London school is a chastity ring-free zone
Evangelical Christians in Britain want to know why Muslim and Sikh religious garb are acceptable in a local school, but a Christian student’s symbol of purity is not:
At a time of passionate debate over religious clothing and emblems, a 16-year-old member of an evangelical Christian movement protested in court on Friday because her school has refused to allow her to wear a so-called purity ring, symbolizing her commitment to premarital chastity.
The case offered a counterpoint to a broader discussion concerning Muslim women who wear the full-face veil known as the niqab. But it also revealed stirrings of resentment among some members of Britain’s Christian majority, who say they are the victims of discrimination over how they display their faith.
The young woman, Lydia Playfoot, said her school, at Horsham, south of London, had told her that the ring broke the school’s rules on uniforms and jewelry.
But Ms. Playfoot argued that the prohibition breached her right to express a religious belief. Not only that, she said in a statement to the court, Sikh and Muslim pupils were permitted distinctive dress to show their religious identity.
The girl’s family works for the British branch of the U.S.-based Silver Ring Thing company. More here.
“The real reason for the extreme hostility to the wearing of the S.R.T. purity ring is the dislike of the message of sexual restraint, which is ‘countercultural’ and contrary to societal and governmental policy,” Ms. Playfoot said in a written statement to Britain’s High Court.
“It is this message from the Judeo-Christian position that is suppressed: exemptions are allowed or permitted for other messages,” she said, arguing that her school “doesn’t offer equal rights to Christians.”
Her remarks showed another aspect of a tangled debate here that has largely centered on concern among British leaders that the Muslim full-face veil has become what Prime Minister Tony Blair called a “mark of separation.” That led some Muslims to say they were the object of discrimination.
But Ms. Playfoot’s remarks suggested that Christians like her see themselves as being treated unfairly.
She’s not alone, of course. There was the case of the British stewardess banned from wearing a cross and another banned from carrying a Bible. And the acceptability of Muslim-only swimming pool rules. And the increasing spread of sharia law in the UK, even as British Muslims scream about Islamaphobia.
How will the high court decide? A judgement is expected in four to six weeks. Stay tuned.
Meantime, there are interesting reactions on the London Telegraph’s website. This one made me snort:
Had she wished to wear a bone through her nose it would presumably have been allowed.
Posted by Ben B on June 23, 2007 1:01 PM
Many years ago, I sat on a plane next to a British girl who had a bone through her nose. It was…agonizing. She didn’t need a chastity ring. The bone was a declaration all its own.
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Trackbacks
- Muslim freedoms not shared by Christians in Britain « synopsisblog
- Hyscience
- The Thomas Chronicles » Religious Tolerance for all… except Christians
- The Autopsy: Nijab? Yes! Chastity ring? No!
- The Reaction Shot
- Christians threaten religious takeover with chastity rings « Bookworm Room
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Categories: Double standards, Sharia
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Stories like this make my head spin. I have known older Brits who told me of their school days a few decades ago that included daily Chapel convocation, Scripture reading, and Christian prayer.
Last time I checked, Anglicanism is still the state religion and the British flag contains not one but two crosses (St. George’s and St. Andrews’s).
So, now tell me again, how… niqabs and Sikh swords are okay, but a tiny little chastity ring on one’s finger is NOT — esp. when the latter is a Christian symbol worn by a Christian in a putatively Christian land….
Yep. Makes my head spin.
Great- No Longer Great Britain, has completely lost its way.We are not that far behind, and if we have any brains we will learn from watching that canary die so we can avoid the same mistakes.
Linked.
My sister and I got into a small debate about chastity-rings a few years ago. She didn’t like the rings because she felt it was wrong to assume everyone who didn’t wear a chastity-ring was sexually active. But then I convinced her that because of the times we live in, people assume you’re sexually active anyway! And the people who began the whole chastity-ring movement did so because they got tired of people assuming they were active just because they were a certain age. They also got tired of the backwards philosophy saying that sexual activity was something to boast while virginity was something to hide. It used to be the other way around.
Then I guess this principal will feel comfortable teaching promiscuity to Muslim women eh……..crickets
Maybe I’ll design a promiscuity ring. It’s sure to be a hit in Britain, unless Muslim men declare the wearers to be infidel harlots sent by the devil to tempt them away from Allah, and decide they must pay with their lives in a public and brutal way.
