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Saturday, May 09, 2009

Control-freak Christian principal threatens student with suspension if he takes girlfriend to prom

17-year-old Tyler Frost attends Heritage Christian School in Findlay, Ohio. Frost's girlfriend is a student at Findlay High School. Tomorrow night is going to be the prom at Findlay High.

But Tim England, who happens to be Frost's principal, is commanding Frost not to take his girlfriend to her prom. Because Heritage Christian School forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing and insists that it has the right to demand obedience to its proscriptions far beyond its own hallways.

If he does take his girlfriend to her prom, Tyler Frost will be hit with an academic suspension and won't be allowed to walk with the other graduates when he gets his diploma in a few weeks.

Here's the full story.

Tyler Frost, if you're reading this, here's my advice: take your girlfriend to her prom, don't take any worries with you, and enjoy a night that you will remember for the rest of your life.

And I say this as your brother in Christ: to HELL with what that legalist lunatic Tim England wants you to do! Tomorrow night belongs to you and your girlfriend and if Mr. England does truly consider you to be a fellow worker in the Lord, he shouldn't even be trying to watch over the lives of you and the other Heritage Christian students like a busybody with nothing else to do.

Here's the website of Heritage Christian School and look! They've even put out a press release of sorts...

As you probably already know, Heritage has received a lot of local and regional attention today. If you don’t know what I am talking about, you can read the article in today’s courier (www.thecourier.com Read “Don’t go to the prom…”). My guess is that many of you were bombarded at work with questions and statements. In fact, I have had e-mails this morning telling me that great opportunities to give the gospel have taken place. I believe I ought to address the situation.

First, the article in the Courier is fairly accurate. What the article leaves out are the principles behind the rules. In the Old Testament, Joseph was in a place of temptation and he fled. Unlike this situation, he didn’t put himself in that place. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” II Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee also youthful lusts but follow after righteousness faith charity and peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” When the school committee, many years before I became the principal, set up the policy regarding dancing, I am confident that they had the principle of fleeing lustful situations in mind. The question as I see it is, should a Christian place themselves at an event where young ladies will have low cut dresses and be dancing in them? Isn’t it contrary to the example of Joseph and the verses that I stated?

Second, at the beginning of the school year, every family must sign a statement of cooperation. Students in 7th through 12th grades must also sign it. It doesn’t say that you have to agree with them, but that we will all abide by them. What kind of a school would we be if we suspended a policy because it was convenient to do so? That would not be a Christ-like response. Jesus did not avoid trouble. He made statements such as, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6). His statements didn’t make Him popular with the world. Can we expect anything else? The verses that I have thought of throughout this day are Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Wow! I can build up a whole lot of rewards in heaven today, and so can you.

Third, when discussing this particular issue with folks in the community please remember that the servant of the Lord "must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness" (2 Tim 2:24, 25).

Esther received great counsel from her uncle Mordecai when he said, “And who knoweth whether thou art come into the kingdom for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14). This is a time for Heritage to shine as a light in this world. It isn’t easy, but it is right.

Let me tell you what I believe is going on. I took a look over the Heritage Christian site and that of Calvary Baptist Church of Findlay, Ohio. And I wasn't all that surprised, because I've seen the same thing too many times in my life. And Tim England confirms everything in this statement of his.

Tim England isn't preaching Christianity. He - and I'm assuming his church is much the same way - is demanding Churchianity.

England is making following the tenets of his religious institution more important than anything else. In other words he's insisting on rigid legalism... which is the very thing that Jesus came to Earth to free us from to begin with.

Lord have mercy on me. I don't hate these kinds of people... but I sure as heck do despise them for all the grief they cause others.

People like Tyler Frost, f'rinstance. Who is under no biblical obligation to not have a good time with his girlfriend tomorrow night. And people like Tim England would be wise to be mindful of 1st Corinthians, in which Paul reminds us that we do have liberty in Christ.

24 comments:

Calvin said...

What, the, hell?

Is Tim England planning to stand outside Findlay High School to monitor whether Tyler Frost shows up in tuxedo with his girlfriend?

Anonymous said...

The Taliborn-again strikes again.

Chris Knight said...

Calvin, EXACTLY!!I've watched Tyler Frost in an interview and he seems like a good kid. Certainly he gets what it is to follow Christ more than Tim England does!

No wonder so many people consider Christianity to be a joke. When they see what nuts like Tim England are doing, why should they want to seek after Christ?

Anonymous said...

Not that I agree with Mr. England or the position his church takes, but Tyler Frost is not required to attend that church or that school. He and/or his parent VOLUNTARILY signed him up at that school with strict rules that they agreed to.

Mr. England/Church should be allowed to have their ideals (right|wrong) and Mr. Frost has a choice of where to go to school. If he couldn't or didn't want to abide by those rules then he should leave. (BTW, All of my kids are in public school because I went to a Christian school and believe them to be worse in almost every way)

And Paul reminds us that we DO have liberty in Christ, but also remember that Paul said he would eat no meat if it offended his brother. The law no longer condemns us but that doesn't mean we can't use it as a guidebook.

Lynchburg Guy said...

At 17 Tyler Frost is old enough to join the army and maybe get killed on foreign soil. When do idiots like Tim England finally turn loose their control and start trusting others?

Anonymous said...

Tyler Frost is showing more real compassion and love than the people running his school. He is choosing to make this a special time for his girlfriend by being there for her.

If his girlfriend were in a car accident and lay dying, would Heritage Christian School expel Tyler because he chose to hold her hand in loving compassion?

Anonymous said...

Tyler Frost's graduating class is all of FOUR people.

He's not going to miss as much of that as he will regret the rest of his life not going to prom with his girlfriend.

Go Tyler Go!

