Posted on 06/20/2002 11:08:28 AM PDT by southern rock
(Uniondale, Long Island-AP, June 19, 2002) — An honors student at Kellenberg Memorial High School has been told not to come back for her senior year because she has refused to sing a medley of songs from the play Jesus Christ Superstar.
Megan Gaffey says she and her family consider the songs blasphemous.
As part of the spring concert, the school's chorus sang several selections from rock opera. But Gaffey, a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Franklin Square, said the medley was offensive. Gaffey says she asked to be excused during that medley or not to participate in the concert. Instead, she was removed from the chorus. James Gaffey says his daughter should have been excused from the concert for exercising a matter of conscience, or penalized in some other way for not participating.
Brother Kenneth Hoagland, principal of the Uniondale school, says the challenge to the songs only brought to a head almost three years of conflict with the family who "did not accept the school's notion of Christianity."
Hoagland says the parents showed they "had no confidence in the school's administration." He advised them to "seek a school more in line with their philosophy."
The Kellenberg School was founded by the Marist Brothers. It's 98 percent Catholic and all students must be Christian.
Gaffey wants to see his daughter graduate from Kellenberg next year. Otherwise, he said, she most likely will attend Amityville High School in the fall. She ranks among the top 15 in a class of approximately 340 students.
Gaffey attended a Christian day school from kindergarten through second grade and then was home schooled until she started as a freshman at Kellenberg.
A line from Dogma?
I just had a wonderful conversation with the wife of a pastor here new to town. Her daughter and mine attend dance together. I told her of the problems in the public school--homosexual activism, planned parenthood, the usual--and we agreed that as Christians, we need to stick together and fight the good fight.
It's just a rancorous few here who get into sneering contests. Hey, I like protestants so much, I married one! (Course he just converted to Catholicism, heh-heh!). V's wife.
The Episcopal Church calls its ordained ministers priests. And there are women who are priests in the Episcopal Church.
For what it's worth.
Shalom.
Complaining...hmmm...
How about "Come, let us reason together." It sounds like these folks were taking a stand for righteousness. That said, it seems apparent that this Catholic school is lost. If I were this family, I would look at this child being kicked out as the mercy of God's hand. He's probably getting her out of there before it's decimated by God's lightning bolt of judgment. Where are the other parents in this thing?
You know, the reverence for God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit has been so eroded. I hear the lady (Catholic, by the way) across the way from me say the Lord's name in vain, as a swear word, about five times a week. I have said, "please don't do that." But it is such a terrible habit with her, and she doesn't understand the gravity of it. I, myself, am just really beginning to understand the many ways I treat God irreverantly, and how very serious it is.
Christians out there, could we agree to pray for this for our country, that the Holiness of the Triune God would be made real to hearts in this country, and that our attitudes toward Him would be impeccably respectful, reverential, and that we would have a holy fear of Him, which is the beginning of wisdom.
The real point here is that it is a private school and if she doesn't follow their rules, no matter how she feels about them, the school would have every right to ask her to leave.
In 100% agreement with you there SR... That is a horrible play/movie/soundtrack/ect..
I'm a little confused. Why is it blasphemous? Because it's new?
I liked the original version...AFTER I saw it that is. Never saw the brand new remake.
You might be interested in what I sent to another FReeper via e-mail (see below):
I sometimes do have a tendency to be blunt, I guess!
The link which I posted in #169 shows why, of course. Tim Rice is quite avowedly **anti**-Christian. (Professing Christians need to start noticing how his Christ-hating bias does permeate his "rock opera." We should not be fooled by Satan's winsome, often very sensual devices--even if they are sometimes rather subtle in the way they feed us lies.)
***
I know a lot of Christians who agree with me about JCSS. What amazes us is that there are so many professing Christians who see nothing wrong with antichristian junk.
Something very nasty is going on, IMHO. Satan really does deceive people. Yesterday, I did a Google search for "Jesus Christ Superstar" and got 86,500 hits. The overwhelming majority of these were positive toward JCSS.
(OOOOOPS! In an awful way, the whole thing is rather funny [Ah, but I'm a Calvinist. See Psalm 2:4!])
Yes he does. He also does whatever he can to stir up controversy within the church - especially directing people to believe their brand of Christianity is better than any other (what we might call Phariseeism).
OTOH, Satan also serves the will of G-d.
Shalom.
You are correct. But the most serious problems problems in the professing Church are not the controversies between saved people, but the problems which completely lost folks pose within the professing Church.
And Satan does like to play shell games as to the matter of which folks are saved and which folks are lost. When someone with discernment uses the Scriptures themselves to clarify matters, Satan will ordinarily accuse that Christian of being a Pharisee. And he will use the real Pharisees in the case to make the accusation.
This is why Sola Scriptura is so important. We have to stand exclusively on what God clearly hath said. It's the only way out of the mess of Satan's lies.
I recommend that you check out Posts #33 and #53 on http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/704064/posts to see what I mean.
And as I said earlier, Tim Rice, who wrote JCSS, is just plain lost. He is the enemy of God. This is not even arguable. But you have managed to overlook it. If you would follow Sola Scriptura, you wouldn't even need to read Tim Rice's confession that he doesn't believe the gospel. You would see it in his "rock opera."
So is Satan. Yet Satan serves G-d's purposes. I can look up the scriptural support if you like, but I'm sure you can find it.
This is not even arguable. But you have managed to overlook it.
Of course I have overlooked it. I am much more interested in what G-d hath said than the ass he has used to speak the words (a little more scriptural reference for you).
If you would follow Sola Scriptura, you wouldn't even need to read Tim Rice's confession that he doesn't believe the gospel. You would see it in his "rock opera."
I do follow Sola Scriptura. Even more, I follow the G-d who wrote the scripture. I worship Him, not His book.
Shalom.
And in this very way, Satan does further God's rather awful purposes. God is not even trying to save everyone.
On the matter of worshiping the Word of God "versus" worshiping God, I think you need to quit imaging competition here. You need to have a much higher view of God's Word. The connection between the Scriptures and the Second Person of the Trinity is more solid, more perfect than you realize.
God has highly exalted His Scriptures in ways that you haven't noticed.
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