Infidels are damned if you do, damned if you don’t with these types of opportunistic extremists.
This is coming to America too, by the way. The ACLU will sue you to oblivion if you are displaying anything Christian in a school, but they will bus all the kids to the local mosque at the drop of a hijab, and give the parents a days notice.
Liberals and the MSM feel safe in oppressing Christians and Jews because Christians and Jews aren’t strapping bombs to their children in the name of religion.
Amen to that Ralph. Oh, sorry, I mean right on bro!
Funny thing about chastity rings. My kids attended the ceremony with a gorgeous girl, with a Playmate body. Her mother was very much against it. An old hippy, but a really good person. Smart, hard working. Fun. Successful. Kind. But all about choices and expression (and maybe a bit of justification). Daughter is still gorgeous, still a virgin. Mother is very proud. Many suitors. It was like she was teaching mom.
Here is something interesting about Sunni Muslim attitudes toward women from LGF:
Such lovely people.
It boggles the mind how Christianity can be derided, insulted, trampled on and practically outlawed, yet the smallest slight (real or perceived) against most other religions practiced in the modern world is met with anger, legal action, outrage and even violence. And it all seems to be accepted. Those who say they adhere to no religion in particular, but live in our western societies, based as they largely are on Judeo-Christian principals, have not the slightest clue how spectacularly bad life would be if the tendancy towards acceptance of Islamic demands for Sharia is not resisted now. Sorry about the run-on sentence, but as I said, my mind is boggled…
Since when has a chastity ring been an integral part of the Christian faith? It’s not like wearing a cross has been banned, as in the case of the British Airways woman.
There is video of this Saudi “cleric” saying all this on Saudi TV at LGF:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=25967_Video-_Our_Friends_the_Misogynistic_Saudis&only
lgf: Video: Our Friends the Misogynistic Saudis
Did you see the picture of the ring? It’s tiny and modest. What’s the problem with wearing that? If a Muslim can wear a burlap sack to school, a Christian girl can wear a little ring on her finger.
I am not surprised this happened in London. I also would not have been surprised if it was in the US.
I think someone in that school ought to start a religious club for Christian boys. It should be called “The Order of the Knights Templar” and their uniform should be white tunics with a big honking red Templar Cross on the front and back. Anyone who objects will be descended upon by armies of lawyers and buried in litigation. See how they like a taste of their own tactics:’)
Next up:
Turning the other cheek to insults is out.
Cutting of heads for insults in.
The point is not whether the ring is a Christian symbol or not but, that anything Christian or, however, remotely associated with a Christian mindset seems to be intolerable. The result is that anyone can take potshots at Christianity without consequences, while being forced to bend over backwards in order to accomodate other religions. Specifically, Islam.
The bottom line in this PC world is if you are a Christian or a white male you are nothing and anyone can say anything or do anything to you, it is totally acceptable.
Actually, it’s three crosses. The red-on-white saltire (diagonal) cross is the Cross of St. Patrick and represents the Irish portion of the realm.
It is not so far off from the muslims here demanding the facilities in state schools for washing their feet and all of a sudden, according to the ACLU it is NOT a religious thing. Or the cab drivers in Minneapolis not wanting to take customers with seeing eye dogs or carrying any kind of alcohol. It is all about forcing us to change to their ways and them being absolutely intolerant of ours, even though they came here.
If we give in to these things, it will never end.
We should demand that they accomodate us when we go to muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia. Oops, I forgot, they regularly behead people there.
You left out one more item in your list, Jaded: conservative.
Once again, another glaring example of liberal hypocrisy and intolerance. Sheesh; practice what you preach!— Oh, sorry, I meant: Do what you say! (I wouldn’t want to use any words with a religious connotation that might offend the delicate and sensitive ears of liberals, right?)
Why is it that Christians are never the victim of discrimination. This would by definition be discrimination if it happened to any other special interest group, BUT IT IS ALWAYS POLITICALLY CORRECT TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST CHRISTIANS!
How about the christian girl gets married a’la sharia law, would that be acceptable?
