Update 12/4/13: A public relations and marketing specialist for the school district has released a statement claiming the information given to Fox News was inaccurate. The statement claims the Christmas cards involved were personal cards of teachers and that the display was moved because one teacher had expressed “legitimate, personal privacy concerns” about the display. The statement also said the incident had nothing to do with “current open and ongoing discussions that the school system is having with local citizens about religious liberties and expression.” The statement did not include any response to accusations teachers were told to remove Christian items like Bibles from their rooms or that they were told to turn their backs on student-led prayers.
The Bullock Georgia County Board of Education is cleansing an elementary school of any object that could be tied to Christianity.
Teachers say that they were forced to take down Christmas cards made for them by students because of the word “Christ” in Christmas and because some of the cards contained pictures of the nativity. Now students are asking the teachers why they won’t be hanging up their cards as they’ve done in previous years.
The district’s edict, however, goes beyond just Christmas cards.
Teachers have been ordered to remove anything from their classrooms that can be connected to Christianity like Bibles or Christian music even if it is for personal use on break times or lunch. They have also been told that if they come across students leading a prayer, they are required to turn their backs on the students or face disciplinary action.
The Board of Education released a statement to Fox News attempting to justify their attacks on Christianity by saying there are “established legal requirements to which we must adhere.”
A bridge ministry that started by feeding 50 homeless people living under a bridge in Georgia has grown to the point over 1,500 homeless men and women were fed a pre-Thanksgiving dinner.
Pastor Roger Gardner of New Hope Worship Center in Augusta, Georgia founded the ministry in 2007 with an initial group of 50. The church now holds services under a bridge every Saturday and regularly sees around 350 people per week.
“Last Saturday we had about 400 volunteers show up and we feed about 1,500 people … we usually grow about 200 a year but it seems there is more desperation in our nation today than there was a year ago,” Pastor Gardner told Fox News.
Volunteers said they give away over 1,000 hot meals a month at Bridge Ministry and over 600 bags of hygiene products. The group has even started a food pantry that serves local families who are facing tough times.
Gardner said their hard work comes from a passion to minister to the poor.
“We want to see our homeless people get jobs and come off of drugs and have the opportunity to blend back into society,” he said.
“The average American looks at a homeless person as an invisible person. We see them as a soul, as a human being…people have the idea that poverty is being poor and hungry and naked but poverty is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. They are our brothers and sisters.”
The father and stepmother of a Georgia girl have been charged with murder after the girl’s burned corpse was discovered in a trash can.
Eman Moss called police to say that he was suicidal and that his daughter had drank some kind of chemical that killed her.
When police arrived, Eman repeated his story about his daughter drinking a chemical and dying. He then lead them to a park area near the metro Atlanta apartment complex where he lived and showed them the burnt corpse of his daughter in a trash can.
Eman Moss and the girl’s stepmother, Tiffany Moss, are charged with felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree and concealing a body.
As temperatures increase for the summer, scientists are noting an increase in ticks infected with Lyme disease. They have also released a study that shows an increase in Lyme disease rates in 21 states.
“There is a lot of different theories of Lyme disease increasing because of warming temperatures,” said Dr. Liza Whalen. Continue reading →
Tornadoes ripped through four states on Tuesday night and Wednesday, killing at least two people, as an Arctic cold front clashed with warm air to produce severe weather over a wide swath of the nation. Continue reading →
