To my mind, this is the "Christian" thing to do.

“Whose Child Is This

It seems in the little town of North Haven Minnesota, it was Thanksgiving weekend, and the congregation was sharing in a baptism. One of the elders of the church, Angus MacDonald, a very Presbyterian sounding name, proudly stood with his new grandson Angus MacDonald III, to be known as Skip, as the baby was baptized. As is the custom in many churches, the preacher asked the ritual question: “Who stands with this child?” Then the grandparents and an assorted bunch of relatives, join the parents holding the baby, presenting the baby for baptism. After the service was over, and the pastor was getting ready to leave for leftover Thanksgiving Turkey and stuffing, he noticed one person remained in a back pew in the sanctuary. She was someone who came now and again, and always sat in the back pew, closest to the back door. She was quiet and seemed at a loss for words. After an awkward silence, she commented on how lovely the baptism was and then fumbling for words she said to the pastor. “My daughter Tina has had a baby….and well, the baby ought to be baptized, shouldn’t it?”

The pastor responded by suggesting that Tina come by to see him, along with her husband, and they could discuss the possibility of baptism. The woman looked up at the pastor, and said. “Pastor, Tina doesn’t have a husband. She was confirmed in this congregation, and she came to the youth group…but then she got involved with an older boy….and then, well, she got pregnant…Tina is only nineteen years old.”

The pastor awkwardly mumbled, “Well, I’ll bring your request before the Session.” When the pastor presented the request to the Session a couple of weeks later….there was another awkward silence and a little bit of mumbling…. “Well, just who is the father?” The pastor said he didn’t know. How could they be sure that Tina would be faithful to the promises that she was making in the child’s baptism? Another said, “How can we be sure about anybody’s promises?” After some further discussion and shuffling about, the pastor and the Session agreed to the baptism, approved for the fourth Sunday of Advent.

When the fourth Sunday came, the church was filled, as it always is, just before Christmas. They went through the service, singing the usual Advent Hymns “O Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” and so forth. Then they got to the time for the baptism. The pastor announced, “And now would those to be presented for baptism come forward.”

An elder of the church stood and read off of a three by five index card: “Tina Corey presents her son, James for baptism.” Tina got up from where she was seated and came down to the front, awkward, alone but for holding James, her two month old baby in her arms. The scene was just as awkward as the pastor and the elders had imagined it would be. Tina seemed so young, so alone….As she stood there, they could not but help think of another mother, and another baby, young, alone, so long ago. A story of another young, unwed mother, in somewhat similarly difficult circumstances. In another place and another time, Tina and Mary seemed close…like sisters.

The Pastor came to the part in the service when he said “Who stands with this child?” He looked out at the mother of Tina, who hesitantly stood and moved toward her daughter and her grandson. The pastor’s eyes went back to the words of liturgy in his hymnal when he became aware of movement in the congregation. A couple of the church elders stood up. Those in their pews stood beside them….the Sunday School teacher stood up, and the youth leader…then a new couple who had just been visiting stood up…and then before the pastor’s astonished eyes, the whole church was standing, and moving forward, clustered around the baby….and Tina….who was crying. Tina’s mother was gripping the altar rail as if she were clutching on the railing of a tossing ship…which in a way she was….a great ship in a great wind of the Spirit. And little James, as the water touched his forehead, grew peaceful and calm as if he could feel this warm loving embrace. And Tina looked down on her son and pondered these things, and smiled a Madonna smile. And the whole congregation gathered as if this were their child, as if they were all family….The Scripture reading that morning was from 1 John 3:1 “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”


Instead, this 'church' turned its back upon and made life difficult for a woman and an 'innocent child'.

Is that what 'Christian role models' should do?

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Never annoy a cat. We like our meals hot and bleeding.