Btw Jewish symbols are already not permitted to be worn out like crosses.
Not surprised, if the Brits don’t start rounding up these fanatics, chaining them together on garbage scows, and dumping them in the middle of the channel thier lost.Time to wise up here too.
“Maybe I’ll design a promiscuity ring. It’s sure to be a hit in Britain…”
Brian72, you need to market that her in America to the Liberals, using some sort of “progressive” message, along with a “progressive” sounding company name. You would litteraly hit the $$$ jackpot with that idea.
Ironically if Brian did design a promiscuity ring and included a Cross and a Star of David in the design it probably wouldn’t be banned because it wouldn’t be Christian. In fact.. just skip the promiscuity thing all together and make it an ANTI-Christian ring and you would sell millions and not a single parent would complain.
The point is not the design of the ring. It’s what it means that they are threatened by.
I have some somewhat conservative leanings.. but frankly I’m pretty left wing when it comes to my church. I want a church that is inclusive not exclusionary. So to say that I’m not a fundamentalist would be an understatement… In fact, I blame hypocritical fundamentalist Christians for nearly everything that has gone wrong in my life. Before you start the bashing note the emphasis on hypocritical. Not every fundamentalist is a hypocrite… not by a long shot. But several of those I have run across (like my cheating ex-husband who preached about how wrong I was to be friends with homosexuals but was screwing his married secretary) made me ashamed of being a Christian at all until I managed to figure out the difference.
But even as liberal as I am churchwise, I grow weary of the constant bashing of Christians and Jews while we are supposed to turn the other cheek to whatever the Muslims and atheists do to us.
Of course the hypocrisy of this is unnoticed by the Libs in the UK; they have been trained to question their own culture and to see it in a negative light. Libs think that once Christianity and Capitalism are made persona non grata in Western Civilization that Liberal Socialism, Feminism, and Social Darwinism will reign. Antonio Gramsci would be proud.
But the fact is this “training” blinds them to the dangers of Islam and radical, evangelical Atheism. Dr. Rodney Stark has pointed out how it was Christianity that created the Western World, with its emphasis on individual rights. But as Michelle’s favorite person Vox Day aptly put it, the women of the Western world are faced with a choice between “the brothel and the burqa”, if things continue going as they are.
#28 3steps
People are weak. That weakness of man has nothing to do with the teachings of the Christian church. You were done wrong but I hope you don’t fault the church.
When will the Colliseum reopen? Go lions!
FrozenTex makes an interesting point that wants this conclusion: the reason ONLY Christianity is derided is because it is the ONLY Truth.
Liars deride the Truth. Their derision is the certification of their lie, they are bondslaves to their darkness.
It’s official: The UK society has been emasculated.
Chastity rings and cross jewelry have nothing to do with the christian faith. They are fashion accessories. There is nowhere in the bible that we are commanded to wear either of them so as they are inventions of man. Christianity is not an iconic religion such as the roman catholic, or hindu religion. So in the same way that many muslims wear headgear claming it to be part of their faith which it isn’t, then those who claim to be Christians should not make up things (Adding to the word of God) for the sake of causing an argument.
It’s about free speech and what they are selectively allowing vs. what they aren’t. They slowly chip away at the ideas of the faithful as a perceived threat. Don’t you see the danger of that?
First of all, Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity; the religion is Christianity. That’s why we refer to Catholicism as “the Catholic Faith”. I’m a Catholic Christian. Second, it’s about free speech, (see my point above.)
Pardon me if I don’t share your paranoia on this subject. The girl is wearing a ring that does nothing more than identify her, ostensibly, as an adherent to one supposed aspect of the Christian religion. There’s nothing in the Christian faith that says that she has to wear it. On the other hand, Sikhs are required to wear the kirpan, and Muslim females are required to wear the hijab. She’s equating something she wants to wear that happens to be religious in nature with something that other faiths require their adherents to wear. It’s no different than a “WWJD?” bracelet or a “Jesus fish” pin. It’s a piece of entirely-optional religious adornment that violates the uniform restrictions at her school.
No one’s telling her she can’t be chaste or abstinent; only that she cannot wear the ring. Why are we turning this into thoughtcrime?
Next, the English will ban wedding rings.