Jesus on the Side -- An Alexandria Church Gives Students Pizza Every Week

The Washington Post ^ | April 16, 2007 | Brigid Schulte

[PDR]

On a recent warm spring day, four T.C. Williams High School students sat sweating inside a Jeep Cherokee in the parking lot of a Baptist church scarfing slices of pizza. Scores of their classmates streamed into the church in search of the same pizza. Jesus Pizza.

Jesus Pizza, as the students call it, is warm. It's good. It's free. And it's available to T.C. students for lunch every Wednesday at the First Baptist Church of Alexandria. Some weeks, as many as 150 or more students trek the half-mile down King Street from the school to lounge on old couches, thumb through Bibles or play pool while waiting for free slices and sodas in the church basement. The only cost is that they have to listen to a prayer and a short sermon before digging in.

[SNIP]

Some might call this proselytizing, this allure of easy, free food to those with young, impressionable minds, hungry bellies and empty pocketbooks. "They're trying to brainwash you!" insisted Rachel Goldfarb, a T.C. student who refuses to go to Jesus Pizza.

To others, such as Tommy Clark, who are devout, it's a great place to come for fellowship. "I've had people say, 'I love to come here. Everyone is so nice. I feel so welcome,' " said Clark, who runs a Jesus Pizza group on the Internet. "It's pretty cool to see the biggest stoners and drug dealers come, too.'"

Still, when the morning announcements at the public school include an invitation to come to Jesus Pizza could that blur the bright line separating church and state?

[SNIP]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041501139.html

[Abathar]

Every Wednesday our local schools here (public) have weekday, where they walk the kids across the street to a local church and have a nondenominational bible class. Any kids who want can opt out, but there are only 1 or 2 from each class who do. It is only for the third graders I think, but my kids had to memorize bible verses and they learned quite a lot. Any talk of stopping it usually gets quashed immediately, the people here (S.Central Indiana) think it is a great idea and don’t suffer the fools who come and challenge it.

[onedoug]

Rachel, read Habibi.

[Sloth]

Not an eyebrow would be raised if it was hosted by Planned Parenthood, no lawsuits, no bad press.

'Fetus Pizza.'

[B-Chan]

The strip-mall church across the street from our high school does this. It’s an effective way to get kids into the building. As a method of marketing salvation, however, I’m not sure how effective it is.

I’m opposed to marketing salvation myself, but that’s just me being Catholic.

[HaveHadEnough]

The should do a Father Guido Sarducci “Find the Popes in the Pizza Contest.”

[cyclotic]

A few weeks ago, my furnace broke on a Sunday. I called a repair guy and told him that when I got home from church, I noticed the house was pretty cold. He came over and fixed it. The bill included a 10% “church discount.” He told me that they were a Christian company and that, although they don’t advertise it, if a customer mentions church on a Sunday service call, they get the discount.

[PDR]

Yes - it is the self same high school

[RGoldfarb]

I’m Rachel Goldfarb, the student that was quoted in this article who you all seem to dislike so much. I just wanted to point out that the reporter who wrote this article left out much of the background that makes my comment make more sense, and quoted me out of context. I am an observant Jew, and refuse to go to Jesus Pizza out of principle. No one can deny that the purpose of this program is to bring children into a church in hopes of “bringing them to Christ”, and I therefore will not attend. I do not have friends bring me pizza- in fact, most of my friends, even those who are Christian, do not attend Jesus Pizza either.
My feeling is that too many of my classmates do not understand that Jesus Pizza is clearly an evangelical event, and that since it is an evangelical event, it should not be advertised in the school’s morning announcements. As a public high school, we are supposed to have separation of church and state, and the advertisement of Jesus Pizza at school seems to toe that line a little too closely for my taste.

[rstreitfield]

Rachel- my daughter, an observant Jew, attended HS in New England. She noticed that there was a Christian Athletic club that met at her school after school hours. She asked and was permitted to use school space after hours for the Jewish Athletic club she was about to form. They said yes; after getting together with the others, she even got her picture in the local paper for holding a fundraiser.

Go back and read the Constitution, Rachel. No one forces anyone to join or not join a club, or a religion. We are free to join or not to join. We are free from religion; not of religion. To deny that we and our religious (or anti-religious) lives do not intersect in school and at work is to deny reality and recreate the atmosphere that led to Nazi Germany and the religion-free Soviet Republic. No one is forcing anyone to go eat Jesus pizza. You are perfectly right not to eat it and no one should fault you for that. However, if is announced on the schools PA, no one has to listen, do they?

[Politicalmom]

Looks like the OI trolls are out with a vengeance today.

[Politicalmom]

So, does the phrase “separation of church and state” appear in the Constitution?

[PDR]

Nice to meet you. I have nothing against you nor have I said anything against you... so I do not understand why you posted this message to me.

That said, you need to stop being a “Nanny.” Just as you are old enough to make responsible decisions, so are your friends and fellow students. They do not need you to save them from what you think is the unconstitutionality of this thing. No one is forced to go and — contrary to what the reporter writes in her lede — no one appears even to have to listen to the sermonette. Hence the gentlemen eating pizza in the parking lot.

And, before you start on about the separation of Church and state, do yourself a favor: look up the history of that particular church. You might find it interesting.

[rabidralph]

Yes, they are the Titans.

[rabidralph]

Maybe she’d prefer some unleavened bread pizza?

[PDR]

actually, there are several kosher pizza restaurants in nearby Silver Spring, Maryland — not even just the other side of Washington, D.C. But I don’t think that’s what concerns here — what bothers me is the Nannystate-ism already forming in her mind.

[rabidralph]

I understand. Maryland is one of the biggest little nanny states.

[DocRock]

"As a public high school, we are supposed to have separation of church and state, and the advertisement of Jesus Pizza at school seems to toe that line a little too closely for my taste."

The Supreme Court has ruled that Christian groups have as much right to meet at public schools as any other group.

[PDR]

... but she lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

[rabidralph]

My bad. Northern Va. is not much different.