7/23/07

Wed to Prejudice: The Chastity Ring

A while back I wrote a post that essentially asked the question: Will Western Christians see more persecution in the coming years? To that, I would say, "Yes!" Now, we must keep in mind that persecution isn't "always" physical, it is manifest in social, economic, ethnic and gender mistreatment too (among other things). Personally, I think that in America, social persecution against Christians is becoming a sort of norm. It's as if we're an easy target and easy to pick on, so, that's why people do it.

Anyways, Old Testament professor Dr. Claude Mariottini has written an interesting post that reveals such discriminiation. In brief, he picks up on a story concerning a young, teenage girl who was forbidden by her school from wearing a chastity ring. The girl took the case to court and was ultimately ruled against. The contradiction or double-standard is seen in the fact that a muslim girl could wear head-coverings and a sikh girl could wear bangles (a type of jewelry) but that this Christian girl was not permitted to wear a chastity ring--as I understand it, the school said it was against their dress code. Anyways, check out the story by clicking the following link: Mariottini: The Case of the Chastity Ring. You might follow some of the links Dr. Mariottini provides if you are really interested in the story.

2 comments:

  1. "Now, we must keep in mind that persecution isn't "always" physical, it is manifest in social, economic, ethnic and gender mistreatment too"

    1. I don't think we're going to experience any serious persecution anytime soon.

    2. Minor discrimination, which might sometimes exist, doesn't reach the bar of "persecution," if you ask me. To call name-calling or attempts to restrain slightly the free exercise of religion "persecution," is to downplay real persecution.

    3. The story in question was about a school that had a policy against jewelry, so there was no real attempt to discriminate against a Christian, but rather to uphold their jewelry ban.

    "Lawyers for Ms Playfoot told an earlier hearing that her chastity ring was a "religious artefact" and should therefore be exempt from the school's general ban on jewellery"

    Now, I disagree with this ban and would encourage the school to have a different policy if I attended there, I don't think this particular case even raises to the level of discrimination.

    If a Muslim were wanting to wear an What Would Allah Do? necklace, it would probably also be banned, as it is not integral to their religious tradition.

    Most Christians don't have jewelry or clothes that are central to their faith tradition. If the girl could make the case that this ring was, it might come closer to religious discrimation, but I don't think that's the case here.

    What do you think?

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  2. But the Muslim girls and girls from other religions did get to wear the jewelry they say is part of their religious practices.

    I do see this as discrimination but perhaps not incredibly severe discrimination. And we have debated about this a little bit before but I do think that devout Christians will experience persecution in the States in the future. We'll see.

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