A baptism on the field of Swain’s Memorial Stadium (via FFRF)
Reading Time: 3MINUTES
When the Supreme Court ruled that a public high school football coach was allowed to pray silently after games (even though he was actually showboating at midfield for effect), the question in the minds of many church/state separation advocates was how far other coaches would stretch that decision. How would they subvert the new rules so that they could keep converting kids to Christianity?
In the case of Sherman Holt, the new head football coach at Swain High School in Bryson City, North Carolina, the answer isn’t even subtle. He’s just doing it right out in the open, practically daring people to stop him. According to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, there’s ample evidence that Holt is coercively pushing Jesus on his players.
For example, there’s his tweet bragging about kids who converted to Christianity:
What a great time at FCA team camp. Our team grew spiritually, physically and mentally. 16 young men gave thier heart to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It was just what our team needed. Thank you to all the FCA staff for an awesome team camp. We will definitely be back next year pic.twitter.com/hCKUJSDe0M
That says the group prayer took place at a camp hosted by “FCA,” or Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and if this was indeed a private Christian camp the kids attended on their own, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But FFRF says Holt “organized an official team trip” to that FCA camp.
It’s the sort of thing Christians can get away with but non-Christians never could. It’s blatantly coercive, in part because Holt is a new coach. That means there’s even more pressure on the players to get on his good side because they can’t rely on past relationships or bonding experiences.
There’s more: Holt is currently running a football camp that includes church services and baptisms in the stadium. We know that because it’s all literally listed in the itinerary. (That’s how ignorant or confident they are when it comes to breaking the law to promote Christianity.) There’s also video of the baptisms.
Comparing Holt’s actions to those in the Bremerton case, FFRF says this is far beyond the legal limit, even with this ultra-conservative Supreme Court:
… Here, rather than praying privately after games, Coach Holt has transformed his football program into a religious ministry, including a “team chaplain,” religious team events, team church services, and team baptisms on school property. The religious coercion occurring within the district’s football program is particularly troubling for those parents and students who are not Christians or do not subscribe to any religion, FFRF stresses.
…
“Coaches cannot be permitted to engage in such blatantly sectarian religious behavior,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “It’s highly discriminatory toward all those members of the school district who don’t share that particular belief system.”
FFRF is asking the district to investigate the matter and put an immediate stop to it. They’ve also requested records relating to any communications to or from Holt “regarding prayer, religion, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a team chaplain or religious leaders meeting with the team, team baptisms, or church services.”
None of this should be happening—and it wouldn’t if the district hired a coach who was more interested in helping students than building up his own religious résumé. Instead, Holt is more focused on pushing his faith on kids than building up their football skills.
There’s no place for that in any public high school.
“More questions are being raised this morning. Did former President Trump try to sell or share the highly classified material to the Russians or to the Saudis or others?
“Or were the documents innocently mishandled and stored because he thought he had a legal right to have them?
“And Russia’s state media already is claiming that Russian officials have seen the material. Empty boasts or has there been a leak that officials fear could pose a grave danger to the United States security?
“How would they get this if it’s under lock and key or was it? Because the Feds apparently told them back in June that you got to put all padlock on that on the storage room.
“We don’t know where this stuff was floating around.” – Fox News host Eric Shawn.
Ask yourself the question: “Can he get any money for the documents ? Then think about what the Orange twat would do — would he care that by selling them he’d be a traitor or would he rather be that much richer ? Evil traitor or Cash in the pocket ???
Fox is cutting TFG loose, they’re going to throw their adulation towards DeathSantis, you watch he’ll start appearing on all their ‘shows’ soon and they’ll start pushing his agendas.
Please note some more information from the artical.
“Her approach in this curriculum further perpetuates ignorance, further perpetuates racism and white supremacy,” he said, adding “These priority areas are dominated by nationalism.”
The Republican governor claimed the new proposed standards are free from “political agendas” and include an increased focus on Native American history. But they received swift criticism from some educators as a thinly-veiled political document. They emphasize the qualities of America’s founders and mimic language Noem has used as she jumped on the conservative cause of weeding certain “divisive” teachings on race from public schools.
Despite the academic framework being one of her favorite targets, her administration has provided scant evidence that teaching associated with critical race theory — an academic framework that centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that those institutions maintain the dominance of white people — exists in South Dakota schools. The state Department of Education spent hundreds of hours combing through its policies, guidance materials and websites, but its report released Monday found “a very small number” of instances where its material didn’t line up with Noem’s order to get rid of anything that contained “divisive concepts” on race.
The governor in a statement cast the report as “proactively removing” critical race theory as she promotes “America’s true and honest history.”
Nick Tilsen, the president of an Indigenous advocacy organization called NDN Collective, said that when the standards start out with goals like that, they are bound to further a narrative that continues to treat minority groups unjustly.
“Her approach in this curriculum further perpetuates ignorance, further perpetuates racism and white supremacy,” he said, adding “These priority areas are dominated by nationalism.”
“They are not inclusive to say the least. The goal was to get away from inclusivity to push an agenda that the governor deems important,” said Sarah White, who directs the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition. “It’s definitely going to further disenfranchise our students when it’s missing that Indigenous lens.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday released a revised proposal for social studies standards in public schools that lays out a mostly shining vision of American history, after an initial draft of the standards came under heavy criticism last year from conservatives.
