director was, and how every year he designed the program we would run with zero input from anyone else; those were HIS programs. Memorizing Malaguena was a problem there for a bit, but hey, we did it. We started practicing two weeks after school let out for the summer, so yeah, we had some time.
I'm not too proud to admit my heart is breaking for these kids. They've worked very hard to learn and polish a set that the director should have known better than to allow. They've been putting up with this blatant attempt at indoctrination for at least six months now if they're going to national finals. This is all to say nothing of the expense involved with 𝒃𝒖𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 specifically for this year's performance; they ain't cheap and unless someone offered to make or buy them, the band may be short funds for a few years to come. (I'll spare you folks the shenanigans that happened when I was in band.)
I'm glad that the FFRF is getting involved, but they need to beware: Band kids are often conditioned not to stick out. Uniformity is what makes a marching band work. Here's hoping that if they need to, they can find a kid willing to go against the machine, as it were.
One could either view this as a cynical attempt to indoctrinate teenagers or it could be viewed as satire poking fun at the fundamentalists. Either way, it has no place in a public school.
Why would anyone be surprised by this. We have a Catholic Supremicist Court, in which at least five justices believe that there is no separation of church and state and have been ruling in favor of religious zealots.
We have a messianic Christian speaker in the house, and Trump also added more than 230 federal judges, most of whom will ignore the constitution, and rule in favor of religious whack-jobs.
Bottom line: there aren’t any consequences to ignoring the law, since most of these cases will be adjudicated by Trump judges in the Confederacy of Dunces, I mean the Confederate states of America.
And even if they ultimately lose, which is suspect, the courts will just give them a slap on the wrist and continue to ignore the law.
Not to mention, who’s going to enforce the law? The same constitutional sheriffs who believe they are the ultimate legal authority and answer to no one; not even governor’s or the federal government and attend these evangelical churches, and probably coach the football teams...:)
It comes as no surprise this happened in a small southern town. The brains of most of those kids in the marching band are still developing, and they lack the ability to put things in perspective. Come graduation day most will know better, and there will be an exodus of young people who go running for the cities as fast as they can. It is this exodus that keeps concentrating religion in small towns. Few people want to move to these towns, and those who do seldom stay. Thus, religious sentiments keep getting more conservative.
And the people who are made uncomfortable by these overt displays in a public school setting will rarely say anything out of fear of retaliation. Life in a small town.
At first I thought they were making fun of fundamentalist revivals with those signs and outfits.
Dawning horror as I realize they're not making fun of it.
While making those signs, no one thought this might not be a good idea? Like screaming “SINNER” in all caps is a normal thing in public? What kind of people think it okay to scream judgement like this? Were no parents involved in the development of this?
The gendered clothing is troublesome, but the tent revival comes from a small sect of Christianity, and plenty of Christians try to avoid the judgement inherent in these images, so I’m surprised that there weren’t Christian parents taking issue with this theme.
So, this was a competition, did they win? What are the rules? Should they have just been disqualified for this? Perhaps the governing body of the competition could address the themes by ensuring they are constitutionally consistent. If it’s public schools participating, then public schools should have to follow the constitutional guidelines of the first amendment (the establishment clause specifically). You can’t tell me the entire band came up with this and that it wasn’t the band director.
I can't find the footage now, but I remember the Nazis in Germany marching in a nighttime parade that included forming an illuminated spinning swastika.
This on-field Christian Tent Revival reminded me of it.
Christianity does far more to damage the brain than football concussions.
SINNERS BEWARE
Oh, really? "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Remember that one, cristers? You should. You'll find it in Romans 3:23. You pious, self-righteous hypocrites are just as much sinners as those you so readily condemn.
Speaking for myself, I can honestly say I've never sinned. Sin is an imaginary construct devised by Christians.
OT: Hunter Biden is going to be indicted (again) by the Department of Justice, this time on tax charges. When will the partisan weaponization of the Biden DOJ ever end?!/s
As a conservative, white male southern, that picture does disturb me. There is just so much wrong with that picture. I almost don't know where to start. That picture implies that are girls going to school. That's so wrong, I am almost at a loss of words. And that those girls are not in direct supervision of their fathers, their brothers or if they are over 10 their husbands, or if they are in Alabama all those. And they are showing off their ankles like wanton harlots. Beware, these are the daughters of the queen of Babylon!
