Posted on 05/17/2002 3:36:51 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee
Friday, May 17, 2002
Stripper mom: I'm following the Bible
Mother says high-paying job gives her time to teach daughter values
The mother of a 5-year-old California girl facing expulsion from the Christian school she attends acknowledges her job as a stripper is not one to be proud of, but says her work allows her time to follow the Bible by being a "hands-on" parent.
As WorldNetDaily reported yesterday, the mother, Christina Silvas, was called into a conference at Capital Christian School in Sacramento after school officials became aware that she works as a part-time strip-tease dancer at a local club.
Rick Cole, senior pastor of Capital Christian Church, which sponsors the school, and other staff members met with Silvas to discuss their contention that her occupation is in violation of an agreement with and commitment to the school philosophy that parents must sign before the children are admitted as students. Her daughter would have to be removed, she was told, if Silvas did not quit her job.
The officials offered to cover the girl's last month's tuition of $400 if Silvas would change jobs. They also offered to support Silvas both financially and spiritually, and to help her find a different job that was in keeping with the school's values. Silvas declined the offer.
As a requirement for admission, parents of prospective students must sign a "commitment" to support the philosophy of the school. That philosophy, in part, reads: "Emphasis is placed on learning about God and the truths of God's Word in relationship to man and his world; recognizing that the way to God comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ; and Christian maturity comes by application of the truths of the Bible in all areas of life." In signing the document, parents agree to maintain a "partnership" with the school "regarding the standards and criteria of a Christian learning structure that involves the entire family."
According to reporter George Franco of KOVR-TV, Silvas has retained legal counsel and is considering filing a motion for an immediate injunction to have the child remain in school while the mother continues to work as a stripper.
Last night, Cole and Silvas discussed the matter with Bill O'Reilly, host of "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel.
"We have appealed to her to change her occupation," Cole told O'Reilly, adding that "God would bless" such a decision.
While Silvas said she agrees with the school's philosophy, she sidestepped the question of whether she considered her occupation a "sinful lifestyle."
"I am just doing it for a season," Silvas reasoned, adding, "I'm not proud of what I'm doing."
Silvas argued that since her job takes her away for only three days a week – the days her daughter, Abby, is with her father – she is therefore available to be "the one to teach [Abby] the Bible at home," thus upholding her commitment to partner with the school in her daughter's education.
"The Bible calls on parents to be hands-on," Silvas told O'Reilly. She sees her situation as better than that of a single mother who puts her child in daycare for several hours a day.
When asked if it was fair that the school's actions were, in effect, punishing the daughter, Cole put the responsibility for the expulsion on the mother.
"My concern is, who is the cause of this consequence?" he asked. "The consequence of [Silvas'] choice is affecting her daughter adversely."
None of the participants in the televised segment talked about the possibility of litigation. Silvas did mention, however, that she hoped to find a new job soon and that people outside Capital Christian Church had offered to help her find work.
Previous story:
Kindergartener's stripper-mom in church-school flap
Here's a counterexample. What if the Catholic Church stipulates to its priests they won't be allowed to be recognized as priests if they are gay or pedophiles. A similar argument (false argument) might be held that the leadership of the laity was being held hostage by such a standard.
In this case, the church might need to defend itself from entering into an agreement with a party who in turn, if fails to act within the guidelines understood by the church as minimally acceptable, then the church would expose themselves to liabilities caused by the parent which they never intend to agree to accept.
Church is well within their rights to reject the relationship, IMHO.
Way to go, you just taught this child a very valuable lesson!
I am sorry and apologize to my fellow Freepers. This is a very sensitive issue with me. Because of something simular as I was growing up, I did change my religion to Wicca.
My two daughters are very Christian and I drill them constantly to teach them those lessons. But for me, the Church drove me away and I simply can not be a part of that culture.
That is a personal burden, but one that I must with.
Please be very carefull with children. You may be teaching them the wrong lessons, in your efforts to help.
And very few of them report their "cash" tips as income to the IRS! And the IRS doesn't do anything to the club owners who under report all the time.
This woman intentionally uses her body to encourage men to lust. She has refused to change occupations and has put money over principle. And you still don't see why the Christian school has objections?
She is not a prostitute.
I think you are grasping at straws. The two examples you state are mutually exclusive, the church has never railed against someone merely being a homosexual, and the other is clearly a violation of civil law.
What is going here is much like a merchant in a free society stipulating requirements against the law, before transacting business. It is much more like the phone company demanding that you convert to islam, before allowing you to connect to their service. The law should come down hard on this school and demand that they cease and desist, as this parent has committed no crime. If this comes to trial, it is my opinion that the parent will win, and it will be determined that the school never had the right to demand arbitrary behavior beyond what the law currently demands.
I give up!
Fine, force the mother to become a waitress and put the daughter into public education. She will become a good Democrat in a few years. Besides, it is your tax money that she will be receiving.
Just because stripping is legal does not make it okay. It's also legal to file harassing lawsuits. It's legal that OJ was aquitted of murdering two people. It's legal (in most places) to commit adultery. It's legal for a president to give pardons to the likes of a Marc Rich, drug dealers, and a convicted pedophile.
No, stripping is not moral. Furthermore, it is often associated with prostitution, drugs, the mob, and the demeaning of women. The statistics alone as to the volume and violent nature of crimes committed by strippers (and the men associating with strippers) should raise red flags.
Well, you certainly learned the NOW doctrine. "Marriage is prostitution." "Love is just biology." "Children are disposable" "Every moral judgement is hypocrisy"
Commandant? I dunno, Col. Wilhelm Klink?
Semi-seriously: I could be a wise guy and suggest that she was inducing people to break number ten. But actually, she was acting in discord with several things that Jesus and his apostles said and wrote about fostering lust in ourselves and in others. Here is a good summation of those passages. Read 'em and weep learn.
Unless there is a clear violation of the law, I would respectively suggest the school go pound sand.
So why didn't Silvas do that instead of making herself (and her daughter) the main attraction in a media circus?
It should be against the law to willfully become an indentured servant simply by attempting to provide an education for your offspring.
Oh, brother...re-read what you wrote. "It should be against the law to willfully..." I don't even have to finish the sentence. It's nonsensical.
No one should have to sign away their rights to educate their family.
Get real. If she had sent her kid to public school, this wouldn't be an issue at all. Heck, in public school, a kindergarten teacher could BE a stripper, and no one would care. But Silvas claims she wanted her daughter to have a Christian education, and by signing that agreement, she said in effect that she agreed with the school's philosophy. She actually didn't, and that became obvious. So, now she can spend her sweaty neatly folded bills somewhere else.
The school is holding a child’s education hostage by demanding arbitrary behavior from a free and law abiding citizen and this practice should be halted.
Yeah! The school shouldn't be able to have its own standards! The school should be forced to serve any parent who coughs up the bucks, even if said parents are deleterious to the atmosphere of the classroom or the homes of the students, thus nullifying the effects of the education. It doesn't even matter that they are a private entity and have the legal right to decide whose children they will educate and whose they won't. YEAH!
What a great liberal you are!
Just whom are we going to allow to define morality, a corrupt government, the fallen church of Rome, you and your interpretation of the Bible maybe? We are standing on the last bastion of freedom, constitutional law. If we allow the busybodies free reign and ride roughshod over liberty we only have each other to blame
B I N G O
Here's some basic math for you:
Public education - immoral profession + Christian values at home > Christian education + parental hypocrisy.
No one forced the mother into doing anything. Her life is her own. She chose her path, and now she's whining about the result.
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