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University Tells Student to Remove Cross Necklace

Empirica

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A Sonoma State University student has filed a religious accommodation request after she said she was ordered to remove her cross necklace because it might offend other students.

“It’s amazing in this day of diversity and tolerance on university campuses that a university official would engage in this type of obvious religious discrimination,” said Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser.

Read more: Fox Exclusive: Sonoma State University Tells Student to Remove Cross Necklace | Fox News Insider
Can someone please explain to me how wearing a tiny symbol of one's religion possibly be offensive?

I have thrown every possible scenario I can imagine against the wall and thus far nothing has stuck!
 
This is something that even baffles me. Seems like an abuse of power.
 
Can someone please explain to me how wearing a tiny symbol of one's religion possibly be offensive?

I have thrown every possible scenario I can imagine against the wall and thus far nothing has stuck!

Here's another source:

An orientation supervisor warned Audrey Jarvis that the chancellor had a policy against wearing religious items on campus.

He was referring to Timothy P. White, chancellor for the entire 23-school California State University system.

Holy crap. How did an idiot like that get such a high position? Must be political payback for something.
 
It will be my policy to point out that Christians do not follow their own creed when they cannot turn the other cheek especially after an apology was given.
 
I'm all for not offending people, but (forgive the pun) (and, forgive the double pun) but holy crap! This is really absurd. I get why you don't want official or mandatory prayers in classrooms, or why you wouldn't want the ten commandments on the wall behind the teacher, or something like that. But once you get to university, the students are all supposed to be adults, and surely, surely most 18 year-olds are aware there are Christians in the world. I'm pretty much on the liberal side on this sort of thing, but this is going too damn far.
 
I'm all for not offending people, but (forgive the pun) (and, forgive the double pun) but holy crap! This is really absurd. I get why you don't want official or mandatory prayers in classrooms, or why you wouldn't want the ten commandments on the wall behind the teacher, or something like that. But once you get to university, the students are all supposed to be adults, and surely, surely most 18 year-olds are aware there are Christians in the world. I'm pretty much on the liberal side on this sort of thing, but this is going too damn far.

That is the kind of liberal I like. One that can recognize the extremism of their own and call it out. Congrats.
 
and I would tell that university to go to hell...
 
Can someone please expIlain to me how wearing a tiny symbol of one's religion possibly be offensive?

I have thrown every possible scenario I can imagine against the wall and thus far nothing has stuck!


It's the same why Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, The Hindu Festival of Lights, and Ramadan can be plastered all over university walls but no Merry Christmas, that must be replaced with Happy Holidays.
 
CalGun said:
That is the kind of liberal I like. One that can recognize the extremism of their own and call it out. Congrats.

I appreciate it, but I hope we're not at that point in history where people deserve congratulations for just saying what's true. There are extremes on both side of any divide (for the most part...I can think of a few exceptions). It seems to me that both liberals and conservatives get some things right. Anyway, I reiterate that if this went down as per the description, it was plain wrong.
 
Seems like a pretty ridiculous gesture and a clear abuse of power.
 
It will be my policy to point out that Christians do not follow their own creed when they cannot turn the other cheek especially after an apology was given.

Discussing a news item doesn't necessarily translate into unforgivness.
 
If this is all there is to the story...then the schools actions were ridiculous. I agree with a previous poster, I am completely against school sponsored prayers, public prayers at school events and religious displays in schools and governmental buildings (i.e., posting of ten commandments and nativity scenes). However, as I did when I worked for the ACLU, I will stand up and fight for an individual students right to pray in private and wear a religious symbol.
 
If this is all there is to the story...then the schools actions were ridiculous. I agree with a previous poster, I am completely against school sponsored prayers, public prayers at school events and religious displays in schools and governmental buildings (i.e., posting of ten commandments and nativity scenes). However, as I did when I worked for the ACLU, I will stand up and fight for an individual students right to pray in private and wear a religious symbol.

What? Students can't pray in public?
 
What? Students can't pray in public?
I don't believe right-wing academia is really all that concerned where students pray_

And neither is left-wing academia, as long as the students aren't jews or christians_
 
What? Students can't pray in public?

Depends. They have a right to pray silently in public anytime they want. They wouldn't have a right to pray in a disrupting manner.
 
I would sue their asses to hell and back.

Sounds like that is being covered:

Hiram Sasser, Jarvis’ attorney, stated the supervisor told Jarvis, who is a Catholic, “that she could not wear her cross necklace because it might offend others, it might make incoming students feel unwelcome.”
 
Depends. They have a right to pray silently in public anytime they want. They wouldn't have a right to pray in a disrupting manner.

So, some religionist can say, "oh! I'm being disrupted", and buh-bye 1st Amendment?
 
So, some religionist can say, "oh! I'm being disrupted", and buh-bye 1st Amendment?

No. If a student is praying silently...they can do so wherever they want....just as they should have the right in public to wear whatever religious symbol that they choose. I think the school is dead wrong in this instance. However, if the student decides to start proseletyzing while representing the University...that is another issue....just as if a student decides to stand up and start praying loudly in the middle of a lecture. There are legitimate limitations on any right.
 
No. If a student is praying silently...they can do so wherever they want....just as they should have the right in public to wear whatever religious symbol that they choose. I think the school is dead wrong in this instance. However, if the student decides to start proseletyzing while representing the University...that is another issue....just as if a student decides to stand up and start praying loudly in the middle of a lecture. There are legitimate limitations on any right.

So, the aclu support's student prayer as long as they din't open their mouths.
 
How's that an exaggeration?

If your not disturbing anyone else, you can prayer out loud. But as there is usually others who also have rights, being polite is not too much to ask. The law states that state employees can't lead a prayer. There is nothing preventing students other than the rights of others to not be annoyed. So, he's exaggerating a lot.
 
How's that an exaggeration?


Disneydude already qualified his statement, which is to say people should be able to pray in universities anytime they like so long as they are not disruptive. I pretty much agree with that statement for public universities, private universities should do as they please.
 
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