Tuesday, September 15, 2009

(me- this would have me truly angry. not just upset, angry. just as i resent the fact that the mormon church baptizes whole phone books full of names, no matter that they have no idea who they are-and that includes YOU as well as ME!

i've had friends say,"what's the big deal? it doesn't make you a mormon." but it is the principle here. freedom of religion and the separation of church and state are some of the things that our founders gave us that makes our country great.)


and then there is this bit of awfulness:










By Patti Wigington,


School Trip Included Baptism



Tuesday September 8, 2009



From Kentucky, we have a story about a school trip that included not only a visit to a church, but baptism without parental consent. Michelle Ammons is angry that her sixteen-year-old son went on a trip led by his football coach at Breckinridge County High School. The coach took a group of players to his church, where nearly half of them were baptized. Ammons says her son, Robert Coffey, was "baptized without her knowledge and consent, and she is upset that a public school bus was used to take players to a church service — and that the school district's superintendent was there and did not object."

Coffey, a sophomore, said Coach Scott Mooney told players that the trip would "include only a motivational speaker and a free steak dinner." However, other parents say Mooney told them a revival was planned as well. Breckenridge County Schools superintendent Janet Meeks, attends Mooney's church and witnessed the baptisms. She said, "the trip was proper because attendance was not required, and another coach paid for the gas." She added that parents were not required to sign permission slips, and that they knew the event would include a church service.

Now, maybe it's just me, but where I live, any time a student gets on a school bus for a non-school event, a permission slip has to be on file. Also, I would hope no one would ever try to baptize my child without permission - whether it's my nine year old or my teenager. Finally, it would seem that this presents a bit of a conflict with that whole separation of church and state, if a public school is transpotring kids to a church to attend services and be baptized. I'm not entirely sure that it matters who paid for the gas, if it was a trip organized by the school football coach.

Michelle Ammons says that she feels like her son should wait until he is eighteen to make a decision about which spiritual path he will follow -- she is a Baptist married to a Catholic. Ammons said she has consulted a lawyer but has not made any decisions about what action to take.

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