You've got it backwards. Her decision to get pregnant is what is driving this. Not the condition of being pregnant, but the choice to get pregnant outside of marriage. She was aware of the standards of public behavior that her employment was contingent on and she chose to violate those standards. It's NOT about her pregnancy, it's the fact that she is now publically demonstrating a behavior that violates the terms of her employment. As long as she kept it private as far as her students were concerned, then what she was doing was her business and her business alone. But as soon as the fact that what she was doing was made public before her students, then she crossed the line.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

No one has a right, church or not, to force restrictions on the sexuality of another individual. And if she got pregnant, then yes, this is about her medical condition now. They didn't care about her sexual conduct before but now that she's pregnant, they are going to terminate her? That's the very definition of pregnancy discrimination.

I wish Christians would keep their noses in their own bedrooms and out of the business of everyone else. And I also wish Christians would kindly figure out that their morality is not a problem to anyone so long as it's kept personal and not forced upon others with every attempt at an end run around laws that protect the rest of us from having religious restrictions forced upon us. Christians are the only religion in America that seems to need to validate their beliefs by attempting to force anyone they can to adhere to the same beliefs (even if in action only) through any means they can.

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The voice in your head that says "you can't do this" is a LIAR!!!

It's not a church, it's a school. And the issue here isn't whether what they are doing is right, it's about whether what she did violated the terms of her employment. Her employment contract made it clear that certain behaviors are expected and she failed to conform to that. Personally, I think that the school is wrong to fire her, but they set a standard and they have every right to expect that it be adhered to. They didn't ask her to do anything illegal, just be a role model that fits their expectations. They don't even ask her to be a Christian (from what was shown of her employment contract), just that she be role model that reflects Christ-like attributes.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

Don't most companies have rules about co-workers fraternizing?...

I would call that "restrictions on the sexuality of another individual"...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

Fraternization is a completely different legal can of worms. The issue there isn't whether someone gets pregnant or not; it's whether the company is exposed to legal ramifications from a relationship of disparate authority going on.

And most of the time, anti-fraternization policies only come into play if the two individuals work in the same department and one outranks the other.

Is anything of that nature going on at this school between this woman and her fiance` who doesn't even work at the school?

No?

Ok, then, enough said.

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The voice in your head that says "you can't do this" is a LIAR!!!

They aren't forcing restrictions on her sexuality, they are asking that she conform to what she agreed to do when she signed the employment contract. Her coming to school pregnant does nto reflect the values that her employemnt contract demands that she model for the kids. As long as what she does isn't displayed in front of the kids, then, IMO, she's free to do whatever she wants to do. But being pregnant and not married is pretty much a public statement that she is doing something that violates those terms. This is not abotu what she did in the bedroom (or kitchen ), it's about the statement she's making in front of the kids about her actions. By being pregnant, she's essentially on display with clear evidence of actions which violate the terms of her employment. The fact that she was having sex outside of marriage isn't the point, it's the fact that she has to go public with that fact because it's kinda hard to hide a pregnancy.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

Which is suppress exercising her sexual privacy when she isn't on the job.

The article stated she was willing to get married to circumvent those issues. However, they still fired her. I just don't like it. I think it's an attempt to force their sexual morality on this woman with a thinly veiled excuse of "employment contract". I hope the court forces them to pay a pound of flesh after this is all done. In fact, I hope the damages are so punative as to serve as a clear warning to other employers to think about whether it's really worth the risk before they try something like this with their employees.

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The voice in your head that says "you can't do this" is a LIAR!!!

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Never annoy a cat. We like our meals hot and bleeding.

Pregnancy has a way of exposing the fact that you had sex and losing your your privacy. I remember a guy I worked with who's daughter got married. He told me that it was only when she got pregnant that it hit home that "That guy is ******* my daughter."

Firstly, she was ALREADY in violation of the contract,. so getting married is simply closing the gate after the horse is out.
Secondly, no one if forcing thier morality on her. She CHOSE to enter into the employment contract and VOLUNTARILY agreed to conform with it.
Thirdly, if anyone gets sued, it should be her for failing to fulfill her contractual obligations and then filing a specious lawsuit to try to get out of that obligation.
Fourth, this should serve as a warning to anyone signing an employment contract that if they can't or won't conform to the requirements of the contract, then they shouldn't sign it.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold