THE KID IN TAUNTON

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (I Peter 3:15)

I believe I first heard the story of a Taunton, Massachusetts 2nd grade boy being suspended from school for drawing a picture of Jesus’ crucifixion on Monday. As it has been reported, the boy who is the son of Mr. Chester Johnson of Taunton, was assigned (along with the rest of his class) to draw a picture which reminded him of Christmas or some other religious holiday. After drawing the crucifixion picture, the boy was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation.

The school disputes the story saying the assignment was never given and the picture was not drawn in school. I realize there are some publicity hungry parents who will claim or do ANYTHING for publicity, money, or both (e.g. the family of “balloon boy” of Colorado a few months ago). I do find it difficult to believe the father is making this story up. I must say, when I first heard the story, it DID surprise me that upon being asked to draw a picture which reminded him of Christmas, the boy drew Jesus’ crucifixion scene. Despite the fact that I’m an Assemblies of God minister who holds to a very theologically conservative position about who Jesus is and why He came, if I were asked to think about something to do with Christmas, I wouldn’t readily think of a crucifixion scene. The boy’s father DOES offer a plausible explanation for this, however. Just a few days before the boy drew the crucifixion scene, the family had visited the holiday lights display at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro. I haven’t been to “La Salette shrine” at Christmastime in at least 6 years, but I HAVE been to their holiday lighting display many times in years past. Without a doubt, there IS a huge emphasis on Jesus’ suffering and death as part of that display. If the kid had recently been there and had it in his mind, it is understandable why he’d have drawn the crucifixion scene.

It has been reported that the school has a “no violence policy” and that this is the reason they reacted the way they did. Well, on the one hand, you can’t get much more violent than an old fashioned scourging and crucifixion. But one would HOPE that in context there would be the understanding that the crucifixion is a deeply moving event for devout Christians and not meant as a display of gratuitous violence.

It wasn’t too many decades ago that schools decorated for Christmas and Hanukkah, sang Christmas and Hanukkah songs, etc. It seems to me that made a whole lot more sense. The modern politically correct “Winter holiday” stuff is nauseating. It seems a shame that America has become SO hypersensitive to the far left and so “politically correct:” as to essentially create a scenario where events like the Taunton story...whatever actually took place there... happen.

Too bad we can’t turn the clock back 30 or 40 years to a more sane time.

Incidentally, the MetroWest Daily News has a pretty good editorial about the Taunton school event at:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/editorials/x1599181361/Editorial-If-storys-true-school-out-of-line