Monday, December 31, 2007

Woman kicked off the bus for reading the Bible to her children aloud



Here is one of those stories that becomes a story because it has to do with the Bible. It is also exactly the kind of story that Matt Drudge loves.

Here is what happened:
A woman was reading the Bible to her two children. The bus driver found her loud and inappropriate and told her to stop. The woman refused. She was kicked off the bus.

First of all, the bus driver was in the right. Every bus driver has the right to enforce company policies (in the case, a policy of no loud or abusive behavior) and to refuse service to those who violate the policy after due warning.

So what is the journalist's excuse (or in the case, CBS Dallas/Fort Worth news)? How is this a story? Take out the "Bible" and it is a story of a woman who refused to comply with the city bus policy of conduct. Had the woman been reading Harry Potter too loudly and been asked to stop, this would not be a story.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry, but you don't know if she was actually loud in the first place.
The facts given are that she was reading the Bible to her child.
the article did not say she was being overly loud or yelling. In fact the article doesn't state that any passenger was complaining either.

so reading the Bible and using a voice to do so is freedom of speech. The rules are being applied as a scape goat. So the bus driver chooses to cover his actions for making an excuse for stopping the woman, who is just simply reading to her child. This is a cop out of using his rules to get what he wants. Which is to silence someone cause they simply don't like the Bible.

this is evil..calling evil good and calling good evil is what is going on here.
So read your Bibles and speak as you go I say.

Anonymous said...

Whatever. I'll read my Bible to my kids whenever I want, where ever I want, no matter what the consequences. If she was reading it too loud, she obviously had poor tact, but should not have been kicked off the bus for that. We have people who sing in the trains. What else is next in this God-hating world?

Michelle Krejci said...

I am not critical of anyone reading the Bible to their children or to anyone else. Apparently, neither are Dallas's bus service officials who have told the local new team that "the incident had nothing to do with what Lutz was reading, just the fact that she was simply making too much noise. Signs on the bus warn against playing radios and loud behavior. Transportation officials claimed they asked Lutz to quiet down, and when she refused, they were forced to remove her from the bus."

As for freedom of speech, the Liberty Legal Institute has already taken up the case. No doubt it will create a round of discussion about the degree that public institutions can have policies limiting speech (no loud behavior).

I am critical of the fact that this has become nationwide and international news.

Anonymous said...

Lets imagine a different scenario. A woman is reading "Gay love poems" aloud to her lesbian lover and gets kicked off the bus.
Do you think the bus driver would ever dream of kicking them off his bus?
Do you think ACLU would sue that company's?
Do you think that bus driver would still have a job today?
Do I think you would ever post that on your blog and remain a PhD student?