Johnny E. Mahaffey
April 8,2013

The Novelist Portent

UNWED-BUN IN THE OVEN?
NOT ON GOD'S WATCH!

"A California Christian college has been accused
of firing a female teacher for having premarital
sex, and then offering her job to her fiance.
Teacher Teri James,29, admits she pledged not
to engage in 'immoral behavior.' but says in
a lawsuit it was 'humiliating' for the college
to fire her when pregnant, and to offer her
job to her fiance, who had impregnated her."

--The Week, March 15,2013
ONLY IN AMERICA

Seriously? That surprised her? A
biblical-based school; acting... oh
I don't know---BIBLICAL.

She should count herself lucky,
dealing with outdated, biased, sexist,
hypocritical policies; in the days of
her grandmother's youth, she would've
been shuned from society; in the days
of her great-great-great-grandmother,
she would've been tied up in the town
square and stoned to death by the
"unsinned" Christian "Soldiers"---give
or take a few more "great"s.

Rocks and baby-bumps don't mix.
I side with both the Christian
Christian college's decision to fire
James, and, her rights as a woman of
modern-pop-culture-America.

For the Church--I can see why an unmarried woman penguining
around a "christian" setting enthused school, and a teacher
at that, would not set the most dogma'd example to students
and the path chosen for them. And from a legal view, James was
under contract (albeit a "pledge") not to engage in such behavior
and willingly gave the church legal right to do such a thing
as what they did, when accepting the position.

For James--why couldn't she just be suspended, told she could
return after the baby (a daughter I'm blindly guessing) is born
and after James got married? Couldn't she still lead by example
by showing forgiveness and understanding, repent for her "sin"
and be reaccepted? I can see why she'd be angry with the cold
Christian backs of her piers turned to her in such a time, a
time that is in fact the most beautiful moments of life for
the mother and the father. Isn't after all, the entire church
based on the birch of a child from questionable relations? At
least in the case of James, she can point to her child's father
without stories of supernatural intervention.