Even at 73 years old, I'm going to quit pretending that I have, to use the well-worn phrase, "seen it all," certainly as it comes to religious chutzpah. Of COURSE, they had to pull a high school marching band into the mix and of COURSE they had to proselytize in 4/4 time! What was the band playing, "Onward, Christian Soldiers?!?"
It's good to see that the FFRF has fallen on these idiots with both feet. I hope the organizers of this foolish exercise find themselves in court about this, though I'm sure than any court costs will come out of the city's coffers. Heaven forfend that those responsible should have to pay out of their own funds. 🤦♂️
Y'know, I can almost see this as a clever parody. But the problem with parodying Christian fundamentalists is Poe's Law kicks in:
"Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article."
I was at the competition in Indianapolis where this performance took place and saw it with my own eyes. I also sat next to the mother of one of the band members.
I can offer some insight into several things that posters here have been curious about.
Firstly, this music, choreography and theme were created by one person, the band director. This was told to me by the mom that I sat next to and spoke with. She was quite proud of the fact that "he didn't have to pay anyone to make it for us."
Secondly, she told me that this was their routine that they had been working on all year. It was not a one-off or part of a "showcase of religious themes." This was it, this was the whole show.
Last, the BOA competition rules say nothing about excluding religion as a theme. I checked.
I will say that the atmosphere in the stadium while these kids were performing was...tense. One could feel the cringe.
Overall, it was entertaining to watch. The young man playing the fiddle was very good. I had the exact same reaction that some here have posted: what about those kids who didn't buy into the Christian theme? I chose not to engage the mom about any of that at the time due to the setting.
I remember high school band, it was awesome and awful in equal measure. I also remember what a jerk the director was, and how every year he designed the program we would run with zero input from anyone else; those were HIS programs. Memorizing Malaguena was a problem there for a bit, but hey, we did it. We started practicing two weeks after school let out for the summer, so yeah, we had some time.
I'm not too proud to admit my heart is breaking for these kids. They've worked very hard to learn and polish a set that the director should have known better than to allow. They've been putting up with this blatant attempt at indoctrination for at least six months now if they're going to national finals. This is all to say nothing of the expense involved with 𝒃𝒖𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒔 specifically for this year's performance; they ain't cheap and unless someone offered to make or buy them, the band may be short funds for a few years to come. (I'll spare you folks the shenanigans that happened when I was in band.)
I'm glad that the FFRF is getting involved, but they need to beware: Band kids are often conditioned not to stick out. Uniformity is what makes a marching band work. Here's hoping that if they need to, they can find a kid willing to go against the machine, as it were.
One could either view this as a cynical attempt to indoctrinate teenagers or it could be viewed as satire poking fun at the fundamentalists. Either way, it has no place in a public school.
I have some ideas for futur themes. The third one is about LGBTQI+ right to live in broad daylight.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nLgM1QJ3S_I&pp=ygUTd2FscHVyZ2lzbmFjaHQgZmF1bg%3D%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uNzy0uHVSy8
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKtYXIh1Ac
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mKtdTJP_GUI
Why would anyone be surprised by this. We have a Catholic Supremicist Court, in which at least five justices believe that there is no separation of church and state and have been ruling in favor of religious zealots.
We have a messianic Christian speaker in the house, and Trump also added more than 230 federal judges, most of whom will ignore the constitution, and rule in favor of religious whack-jobs.
Bottom line: there aren’t any consequences to ignoring the law, since most of these cases will be adjudicated by Trump judges in the Confederacy of Dunces, I mean the Confederate states of America.
And even if they ultimately lose, which is suspect, the courts will just give them a slap on the wrist and continue to ignore the law.
Not to mention, who’s going to enforce the law? The same constitutional sheriffs who believe they are the ultimate legal authority and answer to no one; not even governor’s or the federal government and attend these evangelical churches, and probably coach the football teams...:)