It’s Not the Message, It’s the Messengers

As the Milquiest of Milquetoasts in high school, I can’t imagine walking out on the senior class photo shoot for the yearbook. But that’s what 11 Fountain Valley High School students did two weeks ago after being told they couldn’t stand next to each other wearing T-shirts that spelled out

“J-E-S-U-S {heart} U” and proclaimed “Jesus Is the Way.”

If you’re going to go to the mat over something, your faith is a pretty good reason.

Accordingly, the students -- all members of the school’s Brothers and Sisters in Christ club -- took a hike rather than, as administrators requested, either remove the shirts or disperse themselves among the hundreds of classmates and thereby neutralize the message on the shirts.

If you’re now asking, “How long after that did it take for the threat of lawsuits to start flying?,” the answer is, not very long.

The Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit organization specializing in the legal defense of religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties, has warned school district officials that they committed “multiple civil-rights violations.” The institute alluded to “a costly litigation battle” if the district didn’t reshoot the photos with the T-shirted students and message intact.

Continuing in that spirit of ecumenical harmony, let’s pretend there’s no law governing this sort of thing and instead consider how it could be resolved sensibly, with a minimum of hurt feelings and grandstanding.

If you insist, I’ll be the final arbiter.

I needed the answer to one question first, however -- so I asked Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, if his group would support five Muslim students’ right to stand in a row and spell out “Allah” in a public school class photo. Yes, he said. “In no public school should any students ever be silenced simply and solely because of the religious message or speech they are communicating,” Dacus said. “That’s the line we’ve drawn in the sand.”

That’s all I needed to hear. After careful review, here are my findings:

Was it a clever idea to deliver a message in this way? Yes.

Is there anything inherently harmful about students sending a religious message via T-shirt? No. If they were students at a private Christian school, the ploy would be recalled fondly by the Class of ’04 whenever members dug out the yearbook in the years ahead.

Ah, but this is a public school. Should club members still be allowed to make their religious statement in such an obvious way?

No. But it shouldn’t come to that.

Instead, the students should rejoin their classmates in the photo, minus the message. They should say, “We think we’re right, but it’s not worth all this fuss.”

The club members should rethink things and realize that aligning themselves to spell out a message isn’t making a personal statement; it’s taking over the class photo without letting their classmates sign off on the idea. Regardless of what the club members say, their religious message makes them the centerpiece of the photo. That’s what class members would see from now till eternity whenever they pulled out the yearbook.

Simply put, it’s selfish. It’s selfish in the same way it would be if five Muslims spelled out “Allah” in the photo or five students spelled out “Abort.”

And because I’m confident that being selfish isn’t what these young Christian soldiers intended, they should retreat.

But what about going to the mat for your faith?

How best to spread the Gospel?

They could fall back on one of my favorite verses from Scripture: “By your deeds shall ye be known, not by your T-shirts.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821, at dana.parsons@latimes.com or at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.