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October 2, 2015

At Colorado college, a ban on the words 'God,' 'Jesus,' and 'Lord'

By Rick Moran

The Colorado School of Mines has taken speech codes to a nonsensical level.  More than that, they are making it up as they go along.

Those are the only conclusions you can draw from a the events surrounding a suit filed by a former football player at the school who wanted to donate money to the athletic department.  What happens next reads like a dystopian nightmare.

Daily Caller:

Michael Lucas donated $2,500 to the Colorado School of Mines for a new athletic facility. In exchange for the donation, the school allows donors to have whatever they like inscribed on a nameplate that will go in the football locker room.

Everything from “Give ‘Em Hell” to “OK Gentlemen, it’s time to gird your loins” has been approved by the university, which receives public funding. But when Lucas submitted two Bible verses for his nameplate, he says the school refused, saying the words “Lord,” “God,” or “Jesus” cannot be on the nameplates. On top of that, he said Bible verses that include those words are also banned.

Lucas wanted Colossians 3:23 and Micah 5:9 on his donor plate, just the verse citations, not the actual text of the verse.

Colossians 3:23 reads “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
 
Micah 5:9 reads “Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies, and all your foes will be destroyed.”
 
That use of the word “Lord” in one verse was too much for the school, so now Lucas has teamed up with the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom to file a federal lawsuit.
 
“Public colleges and universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas, especially in a forum like this,” ADF Legal Counsel Natalie Decker said in a statement. “The school initially imposed no restrictions – or even guidelines – on the type of message a donor could include, and contrary to what the school is arguing, the First Amendment protects – not restricts – a simple reference to a Bible verse. It’s patently ridiculous to argue that a Bible reference that doesn’t include the text of the verse is somehow inappropriate simply because someone might look it up and see that ‘Lord’ is mentioned there.”
After you pick your jaw off the floor, consider this: about 90% of the country believes in God, and 71% of America calls itself Christian, makling "Jesus" an acceptable word to the overwhelming majority of the country.
 
And "Lord"?  I suppose writing about "lords and ladies" would be considered verboten at the school.
 
School administrators are obviously mentally ill.  Perhaps not "straitjacket, bouncing off the walls of a mental institution" mentally ill, but certainly requiring years of therapy.  Only a diseased mind could come up with these strictures – or a radically militant group of hysterical atheists.  Needless to say, they should be sent back to grade school and instructed in the meaning of the First Amendment. 
 
Are we reaching peak stupidity in speech codes on campus?  It really doesn't get much worse than this, although I wouldn't be surprised if some other school tops it next week.  What's absolutely amazing to me is that most of the docile, sheep-like students and professors on campus are sitting on their hands while their rights are trampled on. 
 
And the scary thing is that they may even agree with the stance taken by school administrators.
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