The 15-member standards workgroup included Noem’s chief of staff, two Republican lawmakers and the director of the South Dakota Catholic Conference, but just three educators certified by the Department of Education.
The new 128-page document more than doubles the length of the proposed standards the Department of Education released last year. They are also peppered with Christian history and explore the religion’s influence on the nation’s leading figures and on Western civilization.
Seventh graders, for example, are expected to parrot the notions that most of the Founding Fathers opposed slavery and that all Americans are “endowed with rights by the God that created them.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has released a revised proposal for social studies standards in public schools. They would present a mostly shining vision of America’s history after an initial https://t.co/2rSHKSDSCl
South Dakota was colonized by hateful white supremacist genocidal Christians who broke treaties and stole land that didn’t belong to them.. I am okay with that history being taught. Not the fake lying sugar coated version this stupid bitch is selling.
Seventh graders, for example, are expected to parrot the notion that most of the Founding Fathers opposed slavery….
But don’t you dare ask how slavery was not abolished until a century later, and after 600,000 people had to die violently. Either The Founders(TM) fucked up in not bothering to address the issue at the time, like they didn’t care about the inalienable rights. Or they fucked up by not making the political institutions of the United States resilient against traitors and human rights abusers.
History is written by the victors, sadly. And soon there will not be a child in America that will know anything about slavery, the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans, and…. homosexuals.
Two guys talking about trans issues and biological sex really means. They address all the science on biology such as sexual orientation, gametes, chromosomes, intersex, and so much more. If you want to learn but not be overwhelmed this is the show to watch. Yes one of the guys has a female avatar. He is not trans, he is entirely a straight cis male who is into poly relationships, but it showcases how just making assumptions can be wrong. Hugs
We are learning that the DOJ had video recordings of the storage area that caused them a lot of concern. We see that these documents are very valuable to a foreign government. Imagine the damage to nation security this information about who is a spy could cause. The fact that trump is this careless with national secrets of the highest level really shows he shouldn’t ever have been president and must never be again. Nor should any of his maga supporters in any elected office at any level. It is well known that trump is in money troubles and that he faces over 600 million dollars of loans coming due this next year. How much would any government give him for the spy information or the nation’s nuclear secrets? Hugs
In pursuing the unprecedented search of Donald Trump’s residence on Monday, the FBI was seeking to retrieve Top Secret and “compartmented” documents dealing with intelligence “sources and methods,” two federal government sources tell Newsweek—documents with the potential to reveal U.S. intelligence sources, including human sources on the American government payroll.
This greatly complicates any public discussion of the documents or any substantiation of Trump’s potential violation of U.S. law. The sources, who were briefed on the investigation, requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive information.
I read where tRump threatened Garland, saying he was making some of tRump’s friends very angry. Literally mob-like threats. He has all kinds of knowledge that he can use to blackmail the government and keep them from prosecuting him. He is the biggest threat to our democracy in American history.
I know he’s a shit bag and a nasty individual, but this… this level of espionage shocked and saddened me. At this point I don’t know why I’m shocked, but I’m definitely sad…
What’s worse is the 30% of the country defending him… declaring that serial liar Trump has more credibility that the entirety of the US government’s national security and intelligence apparatus.
They rest easy in the comfort of that security while they cheer Trump’s attempts to tear it all down.
This will get real ugly real quick. Most Republicans backed themselves in a corner, and actually do not support treason. But their lip flapping and now the evidence is going to put them in a quandary, and just before the midterms. Which is always a good thing.
Trump possibly could’ve had foreign powers look at those documents or he could’ve transmitted those documents to foreign powers. This is the very definition of treason.
If the Democrats are smart, and they usually are not, this would be the question they would ask their constituents. Is it OK to support a candidate who commits treason? There will always be the few who do. But the majority will not.
At least one lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and club had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said. The written declaration was made after a visit on June 3 to Mar-a-Lago by Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the DOJ’s national security division.
The existence of the signed declaration, which has not previously been reported, is a possible indication that Mr. Trump or his team were not fully forthcoming with federal investigators about the material. And it could help explain why a potential violation of a criminal statute related to obstruction was cited by the department as one basis for seeking the warrant used to carry out the daylong search of the former president’s home on Monday.
NEW: At least one lawyer for Trump signed a written statement for the Justice Department asserting all docs with classified markings in the boxes had been returned after a June 3 meeting, which could explain why "obstruction" statute was listed on warrant https://t.co/JKTTvk2a5H
The Justice Department also saw something on surveillance footage that had been subpoenaed of the storage area that concerned them. It was unclear what period of time the footage was from https://t.co/JKTTvk2a5H
Trump said Friday that he had declassified all the material in his possession while he was still president. He provided no documentation to back the statement https://t.co/JKTTvk2a5H
Ari Melber offered a pretty good summary of how Trump’s defiant bluster in the media quickly turns to meek acceptance once he realizes he’s really in a tough place… to wit, his pathetic pleading the fifth last week.
In that context, this situation will be fun to watch.
Follow “Hemant Mehta” To Receive Notifications About New Pages On “Hemant Mehta”.249
