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News of Note: Rock Group “Junkyard Prophet” Delivers Controversial Message at School Assembly
High school students in Dunkerton, Iowa, were expecting an assembly about bullying and making good choices. What they got instead was the Christian rap/hard rock band called Junkyard Prophet delivering an anti-gay and anti-abortion rant.
According to the La Crosse Tribune, after the band performed, they separated the girls, boys, and teachers into three breakout groups. “They told my daughter, the girls, that they were going to have mud on their wedding dresses if they weren’t virgins,” said Jennifer Littlefield, whose 16-year-old daughter, Alivia, called her in tears after the event. Reportedly, one of the band members led the girls in a chant pledging purity and encouraged them to be submissive to their husbands after marriage.
The boys were shown images of musicians who died of drug overdoses. A video of the event shows a band member criticizing Elton John and Lady Gaga for encouraging “sexual deviancy” and supporting laws outlawing homosexuality.
I find it hypocritical and unfair that faith-based groups like Junkyard Prophet (and PFOX) are imposing their intolerant beliefs on helpless school children. The separation of church and state should (and unfortunately often does not) protect all children in public schools from being force-fed religious dogma and intolerance. Arguments against homosexuality, abortion, and premarital sex, are clearly rooted in the teachings of christian zealots, and have no business being taught to public school children as objective information.
These organizations have no shame in taking any opportunity they can to inject dogma into publicly funded schools. How can we organize to prevent this intolerance from being perpetuated in the future? This surely isn’t the end of it.
Creative Commons image by: Jsome1