Michael Bray
28 March 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the wonderful opportunities at Wilmington High School is the development of writing skills for those who do extracurricular work for the school paper, Hurricane<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Occasionally there is an article of interest for the larger community, that fellowship of citizens which pays for the school\u2019s existence.\u00a0 In the latest issue, assigned the date of March 16, 2007, there appears an article in the center (the section known as \u201cThe Eye\u201d) entitled \u201cStereotypes and Offensive Language\u201d in which the propriety of allowing students at school to use the word \u201cgay\u201d as a pejorative when they speak to one another anywhere, even in their personal conversations, was discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0Our Hurricane<\/em> interviewer asked students: \u201cDo you ever use words like faggot, bitch, or slut, or the phrase, \u2018that\u2019s gay\u2019. . .?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [For any of you readers who have just returned from a time warp, the term \u201cgay\u201d was transformed a generation ago and now commonly means \u201chomosexual.\u201d People don\u2019t give their daughters that name any more. Others, long ago stuck with the name, coped with the new meaning their names bore by taking on a new nickname. Homosexuals came \u201cout of the closet\u201d which is to say that they actually proclaimed themselves candidly – even proudly – to be homosexuals and refused any shame or stigma associated with their \u201corientation.\u201d They expropriated the word \u201cgay\u201d as a new propaganda tool to give the public greater ease to consider the rejection of an old moral code and the establishment of a new one. Sympathizers gladly cooperated to the point that the term with its new meaning entered our dictionaries two decades ago. Another linguistic tool of homosexual propagandists was the creation and introduction of the term \u201chomophobia\u201d to suggest and describe a disorder suffered by \u201cstraight\u201d people \u2013 i.e. normal people \u2013 who opposed homosexual behavior.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Hurricane\u201d went on inquire after the opinions of a teacher, a substitute teacher, the principal, and a Criminal Justice professor from Wilmington College regarding their opinions on the particular use of \u201cgay\u201d as a pejorative.\u00a0 These teachers were all represented in the interview as exponents of the doctrine that says that homosexuality is not to be spoken against as either an immoral orientation or immoral and illegal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The interview with \u201cMrs. Jennifer Hatfield\u201d (who, it may be fair to assume, is a history and psychology teacher of record at WHS) centered in on the use \u201cgay\u201d as a synonym for \u201cdumb\u201d or \u201cretarded\u201d or \u201cstupid.\u201d\u00a0 She said, \u201cit is inappropriate\u201d for students to use words such as \u201cgay\u201d or \u201ccritter\u201d or \u201cjock\u201d or \u201cprep\u201d or \u201cgangster\u201d (the latest terms students use to distinguish themselves from one another).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0The Principal, Ron Sexton, clumsily associated opposition to homosexuality with racism as if to charge that one who is a racist is akin to one who believes that sodomy is immoral and properly illegal (as the codes of all but a handful of our states still affirm).\u00a0\u00a0 This writer earnestly hopes this was a mistake.\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Sexton will not tolerate the use of \u201cfaggot\u201d as a negative reference to homosexuals, but as to the use of \u201cgay\u201d: \u201cthat is one that is used so often that we have to educate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Educate<\/em>? Does the School, indeed, teach morality? Ethics? Partisan politics? Religion? If not, why are we about to have some indoctrination regarding the normalization of sexual perversion and a demand for \u201ctolerance\u201d and \u201crespect\u201d? Why not just admit that educators cannot teach ethical behavior without also teaching religion. Teach the Truth! Pray publicly! Acknowledge the God in whom our money says we trust! Stop trying to live as a nation or as a city without civic acknowledgment of Him! Ignore unjust, Godless federal courts! Educate our children about the fact that we are free people, a free city which may embrace the God and Ethical System of our corporate choice.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0Former full-time teacher, Mrs. Georgia Dunn, who continues as a substitute teacher, illustrated her opposition to the derogative use of \u201cgay\u201d even when it is not used to \u201cput anyone down.