I’m not sure where to begin on this one. I’ve spoken to some of my friends about the dangers of Christian Nationalism, but they think my fears are overblown. But it’s occurrences like this which demonstrate the threat the rest of us fade due to a small, but very determined minority.
The Daily Beast and Newsweek have reported that high school students in the East Baton Rouge school district were lured to a fake “college fair,” that turned out to be some sort of twisted religious event which was heavy on transphobia.
After being separated by sex, the male students were asked to leave the room while the girls were presented a series of lectures by three guests, who proceeded to traumatize the students as follows:
[T]he first speaker was a female pastor, who lectured about staying true to oneself and not trying to fit in with the crowd. “One of the examples she used for this was how she had kept her virginity through high school and college,” Budyach wrote. “After she announced this proudly, she expected an applause. She mentioned how everyone knew her as ‘the good Christian girl’ and that she was proud of it.”
The second speaker, Budyach added, “was involved in the education sector in some way” and talked about “how a guy she met on a dating app ended up attempting to kill her by strangling her.” The woman allegedly told the students that she kept their romance secret, so no one would know if he did murder her. “She used this to ultimately make the argument that if something needs to be kept secret, then it shouldn’t be happening at all,” Budyach wrote.
After this warning about domestic violence, Budyach says, the woman also “emphasized that if she had waited for the man god meant for her, then it wouldn’t had happened. She uses this to essentially shame the concept of ‘dating around’ and took a soulmate-esque approach on the situation.”
“In addition,” Budyach wrote, “she explained that she had forgiven her ex boyfriend for his attempted murder, even if he wasn’t sorry. Again, there could possibly be a valuable message, however it’s lost in the traumatic storytelling and religious imagery.”
The third speaker was a nurse with a PhD, Budyach continued, and “gave an extremely detailed description of the morning that she had found her son’s body after he had hung himself.”
“She explained that this happened because her son was bullied,” Budyach claimed. “She used this story to say that people these days are too mean to each other and we need to stick together. For the third time, a possibly useful message hidden behind an extremely traumatizing account of a day that we had no warning or idea that we were going to learn about.”
When it was the male students’ turn to be inside, the boys were apparently not subjected to the same sort of moral posturing, but instead engaged in macho games, such as prizes for who could do the most push-ups. Trans students were openly bullied during this event, without any intervention by the adults.
And although the students were promised free food for attending this college fair, that apparently came with a big catch — That they had to register to vote.
Of course, when confronted with this blatant violation of the separation of church and state, the East Baton Rouge Parish School System initially refused to admit any wrongdoing, saying that:
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System has partnered with 29:11 Mentoring Families to provide additional support services for students in our district. One of these initiatives is the “Day of Hope” event. The event was structured to assist students with exploring what options are available after high school, along with allowing students to participate in breakout sessions and student-initiated activities and projects. By providing entertaining activities with an educational focus, this event was an elevation of a traditional college and career fair. Students were provided with lunch and a rare opportunity to mingle with their peers from other high schools in one setting. We look forward to seeing what our over 2,100 student participants will continue to achieve with the resources and knowledge gained from this event.
Given that this obvious bait and switch involves minors, I wonder if this doesn’t amount to kidnapping.