{"id":6849,"date":"2012-03-28T16:57:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T20:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=6849"},"modified":"2012-03-28T16:57:55","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T20:57:55","slug":"sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Sticking up for other people’s rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Charles Kuffner<\/a> points us to this encouraging story from Texas \u2014 \u201cCatholic group urges TAPPS review<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which made national news earlier this year for waiting to get sued before agreeing to reschedule a state basketballl playoff game. TAPPS had scheduled a Jewish school to play on the Sabbath and, initially, told the team to play or to forfeit.<\/p>\n

Kuffner links to another story about the association\u2019s nasty treatment of an Islamic academy<\/a> that sought to join. TAPPS rejected Iman Academy after requiring the school\u2019s officials to respond to a questionnaire asking if they, as Muslims, believe \u201cthe Bible is corrupt,\u201d and about the \u201cspread of Islam in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the response from Texas\u2019 Catholic high schools:<\/p>\n

The organization that represents Texas\u2019 Catholic high schools on Thursday called for a comprehensive review of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, calling TAPPS\u2019 treatment of Jewish and Muslim schools unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to sufficiently improve the structure and management of TAPPS will require a re-examination of our 43 Catholic schools\u2019 continued affiliation with TAPPS,\u201d wrote Margaret McGettrick, education director of the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department.<\/p>\n

Those schools represent 20 percent of TAPPS\u2019 membership.<\/p>\n

She urged that a review committee represent the association\u2019s \u201cdenominational, institutional and geographic diversity, to ensure that the issues and concerns of all members are accounted for and addressed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This <\/em>is what \u201cdefending religious liberty\u201d looks like for those who take such liberty seriously and aren\u2019t just spouting a political slogan they don\u2019t understand. It means making sure that religious minority groups enjoy the same rights and protections as everyone else.<\/p>\n

As Kuffner says:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a lot of disagreements with the Catholic Church on policy matters lately, but this is something I applaud.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McGettrick and the Texas Catholic schools seem to understand that rights are meaningless unless they apply to everyone<\/em>. \u201cRights for me, but not for thee\u201d doesn\u2019t really mean I have rights either \u2014 just tenuous, fragile privileges I can enjoy and defend until such time as thee and me switch places.<\/p>\n

That sort of privilege seems to be what the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has in mind when it sermonizes about \u201creligious liberty.\u201d The bishops seem to think of religious freedom as a zero-sum struggle for hegemony \u2014 that their freedom is only meaningful if it comes at someone else\u2019s<\/em> expense.<\/p>\n

Good on the Texas Catholic Conference Education Department for choosing a better path and setting a better example.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas \u2014 \u201cCatholic group urges TAPPS review.\u201d TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which made national news earlier this year for waiting to get sued before agreeing to reschedule a state basketballl playoff game. TAPPS had scheduled a Jewish school to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSticking up for other people's rights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas -- "Catholic group urges TAPPS review." TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sticking up for other people's rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas -- "Catholic group urges TAPPS review." TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-28T20:57:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/\",\"name\":\"Sticking up for other people's rights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-28T20:57:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-28T20:57:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas -- \\\"Catholic group urges TAPPS review.\\\" TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sticking up for other people’s rights\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sticking up for other people's rights","description":"Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas -- \"Catholic group urges TAPPS review.\" TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sticking up for other people's rights","og_description":"Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas -- \"Catholic group urges TAPPS review.\" TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2012-03-28T20:57:55+00:00","author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/","name":"Sticking up for other people's rights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-03-28T20:57:55+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-28T20:57:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Charles Kuffner points us to this encouraging story from Texas -- \"Catholic group urges TAPPS review.\" TAPPS is the Texas Association of Private and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/28\/sticking-up-for-other-peoples-rights\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sticking up for other people’s rights"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}