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<DIV>It’s so very frustrating to fight this bigotry inside the church, and I’m
grateful many continue to do it, in my own family, even. I gave it up a
long time ago, but continue to be proud of them. Two reasons I enjoy
watching Baylor athletic events on tv...a big one, they win now. They
didn’t do that so much when I was there. And number two...the
diversity. When I went to Baylor (oldest university west of the
Mississippi and Southern Baptist) it was totally white, except
African-American ministers were allowed to attend Bible classes at night.
Family members and friends tell me the theology hasn’t moderated at all...not to
say they teach creationism...not even when I was there. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Note: I’ve never checked to see how it was determined Baylor is the
oldest, but I’m pretty sure God says it somewhere.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sue H. </DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=art.deco.studios@gmail.com
href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">Art Deco</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, October 15, 2012 4:20 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Love Thy Neighbor {But not all of
them]</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=timestamp>October 14, 2012</DIV>
<H1>Christian Group Finds Gay Agenda in an Anti-Bullying Day</H1>
<H6 class=byline>By <SPAN><A title="More Articles by KIM SEVERSON"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/kim_severson/index.html"
rel=author><SPAN>KIM SEVERSON</SPAN></A></SPAN></H6>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>On Mix It Up at Lunch Day, schoolchildren around the country are encouraged
to hang out with someone they normally might not speak to. </P>
<P>The program, started 11 years ago by the Southern Poverty Law Center and now
in more than 2,500 schools, was intended as a way to break up cliques and
prevent bullying. </P>
<P>But this year, the American Family Association, a conservative evangelical
group, has called the project “a nationwide <A
href="http://www.afa.net/Detail.aspx?id=2147527678">push to promote the
homosexual lifestyle</A> in public schools” and is urging parents to keep their
children home from school on Oct. 30, the day most of the schools plan to
participate this year. </P>
<P>The charges, raised in an e-mail to supporters earlier this month, have
caused a handful of schools to cancel this year’s event and has caught
organizers off guard. </P>
<P>“I was surprised that they completely lied about what Mix It Up Day is,” said
<A title="Ms. Costello’s bio on the law center’s Web site."
href="http://www.splcenter.org/who-we-are/staff/maureen-costello">Maureen
Costello</A>, the director of the center’s <A
title="Mix It Up at Lunch Day page"
href="http://www.tolerance.org/mix-it-up/what-is-mix">Teaching Tolerance</A>
project, which organizes the program. “It was a cynical, fear-mongering tactic.”
</P>
<P>The swirl around Mix It Up at Lunch Day reflects a deeper battle between the
Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights group founded 41 years ago in
Montgomery, Ala., and the American Family Association, a Bible-based cultural
watchdog organization in Tupelo, Miss. The association says its mission is to
fight what it calls the “increasing ungodliness” in America. </P>
<P>The law center recently added the group to its national list of active hate
groups, which also includes neo-Nazis, black separatists and Holocaust deniers.
</P>
<P>Association leaders, in return, have gone on the offensive, calling the law
center a hate group for oppressing Christian students and claiming its aim is to
shut down groups that oppose homosexuality. </P>
<P>“The reality is we are not a hate group. We are a truth group,” said <A
title="Mr. Fischer’s bio on the American Family Association Web site."
href="http://www.afa.net/detail.aspx?id=2147486648">Bryan Fischer</A>, director
of issue analysis for the association. “We tell the truth about homosexual
behavior.” </P>
<P>Although the suggested activities for Mix It Up at Lunch Day do not expressly
address gay and lesbian students, the law center itself promotes equal treatment
for gays and lesbians and that philosophy then informs the school program, he
said. </P>
<P>“Anti-bullying legislation is exactly the same,” Mr. Fischer said. “It’s just
another thinly veiled attempt to promote the homosexual agenda. No one is in
favor of anyone getting bullied for any reason, but these anti-bullying policies
become a mechanism for punishing Christian students who believe that homosexual
behavior is not something that should be normalized.” </P>
<P>The program is not about sexual orientation but rather about breaking up
social cliques, which are especially evident in a school cafeteria, Ms. Costello
said. </P>
<P>In some schools, cliques are socioeconomic. In others they are ethnic or
religious or based on sexual orientation. By giving students a way to mix with
other students, self-imposed social barriers can be broken down and bullying can
be curbed, she said. </P>
<P>“Many of the targets of bullying are kids who are either gay or are perceived
as gay,” she said. </P>
<P>But the idea that the program is intended as homosexual indoctrination is
simply wrong, Ms. Costello added. </P>
<P>“We’ve become used to the idea of lunatic fringe attacks,” she said, “but
this one was complete misrepresentation.” </P>
<P>Parents who are on the American Family Association e-mail list were
encouraged to keep their children home on that day and to call school
administrators to tell them why. </P>
<P>By Friday, about 200 schools had canceled, Ms. Costello said. But exactly why
was unclear. Of 20 schools that had canceled and were contacted by The New York
Times, only one chose to comment. </P>
<P>The Chattahoochee County Education Center in Cusseta, Ga., canceled because
teachers were too busy trying to meet basic state teaching requirements, said
Tabatha Walton, the principal. </P>
<P>“The decision had nothing to do with taking a position on gay rights,” she
said. “We support diversity.” </P>
<P>Although parents did complain to Kevin Brady, the head of the Avon Grove
Charter School in rural Pennsylvania, the school is still planning to hold Mix
it Up at Lunch Day for its 1,600 students. </P>
<P>Students will each be assigned a number and then paired up by school
officials. The school has a large population of special-needs students who can
feel isolated and thus benefit greatly from the program, Mr. Brady said. </P>
<P>The school started it a few years ago, inspired, in part, by the shootings at
Columbine High School in Colorado and examples of bully-related violence that
surfaced in schools around the country. </P>
<P>He said the e-mail sent by the association described a program that had
“absolutely no resemblance to what we do.” Once parents understood how the
program worked, they decided not keep their children home that day, he said.
</P>
<P>“I think they feel they have been taken for a bit of a ride,” he said. </P>
<DIV class=authorIdentification>
<P>Robbie Brown contributed reporting from Atlanta.</P></DIV>
<DIV class=articleCorrection></DIV></DIV><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Art Deco
(Wayne A. Fox)<BR><A href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com"
target=_blank>art.deco.studios@gmail.com</A><BR><BR><IMG
src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><BR><BR>
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