I leave tomorrow morning to return to the city of my birth, Ft. Worth, TX to attend the 30th Reunion of the Class of 1981 of Western Hills High School.  So it was not without some sense of irony that I saw the news item about the incident between two students in a freshman German class.  I don't know what surprised me more: that the student had the nerve to ask a question about homosexuality out in the open in the classroom, or the reaction of the teacher when another student expressed a personal opinion that was intolerant and irrelevant to the class discussion.  I admire both for different reasons; the teacher, for even acting at all, though I can agree that a "teachable moment" was probably missed, there at least has been a clear boundary set in this teacher's classroom.  The student I admire for simply having the audacity of youth and fearlessness of his curiosity to simply ask a question to which he wanted an answer.  I can't help but remember myself at that same point; grateful that the first few weeks of school are over and I've corrected all my teachers about my name, ("It's pronounced "Micah" but I go by my middle name, "Layne") and it's myriad mispronunciations and mockings, titters, snickers and that spotlight's been dimmed a bit.  I generally tried to keep quite unless I really, really, really knew what I was talking about....which I didn't feel like very often.  So to start a discussion or offer an opinion on anything, let alone 'how German religion treats homosexuality' is really a pretty foreign concept to me....so good for him!

Now according to Eva-Marie Ayala in the good 'ole Fort Worth Star-Telegram (pub. 09/22/11) a discussion of religion had begun in Dakota Ary's German class when an unidentified classmate in the rear of the room asked the question related to homosexuality and how they as a country deal w/the issue.  Dakota, who is 14 and a freshman, said "I told my friend that I'm a Christian and I believe being gay is wrong."  Now it seems to me that the discussion was about 'religion' in the abstract and how one country deals w/a specific issue, not about how each student personally feels about the issue and so Dakota's "viewpoint", while many will fall back on the tried and true (and overused) "free speech" harangue, was not germane to the discussion.  I think a classmate's free speech ends when it comes to passing judgement on the "wrongness" of another classmate's life.  To judge his "friend's" life as "wrong" certainly doesn't make him much of a friend first of all and presupposes that Dakota, because he is "Christian" is living the "right" way.  This is arrogance of the first order, which is only magnified by Dakota's claim that he would do it again "because it's what I believe and I have a right to freedom of speech."  And what's really crazy are the people who say, "He's just expressing his opinion.  He's not making a judgement."  Well duh!  What part about judging something "wrong" don't these people get?  What's the opposite of wrong?  We make judgements every day of our lives when we decide 'right' from 'wrong'; those are "judgment calls".  So by definition, when Dakota said that he believes being gay is "wrong," he is judging his friend.

Christian author John Shore made a comment the other day that I'd like to share w/y'all:

"If you’re a Christian who believes that being gay is a morally reprehensible offense against God, then you share a mindset, worldview, and moral structure with the kids who hounded Jamey Rodemeyer, literally, to death. It is your ethos, your convictions, and your theology that informed, supported, and encouraged their cruelty. We Christians who believe that God created gay people as much in His own image as he did straight people are begging you to reconsider your theology — to do nothing more than be open to an alternative, fully credible, scholastically sound interpretation of one or two lines from Paul. How can you be unwilling to do something so simple, when you see the horrible ultimate cost of that refusal?" - Christian author John Shore.

I hoping that someone might pass this along to Dakota and a few others who probably need to hear it:  Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum, Herman Cain and those are just the current crop of candidates....I'm not going to even get into Congress. 

So students should feel free to express themselves, ask questions and explore ideas w/out fear of judgement from other students.  All students should be able to attend classes and make their way to and from those classes w/out fear of humiliation, ambush, being spat upon or bodily injury.  I hope that other teachers take a cue from this unnamed German teacher and at least use any future incidents as opportunities for discussions.