Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Using The Bible To Fight The Rules


There are accommodations made to public school rules for religious purposes, and I have no problem with that. If it is a requirement for all adherents of the religion, then there should be a way for the rules to allow it. But I have to wonder in the following story, if this mother is not just using the Bible as a weapon to get what she wants.

Dyker Neyland sends her daughter to school at Thomas Haley Elementary School in Irving, Texas. The school has a dress code and requires students to wear uniforms. Part of the dress code is that uniform shirts must be tucked in. But Ms. Neyland opposes the "tucked in" rule, saying, "I don't want her behind showing. I don't want her body being exposed."

Neyland said the rule violated her rights as a christian. To prove her point, she quoted from 1Timothy 2:9, which dictates that
"women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing."

What makes me wonder just how serious she is about her religion is the second part of the verse -- "not with braided hair...". As you can see in the picture above, both Neyland and her daughter seem to have no problem with the biblical exhortation to avoid braiding their hair.

Are they members of some cafeteria-style religion, where they can pick and choose what parts of the Bible they will believe. Where they can accept some parts and ignore others? Or is this just a case where a woman used the Bible as a weapon to back up her daughter who didn't want to tuck in her shirt?

The school board granted the woman's request and the daughter is now immune to the "tuck it in" rule. But how long will it be before some other rule violates this woman's rather spotty interpretation of the Bible?

1 comment:

  1. Don't want to be terribly tacky here, but what the heck. I'm not sure I'd want her behind showing either...lol.

    BTW thanks for coming to my B-Day party. I enjoyed having you guys there.

    ReplyDelete

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