Pilot's actions raise questions: how far is too far

Fort Worth-based American Airlines is investigating an unorthodox speech to passengers by an on-duty pilot over the weekend.

Many passengers felt the pilot crossed a line when asking Christians on board the flight to identify themselves before the plane took off.

Passengers on the cross-country flight from Los Angeles to New York certainly got more than a movie and meal. The pilot, who had just returned from a mission trip to Central America, asked Christians to raise their hands.

"I thought (it) was very bizarre," passenger Jen Dorsey said. "And then he said, 'look around and everyone who doesn't have their hand raised is crazy.'"

"Just given the history of what has happened on planes in this country, anything could happen at this point," said passenger Karla Austin. "We weren't sure if something was going to happen, if he was going to wait until JFK (Airport) to do something. There was definitely the implication that something was going to happen."

The nervous chatter among cabin crew and passengers finally made its way up to the cockpit.

"He came on and said, 'I want to apologize for my comments earlier - I think they really threw the flight crew off a little bit and they're getting a lot of flak, so I want to apologize to my flight crew,'" Dorsey said.

Reverend La Fayette Holland said Christians, who have a Biblical mandate to evangelize, must balance sharing their faith against rules of the workplace.

American officials apologized Monday, and said the carrier would 'handle the matter in accordance with (the airline's) established policies and procedures.'

"For the Christian, the issue is always you want to know up front what the cost is going to be.

"There are a number of other ways the pilot could have shared his faith without violating any policy," Holland said.

Just last week, three Denton pharmacists' joint-decision to withhold a morning-after pill from a sexual assault victim drew protestors.

"You want to always say, 'I want to make sure what I'm doing is going to be the best representation of my Father in Heaven,'" Holland said. "I want to make sure that I'm representing Jesus Christ well in all locations, at all times."

I have no interest in suppressing Christianity or any other religion. However, passengers on an airliner are in a state of confinement. To subject them to a discussion of religion or any other topic when they do not have the ability to get up and leave is extremely rude and should not be tolerated. And it would be even more offensive, in my view, to have to listen to a discussion of the subject by someone who didn't think there was anything out of the ordinary in the fact that the discussion was occuring under those circumstances.

And it would be even more offensive, in my view, to have to listen to a discussion of the subject by someone who didn't think there was anything out of the ordinary in the fact that the discussion was occuring under those circumstances.

Would you be equally offended if you were in seat B, in the middle, and on sides A and C were two people discussing the bible?

22 posted on 02/10/2004 8:20:00 AM PST by ClintonBeGone (<a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/~clintonbegone/">Hero</font></a>)

He can think about the Lord all he likes. Evangelizing as the Captain of an airliner is another matter.

Can you imagine what was going through the minds of the the passengers? " My God, Myrtle..we're gonna die..Muslims have hijacked the aircraft."

I would be annoyed if I was in the middle seat and the people on either side of me were having a discussion about anything. That is incredibly rude. If this happened, I would offer to change seats with the passenger on the aisle. Assuming he or she agreed, I wouldn't care whether they then chose to discuss bibles or bimbos so long as they did it quietly.

Bottom line -- when others are not free to walk out of earshot, your right to free speech must be exercised within the limits of common sense and ordinary politeness.

"Crazy" was a word the pilot light-heartedly used to describe the *Christians* on board ... not the non-Christians:

"... passengers remember the word 'crazy' having been playfully applied to the Christians on board" (from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1075414/posts )

Sounds like someone preferred "getting offended" to "getting the humor."

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