Unwelcome Mat: Ga. Senior Plans to Skip Graduation Because It’s in a Church

[SecularMotion]

When Southwest Dekalb High School (Decatur, Ga.) holds its graduation next month, one of the school’s top students won’t attend because the ceremony is being held in a church.

Nahkoura Mahnassi, 16, has a 3.8 GPA and is in the top 10 percent of her class. Apparently her smarts go well beyond books, because she feels strongly that her commencement should be held at a neutral site, like the Georgia Dome, rather than a Christian church.

Why? Because not all graduating students are Christian, she told WSBTV, the ABC affiliate in Atlanta.

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2012/04/13/unwelcome-mat-ga-senior-plans-to-skip-graduation-because-its-in-a-church/

[cleanhippie]

1. "They said, 'Well, it's just a building,' and of course I posed the question..."

"They said, 'Well, it's just a building,' and of course I posed the question if it was a Satanist church I'm sure the Christians would be up in arms and say, 'No, no, no. We're not going to go there.' So it's not a matter of 'It's just a building.' That's totally not true," Brown told Lucie.

And there it is. She nailed it right on the head. It's NOT just a building.

[rurallib]

2. Probably the only building available at that date and time

what bullshit.

[2ndAmForComputers]

7. Yeah, MUST be that.

[longship]

3. Bullshit!

There is no way that graduation wouldn't be held in that church without an overtly Christian prayer. When is this crap gonna end?

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.

Steven Weinberg, 1990

[Thats my opinion]

11. Really? Good people do bad things, religious or non-religious.

or is that just bigotry coming out?

[longship]

12. Weinberg

I happen to agree with him on this.

Nota bene, he is not saying all non-religious are good, nor that all religious are bad. He is not arguing for a dichotomy. Rather, he is making a statement of religion's bloody history in an attempt to counter religions claim (which atheists never do not hear) that ethical behavior is impossible unless you believe in God.

It is a polemic to counter a common cultural argument, a meme, which non-believers find particularly odious, and clearly false.

Do not take offense to the quote unless you believe that insidious meme. Then, I have nothing more to say.

I kind of think we should all be on the same page here. But I know better. That doesn't stop us all to agree on one thing, that the Republican abuse of religion is insidious and overtly dangerous to us all. I think Weinberg's sentiment is a perfect framing of that. Just my opinion.

[WolverineDG]

4. was the Georgia Dome available & could the school district afford it?

I would hope that using a church as the site for graduation would be the option of last resort.

[ButterflyBlood]

5. So should I refuse to vote because it's in a church?

I mean I have no doubt there are plenty of people in my precinct who are not Christian.

[eqfan592]

6. If you honestly can't see the difference between the two situations...

...then you're doing it wrong.

[Humanist_Activist]

9. This is why I love Christians, they can't help but show their ugly side now and again.

Keep it up!

[Dorian Gray]

8. I don't understand...

why don't they just hold it on the school grounds?

[WolverineDG]

10. not enough room?

not every high school has a football stadium attached to it, or an auditorium large enough to hold the graduating class & their families. At my own graduation, we were lucky enough to be able to use the stadium. Had it rained, we'd have been sent to the gym, & only allowed to invite 1 person.