![Texas teacher believes fingerprinting is the "Mark of the Beast."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large_lightbox/hash/66/43/664300184996ea308941dbf76700e45e.jpg "Texas teacher believes fingerprinting is the "Mark of the Beast."")
A teacher in Polk County, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against the state for requiring her to get fingerprinted to keep her job. She insists that it violates her religious freedom.
From the standpoint of Pam McLaurin, who teaches in the Big Sandy School District in Dallardsville, being fingerprinted is against her religion. It equates to taking the "mark of the beast," as per the final book of the Bible, Revelation. She believes she would "'be tormented in burning sulfur'" were she to comply.
According to a report on KLTV.com, McLaurin's lawyer, Scott Skelton, said McLaurin would willingly submit to any other form of background check. However, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is not allowing any exceptions to the fingerprinting requirement.
Although Superintendent Kenneth Graham said that he would comply with TEA's ruling, he wished that they would make an exception and let McLaurin, who has taught in the district for 20 years, continue to teach. He said, "'A person's religious convictions are their own and we're not going to judge them as far as I'm concerned. My only consideration is that she does a good job for us and she is good for our children.'"
Reportedly, a preliminary injunction hearing is set to take place in Beaumont on November 12th to determine if the TEA can terminate McLaurin's license.
Comments
LOL... This person is an over-the-top wing-nut. The state is merely asking for her agreement to be positively ID'd for the protection of all and she's claiming "da Debel's gunna git 'er."
She's apparently friends with the G. Dub-ya Bush family and maybe she's all, too, familiar with what "Gog & Magog" can do.
Somehow, even if this is her idiosyncrasy the school system could do without her and probably should...the expression nut-job comes quickly to mind. And frankly religion is not a valid reason to thwart security.
The only way this would violate her religious freedom is if they forced her to have her fingerprints taken whether she was working in that job or not.
She has the choice... abide by the rules or get another job. Her choice.
What alarms me most is that this person has been teaching there for 20 years. If she has crazy ideas like this, what else has she been teaching kids, even if she "keeps her religious beliefs to herself and does not push them on students"? Sure, a background check will probably come back fine but that's not the point here. Do we allow all "sincerely held religious beliefs" trump the law no matter how far out they are? Shall we allow people who have a "sincerely held religious belief" that stoning a person to death (see bible for the many 'crimes' this is for) is OK, be allowed to get away with murder? Oh wait, we DO let religious people get away with murder. Just see all the stories about those who died (especially the kids) because they got prayed over instead of getting the medical attention that would have saved them.
Funny thing that, though I disagree with the belief itself, I can sympathize with the persons standing up for herself based on religious practice. I'm fortunate enough to work for an educational company which did not press the issue when I told them I would not teach children about Easter, under any circumstances.
:)
Seems trivial. She doesn't mind a background check, just doesn't want "the mark of the beast" which she seems to think will damn her to hell for all eternity by getting fingerprinted. Seems quite a leap of belief to me but, how about if they skip fingerprinting her and just go to her classroom and get her prints off her desk? Would that damn her to hell? How can one prove/disprove what someone says is their "sincerely held religious beliefs"? I can just see pedophiles seeing this story and suddenly getting "religion".
Seems trivial. She doesn't mind a background check, just doesn't want "the mark of the beast" which she seems to think will damn her to hell for all eternity by getting fingerprinted. Seems quite a leap of belief to me but, how about if they skip fingerprinting her and just go to her classroom and get her prints off her desk? Would that damn her to hell? How can one prove/disprove what someone says is their "sincerely held religious beliefs"? I can just see pedophiles seeing this story and suddenly getting "religion".
I dread to think how she would respond, waking up and looking in the mirror, if some prankster were to have snuck up on her while she was asleep, and inscribed '666' on her forehead with one of those permanent 'Sharpie' markers. I expect it would turn out quite a lot like the 'Christian Warrior Lady' that was on Wife Swap.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TJLOGI2Odc
let her teach at one of those Evangelical bible charter schools that all of us are paying for...thanks to GW's faith based initiatives..
better yet...let her go to hell...literally..
I'm a catholic - my religion demands that I should keep secret the sexual abuse of women and children by catholic clergy. Thats a part of my religion, as well my religion tells me my religion comes before the law of the land - I'm a despised Catholic - the world's most despised catholic for calling this the pox that it is or should I hide it behind the right to practice my religion in whatever way my current church hierarchy dictates - still a pox whichever and whenever it covers up or enables another abuse.
Perhaps she could forgive them as many are wont to do - better still she should ask herself what form of insanity put those ideas into her head in the first place - the sooner she off-loads that crap the better off the rest of us are likely to be.
Would this case be different for a person whose religion was not Christianity? Christians get critisized for their beliefs, I believe, more than any other religion in the world. I also got fingerprinted in Texas and the same thought actually ran through my head. I am also willing to bet that there are other teachers out there who felt the same way.
Rev 13:16-17 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
How does this equate to an individual's fingerprint, which is hers alone? (unless she's confessing something?)
wow, she is crazy!
I think this kind of fingerprinting violates our civil rights. But I don't see how it can violate anybody's religious beliefs.
The unique Fingerprints are among the miracles of Allah (SWT) upon Mankind. The Mark of the Beast of Judgment will be made only upon those still living on the Last Day and ALL will be marked as Sinners or Believers.
One should not fear the Mark of Judgment unless one is destined for Hellfire.
Wyoming wrote: "Christians get critisized for their beliefs, I believe, more than any other religion in the world."
And this surprises you? Look... you believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie, who is his own father, can make you live forever if you submit to a magical soul-douching ceremony (complete with magical water, incantations and waving of hands), symbolically eat his flesh (in the form of a cracker) and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was tricked by a malevolent entity (disguised a talking snake... with legs) into eating a piece of magical fruit from an enchanted tree... (etc.)... and that there is something horribly wrong with people who ARE NOT stupid and gullible enough to believe such outrageously ridiculous codswallop.
Guess what?... that's crazy.
>> "People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs." ~ Anonymou
Fingerprinting of teachers is done to keep children safe. It catches criminals working under assumed identities including pedophiles and other people we don't want around children.
And whaddaya know... she was actually born with the marks of the beast right on her fingertips. What does that tell you?
"Christians get critisized for their beliefs, I believe, more than any other religion in the world"
Indeed. And if you're a Christian, you should give it some thought why that is. The fault is not in your stars, it's in yourselves.
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