Sticky Labels

Threatening a student for going to a prom is not exactly in the mainstream of Christian thought. To identify it as simply a Christian school is misleading and superficial. Adherents.com says there are 2.1 billion Christians in the world, and, surprise, they don't agree at all on many issues.

Ohio Christian school tells student to skip prom

The story does better: it identifies the school as a fundamentalist Baptist, though I'm not sure what broader group, if any, the school belongs to. It certainly wouldn't be a member of the American Baptist Churches USA, a fairly liberal organization. And I'm not sure if "fundamentalist" does the job, either since the term has specific theological roots, but it could be correct.

There are problems with this story, though. There are references to rules, but no explanation of what they are. It seems that the student got his principal's written permission as required but the latter then asked a church committee, which issued the suspension threat.


FINDLAY, Ohio – A student at a fundamentalist Baptist school that forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing will be suspended if he takes his girlfriend to her public high school prom, his principal said.

Despite the warning, 17-year-old Tyler Frost, who has never been to a dance before, said he plans to attend Findlay High School's prom Saturday.



The problem of overly broad labels is hardly unique to this story. And labels shift: political stories often refer to "moderate" Democrats (I guess that makes the rest of them radicals?), people who in past years would have been labeled conservatives.

Taking It on Faith

I wonder if Liberation Theologians will be attending, too? What always catches my attention about the World Journalism Institute is that it defines itself as an organization of journalists of faith but then limits itself to Christians. (From its mission statement: The mission of the World Journalism Institute is to recruit, equip, place and encourage journalists who are Christians in the mainstream newsrooms of America.)

The institute is attaching itself to Unity '08 with a pre-conference meeting. Journalists of faith will gather Tuesday, July 22 for a pre-convention WJI conference held to coincide with the UNITY 08 convention in Chicago. The WJI conference will be held at the Chicago Hyatt Regency McCormick Place.
Attendees of the one-day WJI conference will be encouraged to integrate their Christian faith and journalism practice through lectures, discussion and networking with other journalists of faith. Juan Williams is billed as WJI's keynote speaker.