\u201d\u00a0 In the library, a student said of something,\u00a0 \u201c[T]hat\u2019s so gay,\u201d and she corrected the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t say that in my class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0More flagrant than any of the support or tolerance for homosexuality afforded by the WHS staff is outright advancement of immorality advocated by Joyce Dozier.\u00a0 As several professors of Wilmington College live in self-confessed homosexual relationships, it comes as no shock to read Madam Dozier\u2019s comments reported at the beginning and end of the article:\u00a0 \u201cI think its more of the closet bigotry . . . with the rise of the religious right and the Republican regime [giving people] almost a license to hate . . . gays and lesbians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0Perhaps Madam Dozier is giving us a heads up for future activism for \u201cgay rights\u201d and the advancement of sodomy among our children when she advocates as follows:\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think the gay community stands up for itself enough . . . But I do think that homosexuals are a very self-hating group of people . . . I think they\u2019ve bought into that, being told by society that you\u2019re wrong or sick, or there\u2019s something wrong.\u00a0 Too many members of that group have bought into that type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so ended the discussion.\u00a0 No disrespect intended to Madam Dozier \ue83a I don\u2019t know whether to call her Dr., Miss, Mrs., or Ms. The expunction of conventions in the wake of the social \u201crevolutions\u201d and \u201cliberations\u201d of the past generation leaves me without the wherewithal to determine the exact means of address by which diverse personages prefer to be referenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A pastoral word to homosexual students is due here. Be assured:\u00a0 those who encourage you to \u201ccome out\u201d and fulfill your inclinations to live a homosexual life style to not love you.\u00a0 Those who encourage you to act upon homosexual impulses or to simply try out the any sexual lifestyle without restrain do not love your soul.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0You, like every person descended from Adam and Eve were born with not only sinful inclinations and orientations, but you are born under the curse of death.\u00a0 You are not dead, yet, but you are dying and will die because of the sin that entered the world through our father Adam and because of the very personal sins which you willfully commit and live in.\u00a0 And yet, the fact that you live now, today, is the evidence of God\u2019s mercy.\u00a0 You do not stand under more condemnation than your fellows who are driven by their own particular sinful orientations, whether as kleptomaniacs, nymphomaniacs, pyromaniacs, or an egomaniacs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0There is healing and forgiveness in no other than the God-man, Jesus, the very Lord of the universe who was conceived by God\u2019s own Holy Spirit in Mary, the wife of Joseph who was a descendant of David, Abraham, and Adam himself.\u00a0 And there is strength by this same Spirit who made the world, brought the Savior to earth, led Him to die for us, and raised Him again for our justification to live a chaste and celibate life or a holy married life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not believe the lies of those who tell you that God is pleased with a life of sin or that it is His will that you follow debased and corrupt inclinations.\u00a0 They do not love you.\u00a0 He who died for your soul does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whence and whither Wilmington?\u00a0 We who know our national and state history know that our culture and society have been blessed with a Christian politico-religious foundation for law and ethics.\u00a0 That is \u201cwhence\u201d we came.\u00a0 But to what future do we go and do we lead our children?\u00a0 What ethical system do we pass down to the next generation?\u00a0 A Godless, Lawless one?\u00a0 We, as a town, a city, a county – not only as a nation – must choose.\u00a0 Every culture has its cult.\u00a0 And the cult of America has been Christianity, the fount from which true justice flows.\u00a0 Take it or leave it and the consequences that follow. Whither, Wilmington?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael Bray 28 March 2007 One of the wonderful opportunities at Wilmington High School is the development of writing skills for those who do extracurricular work for the school paper, Hurricane. Occasionally there is an article of interest for the larger community, that fellowship of citizens which pays for the school\u2019s existence.\u00a0 In the latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,12,18,21,37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3816,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815\/revisions\/3816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}