California: The common-sense state

It took about two thousand years of Christian theology before someone discovered in the penumbras of Scripture an approval for homosexuality. Since then we've made up for lost time, such that people can be incensed that a Christian school in California expelled two students for lesbian behavior. Adding to the outrage is the recent decision by an appeals court that the school is not a business, and hence need not comply with state anti-discrimination laws. And in the Free Love State, no less.

The particulars aren't easy to sort out, because the girls, who alluded to their non-hetero status on their MySpace pages, have since concluded that such talk violates their privacy. Their former principal alleges further that they admitted to him hugging, kissing, and telling other students that they are lesbians. This seems to be corroborated by the fact that the matter was brought to teachers by another student at the school.

Lawyers for the girls tried to deny all, and accused the principal of having a sexual interest in the girls. The court was having none of that. It's difficult to argue that the school had no proof of lesbian behavior while simultaneously claiming that the students were discriminated against for the lesbian behavior that never happened. Then again, one would think it difficult to conclude that the Bible condones homosexual sex, but that hasn't stopped Bishop Spong from discovering otherwise.

What's fascinating is that fully grown, educated adults believe that a school founded specifically for the purpose of propagating Christian dogma should be compelled to include students who wish to trample the portions of that dogma they find unsuitable. In this age of torturing the Bible until it confesses whatever one desires, one is free to believe that it celebrates homosexual sex, or that it affords animals equal rights with humans, or that it magically turns circles into squares. One is equally free to start one's own school, for the express purpose of teaching children to espy square circles in the interstices of Genesis.

But one is not free, at least for the time being, to sign a statement upon enrolling in a school advocating A, that one will abide by and affirm A, and then traipse about the hallways declaring not A. Some will call this a gross violation of human rights. It seems closer to common sense. And here some of us were thinking there was no common sense left in California.