PARAMUS, N.J. (CBS) ― A Paramus middle school student was sent home Friday after he came to school dressed up as Jesus for Halloween. For a few hours, Alex Woinski was the messiah of West Brook Middle School, but like the real Jesus, Woinski was condemned, so to speak.
“Sort of like a new remake of what supposedly happened,” Woinski told CBS 2.
Decked out in sandals, a robe, fake beard and thorns, the 13-year-old joined 500 other students at his school’s Halloween celebration, and on this day, he was the chosen one – to go home. “It was offensive to some students,” Woinski said, when asked what school officials told him the reason for being sent home was. Woinski says he wore the costume because friends say his long hair makes him a Jesus lookalike, and were not offended by his costume. The school says his costume was a disruption and denies its religious nature had anything to do with it. “I don’t think I overreacted,” Principal Joan Broe told CBS 2. Broe said too many students were drawn to the costume, and that was reason enough.
“Children were [asking], where is the boy whose Jesus Christ?” she said. “It was disrupting the education process.” Woinski’s parents agree it was political correctness gone amok. “I think the whole freedom of speech and expression has definitely had a damper put on it, and this is proof of that,” says Kim Woinski, Alex’s mother. But it won’t put a damper on Woinski’s trick or treating. This Jesus has been resurrected for Friday night.
Woinski has developed an interest in religion. His mother is Catholic and his father is Jewish. He recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and his also studying Bible scripture. His school says this was the first time anyone had ever dressed up like Jesus. They say other students were ordered to alter their costumes because they were deemed inappropriate.
It seems this wasn’t done maliciously, or was it? I wonder if we will see a repeat of this at Christmas, when dressing up as Jesus for school plays and nativity scenes is acceptable? Christians sure can be finicky at times.
#38 – Scottie
>>However, just as you view my atheism as
>>closed minded and whatever else you think of
>>it, I view your religion as silly.
OK. So we agree to disagree. It just gets tiresome when such a disproportionate number of posts on dvorak dot org slash blog are of the same old, same old “those nutty Christians” variety. If the worst they ever do to you is make you look at “In God We Trust” when you open your wallet, you should county yourself lucky.
>>Besides, why do you feel that the topic is
>>not open for debate in the same way that
>>politics is?
Oh, it’s open for debate. Not a productive debate, to be sure, but debate. In addition, politics changes (or at least there are new players) over time. Christianity and Judaism and Islam haven’t changed much in the past 5 or 6 months (or the last 1000 years, for that matter), and continuing “There is a God” vs. “There is no God” arguments don’t really make much progress.
As you are aware, I am in favor of stem cell research, in keeping religion out of public schools, in maintaining the separation of church and state, in allowing civil rights to same-sex couples, etc. ad infinitum. If I want to play my silly religious fantasies out in real life, what’s the problem?
>>What exactly have I done that you consider
>>to be persecution?
Well, nothing on the order of the Crusades, or some of the Atheist “cleansings”; it’s more a continual meaningless harping on Us True Believers for no reason other than that we believe. And I believe BoBo said that he’d like to make religion illegal, but he’s somewhat of an extremist.
>>Are you really going to claim that 5% of the
>>population as nontheists is persecuting the
>>95% that believe?
Sure! Just look a what’s happened under Dumbya. A minority of the people are exploiting the majority. I thought that was pretty common.
#23 Brenda said, “Of course. Lions vs. Christians, Live at the Roman Coliseum®”
LOL. Unlike the Detroit Lions, the Roma Lions always won…
If he had dressed up as a rabbi, the ADL would have had the school shut down.
Thats nothing. Last night in my neighborhood I saw a 10 year old girl dressed up as a naughty schoolgirl complete with thigh-highs, tiny skirt and skimpy top, going trick or treating.
What were the parents thinking???
#41 – Mister Mustard,
#38 – Scottie
If the worst they ever do to you is make you look at “In God We Trust” when you open your wallet, you should county yourself lucky.
How about if just 5% of the country’s bills are printed with “There is no god” and say 20% with various sayings from non-Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions? Then the other 75% could be variations on “In we trust”. Would that be OK with you? Just to give a balanced representation of what people in the U.S. actually believe.
If I want to play my silly religious fantasies out in real life, what’s the problem?
It’s not a problem. As I have said, if the religious folks in this country all felt as you do, I’d have no problem with religion, or at least not locally. Unfortunately, it seems to me that you are by far in the minority.
>>Are you really going to claim that 5% of the
>>population as nontheists is persecuting the
>>95% that believe?
Sure! Just look a what’s happened under Dumbya. A minority of the people are exploiting the majority. I thought that was pretty common.
Oh … um … ack.
#38, Scott,
Very well written posts.
#41, Mustard,
It just gets tiresome when such a disproportionate number of posts on dvorak dot org slash blog are of the same old, same old “those nutty Christians” variety.
Maybe, just maybe, with all due respect, we might be on to something.
#44, Rick,
Maybe they were watching Survivor
Mr. Mustard,
Just another take on tiresome posts on DU, imagine how atheists feel every day in meat space dot real world.