Dumb 'Old Cheerleaders

Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School is located in the northwestern corner of Georgia, very close to Chattanooga. The school made national headlines over the last two weeks because they have been allowing something very bad to take place on campus during their football games. The main culprits were specifically their high-school cheerleading squad.

Cheerleaders, you just can’t trust them. They always cause trouble. In fact, they should all be banned and put out of business, I tell you.

What were they doing and why did it become an issue that garnered national attention? They were being a little too provocative and that is never a good thing. I’m only amazed that it went on for so long before someone pulled the plug on their dubious actions.

It was not scantily-clad bodies gyrating to a hip-hop beat that caused the concern and ire of the school administrators in that county. Neither was it profanity laced into their cheers or the defamation of the opposing team. No, it was much worse than that. I almost can’t put into words this morning the abominations of their actions. And it came to light that the school has been allowing cheerleaders to perform this lewd behavior since 2003 – that’s SIX years by my count! The nerve!

OK, let me calm down and start from the beginning. Every summer since they began this stunt back in 2003, the cheerleaders would meet and put together ‘buster’ signs for the upcoming football season. A buster-sign is the big sign they hold up before the game and allow the football team to ‘bust through’ as a form of motivation. Most schools do this and I remember painting the signs for the cheerleaders in my own high school almost thirty years ago. The signs usually have the opposing team’s mascot drawn on the front and some kind of slogan like ‘Kill ‘Em’ or at least close to that painted below it. By chance there might be something like ‘Homecoming 2009’ written on there as well. It is nothing new.

But these cheerleaders had the audacity, the very nerve, to write Bible verses on their signs! Oh, the horror! The turmoil it caused in the stadium must have been legendary. I’ll bet there were riots and shootings, and it probably brought on gang-related warfare and drug usage throughout the stands. Teen-age pregnancy statistics undoubtably went through the roof as each sign was mercilessly hoisted onto the goal-posts. How did the school allow that sordid behavior to continue for six long years? Children that grow up in government schools may not be able to read and write these days, but you can bet the farm they have been taught and fully understand that bringing up any inkling of God on campus is definitely taboo.

In a school of over 1300 students (I went to their web-site), one brave student stood up and told his parents about the evil-doing that was going on down at the ball field. Of course they were aghast, knowing immediately that something had to be done. One anonymous student, one anonymous parent, and in the end, one anonymous phone call was all it took to make the Superintendent realize the error of her ways and she banned the practice indefinitely. There is no place on campus for signs that promote arcane ideas like loving and caring for your neighbor, doing the best that you can, or seeking a closer relationship with God. God was banned from public schools almost fifty years ago; the schools are so much better and much safer without Him.

By now I hope you realize I am being sarcastic. I looked for the sarcasm font in Office, but could not find it.

What in the world is going on in our country? If God was replaced with Allah or Buddha on those very same signs, would this story have garnered the same response from the media? Would it have required a decree by the school authorities to ban the signs if that were the case? I wondered about it this morning, but not for too long as I know the answer to that one. I’ll bet you do, too.

But my heart goes out to those cheerleaders and I like what they were trying to do. The words of Joshua ring down through the ages to promote and validate their actions. “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15

It is a pity those girls appear to have found themselves dwelling in the land of the Amorites, and in fact we are all apparently doing so today. But in a world that seems settled on the idea that it is an evil thing to serve God in everything that we do, well, my hat is off to them this morning. Good job, girls. Stick to your faith and beliefs, thereby proclaiming your choice to serve God regardless of the consequence of your actions. There are a lot of people out there like me who feel the same way.

An example of the behavior of these seditious girls

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