A man in Central Ohio is another victim of the nation’s only accepted prejudice and bigotry – Christianity.
Meet John Freshwater. He is a 20-year middle school science teacher with an ax to grind. Throughout his tenure of successfully educating kids, Freshwater has kept a weathered Bible on his desk. He has gone this long without apparently shoving it down kids’ throats, but yet, two decades later, the ACLU has decided that time’s up.
Yes, we all have freedom of expression and of religion, but for some reason that certain unalienable right only applies to everyone that doesn’t mention “Jesus” during a routine day. 10 commandments? Out. Bible? Out. Prayer? Out. What’s next? No more clergy parking at hospitals?! And for what? Because God’s name is so ubiquitous that we need to tone it down to, “May the big guy bless you” or “May the man upstairs save the Queen.”
Pathetic. The story reads that Freshwater vows not to remove without a fight. Rage ahead, brother.
The Writing on the Wall 
[…] see, for 24 years, this man has come to work, taught science and loved God daily. All the while, his trusty KJV was by his side and no one was the wiser. Suddenly – and apparently […]
You religious wackos are upset because you don’t get to be evangelical at the expense of the state? If you want to be evangelical, do it somewhere else. The public education system isn’t a mechanism for you guys to preach your garbage to a captive audience of young children who are only there because they have to be.
What you guys never seem to get is that the constitution doesn’t truly allow for complete freedom of religion, speech etc. It only allows for these freedoms in the instances where they don’t infringe on rights and freedoms of the minority. So just because in the constitution it says we all have a freedom of religion doesn’t mean you get to use the state education system as a venue to proselytize. Making the veracity of a particular religion an issue in the classroom makes it uncomfortable for those who don’t subscribe to your set of beliefs and inhibits their right to an education. Mr. Freshwater is more than welcome to practice his religion at any other time in any other way (so long as it doesn’t involve bombing an abortion clinic.)
[…] April, we posted a graffiti tirade on the Wall about this middle school science teacher going about his daily grind in the classroom with his trusty Bible by his side… and on his […]
Y’all are cracked. Jesus never needs folks like you to defend him. And he won’t go away if a science teacher in a public school is forbidden from proselytizing (you left out some details…of course). Egotistical, judgemental, antagonistic. You’re not Christians. “By their deeds”…remember? Whited sepulchres, y’all. Whited sepulchres.
Yeah, gay marriage…that’s what’s killing Christianity. Of course. 1200 pages of wisdom, and you grab onto…never mind.
Wow. It’s amazing how many small minds you can fit into a small town.
How dare a teacher demean and demonize students who may be gay or lesbian by imposing his own slanted religious beliefs in a public classroom.
Look beyond the borders of your small town. There’s a big, wide world out there.
And if you don’t believe in science … don’t be a science teacher.
And if you find the need to ignorantly condemn others as having “chosen” to be “sinners” for being gay or lesbian … don’t be a public school teacher. Go be a preacher of hate for some radical religion.
I don’t want you teaching my child in a public school…
Do know what the root cause is here?
Do you know what is driving this problem (and all problems) in our world today?
You dont???
Well, let me tell you.
Its GAY MARRIAGE!!!
This would never have happened if those gays had not disregarded the word and initiated to downfall of morals in our society.
Yes sir, once we get that constitutional amendment banning gay marriage morality will return and all will be right with the world.
Why are Christians such morons that they think everyone in public school or the public for that matter, wants or cares to hear about Jesus.
Bottom line the founding fathers wanted to make sure religous nuts couldn’t influence the public with their crap by separating the church and state.
That said, the biggest reasons Christians are getting such backlash is they are the only nimrods that keep insisting on practicing their beliefs in places were the entire population, not just bible thumping tools, has a right to be, without being subjcted to someone elses religion
Quick question…how would you feel if a school teacher that practiced Scientology had his materials laying around the class room and was teaching your impressionable child about being picked up by alien space crafts and life on far off planets.
When will you numbskulls finally get it.
Religion is taught everyday i classrooms all around the world. It’s a shame that people are so conditioned/brainwashed to believe evolution is anything other than religion. Since the creation, we have a 100% extinction rate and a 0% speciation rate. We have variation within specia but never a beneficial, information adding creation. That is science and scientifically provable. FYI everyone, Education is religion externalized…we all teach what we BELIEVE! Evolution is poor science and terrible theology!
I imagine the classroom time would get pretty chaotic if the teacher fielded questions on cooking, homework in other classes, good names for a dog, what’s going to happen on Battlestar Galactica, religion, debates over which is the best band, politics, or the best method of branding children with an electrostatic device.
There is more than enough material in each class to fill the class period. That’s why, as kids get older, they have divided school time into various subjects. For math questions you talk to your math teacher. For english questions you talk to your english teacher. For science questions you talk to your science teacher (assuming he is able to stick to the subject and give a science answer). For religious questions you talk to your parents or your pastor – especially when Mount Vernon’s policy states that the district does not allow “devotional exercises or displays of a religious character”.
If Mr. Freshwater has a problem with that policy and feels he has much to offer in discussions of religion, he is free to go into ministry or teach at a religious school.
But to that end, if you are a teacher, teach. If students ask you questions, answer them. I don’t think we should tell an inquisitive student, “Go check out a Bible in the library. I could get fired, or worse, hounded by the ACLU.”
If you’re a science teacher, teach science. Is that too much to ask?
check it out – the “incident” was during a science lab that ALL classes do with ALL the 8th grade science students. And it was last December 6…hmmm…wonder why 5 months later it becomes an issue???? 8th grader torture…..phooey.
Chuck, believe me… if that cockamamie “righteous branding” is legit, I’ll be the first to talk about it.
It’s alluded to here: https://hiscrivener.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/re-the-empire-part-3/
SPW
So, how’s that 8th-grader torturing going, hey? Is burning crosses into your students’ arms a God-given right?
[…] The empire (Part 3) Part 3 of the John Freshwater v. Everything that is vile and disgusting in American religion saga landed the Web […]
[…] The empire… Last we chatted about John Freshwater, he was being hammered by the ACLU and thrown under the bus by the Mount Vernon School District for […]