Youth pastors are allowed to visit students during lunch hour in Bossier Parish, Louisiana – but the school district has set up some mighty strict parameters.
Clergy are allowed to talk about sports, the weather or the latest hot movie craze – but they are not allowed to talk about Jesus.
That’s the rule at Benton Middle School where the youth pastor at Cypress Baptist Church got in trouble for inviting students to attend church.
Another student overheard the conversation and reported it to her parents. The parents reached out to the school district and then the Freedom From Religion Foundation got involved. That’s the atheist hate group based in Wisconsin. They get triggered by the name of Jesus.
Anyway – the atheists accused the youth pastor of proselytizing – and that led to an investigation conducted by the school district’s “Religious Monitoring Committee.”
“In summary, an investigation was performed, and facts were developed during this investigation which indicate that the youth pastors from Cypress Baptist Church are not given special access to Benton Middle School and do not proselytize to them while on campus,” the district’s attorney announced in a letter.
Attorneys assured the out-of-town atheists that ministers were forbidden from discussing anything religious with the children.
The bottom line: All conversations must be secular.
“The district representative also spoke with the pastor of Cypress Baptist Church,” the district said in a lengthy letter to the atheists. “The pastor was well-aware that when his youth pastors go onto campus, any communication with the students must be of a secular nature. The youth pastors are likewise well-aware of this fact. Their only goal is to be a source of encouragement to the students. This will be reinforced.”
So it’s okay to promote secularism in Bossier Parish, Louisiana – but not Christianity. It sounds like the school district might want to create an “Atheist Monitoring Committee.”
Todd Starnes is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and host of The Todd Starnes Radio Show.