Solomon Grundy of the Great Dismal Swamp said...

8 comments and no Footloose joke?

Anonymous said...

Have the principal arrested for illegal entry if he tries to go into the prom to see if Tyler is "sinning". Problem solved.

Tim England is lashing out for the youth he was never allowed to enjoy. He's trying to keep it going.

Tyler Frost: God has set you up to break the vicious cycle.

Go to prom and tell Mr. England to watch Footloose.

Alpha Latro said...

Religion, the Bible, all made up by man. A set of rules put in place a long time ago to put some fear into men so they would stop raping and pillaging each other.

We take from it and practice what we choose to and put the rest aside for later as we need it. The whole thing is designed to control a society under a set of rules with the fear of an imaginary party invite, depending on your behavior while living, you may or may not get an invitation to attend.

Go to the dance have a good time. I believe you can have religion in your life without missing the fun.

Rock out kid and remember a child can not enter into a contract and you may have some rights under the first amendment that the "Private" school is tampering with.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday you wrote about Christians in America needing to be humble again. This principal is being anything but humble. Have you seen the TV news story where Tim England talks about suspending Tyler Frost? England is being smug arrogant and PRIDEFUL. He believes that because others are condemning him for what he's doing that it means he's being 'persecuted' like Jesus was. IMO England is not being a good Christian a bit.

Chris Knight said...

Well, I just took another look at the Heritage Christian School website. In the past couple of hours (this being a Saturday, mind you) they have posted this on the front page of their site:


Heritage Statistics for the Last 13 Years

* Number of teen pregnancies - 0
* Number of alcohol related incidences - 0
* Number of illegal drug incidences - 0
* Number of tobacco incidences - 0
* Percentage of students transferring in from public schools who are happy to be in a wholesome environment - 100%

Maybe Heritage Christian School is doing something right.
Between this and that I heard Mr. England say something about how he and the school committee "chose to follow God" and that Tyler Frost is choosing "another", it reinforces my initial opinion: that the administration of Heritage Christian School is more interested in its own warped "rules" than it is about sincerely seeking to serve Christ.

Heck, even Jesus broke "the rules" at times. Wasn't healing on the Sabbath one of the reasons why He was condemned?

And it seems like even Jesus enjoyed a party with His closest friends - including a little drinking - on the night before His death.

Tim England and the school committee have set themselves in God's place, with no scriptural authority at all to do what they are doing. And as for the "stats" they are quoting: when you consider that any student who got pregnant would assuredly be expelled (and thus no longer be a student) then the stats become suspect.

And did they do a poll on student "happiness"? LOL!

Anonymous said...

This Tim England must be a lousy principal if he doesn't have enough confidence in what he's teaching. I wouldn't put my kid in Heritage Christian School.

Timothy Roberts said...

Chris,
According to the story Tyler Frost had to get a permission form signed by his principal to attend his girlfriend's high school prom. That's why he went to Tim England in the first place.

Tyler is GOING to the prom with his girlfriend so he DID get the form signed by England.

If Tim England was against Tyler going to the prom then he shouldn't have signed the permission form!

A case could be made strongly that Tim England as principal of Heritage Christian School violated his employer's (school and Baptist church running it) policies when he gave permission for Tyler Frost to go to an event with dancing, hand holding and the like which are against the agreement form that the school makes parents and students sign.

Tyler Frost is not in the wrong. Tim England was in the wrong first and the school/church committee is now in the wrong as well.

Chris Knight said...

Timothy,
That is an EXCELLENT point!!!

Didn't even occur to me at all. But now that you mention it...

I think you're right.

And that's gonna be a hard thing for the school and Mr. England to explain before a jury if this comes up in court as a civil case.

Anonymous said...

I live in Findlay, the town where this is happening. Heritage Christian is a farce. They once had many more students but have lost about 90 percent of the student body because of things like this. Calvary Baptist Church that operates it is the same. They are Churchians not Christians (good phrase to describe them). And if you want to know Tyler Frost went to prom with his girlfriend tonight, there is a photo of them holding hands looking beautiful together and getting ready to have a good time.

Anonymous said...

Chris,
If Christ sinned then his blood is no good. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. Is that what your saying?

Johnny Y.

axxis said...

God has no place in this society if this is the kind of crap that people are expected to tolerate.

Leave God in the church and keep him out of the lives of private individuals.

Chris Knight said...

Johnny Y.,
How do I say this politely?

Well, I can't...

You have no idea what you're talking about.

In fact, I can't even begin to deduce how you arrived at any of that, from what I have written.

Anonymous said...

Guess what? Tyler Frost took his beautiful girlfriend to the prom and they were all smiles!

tv news story about themUp yours Tim England, Heritage Christian School and Calvary Baptist Church you gaggle of pharisees!

Greenish Goddess said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gary Ceres said...

Is Johnny Y some deluded nutcase? Just asking...I'm relatively new around here...but I'm pretty sure he must have been having some sort of deluded conversation in his head if he arrived at the conclusion that you were inferring Christ sinned.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

This school is a cult and not a true Christian school. This heartless principal did wrong in suspending a student for attending prom with his girlfriend. One thing is the principal signed the permission form for Tyler to attend prom which indicates that the principal approves of him attending the prom. There is no where in the bible that says dancing, rock and roll music, and proms are sinful. In fact Tyler demonstrated true love by being there for his girlfriend even at the expense of walking in his graduation ceremony. It is like for me, if I was to go to my cousin's wedding and at the reception if I was to dance, then in this logic, I would be expelled from that school, but I went to my cousin's wedding and did some dancing out of the love of my cousin and because he is my part of my family. This is one example of how "big brother is watching you"

This is one example of Zealotry and Bigotry and intolerance on the behalf of the Heritage so-called "Christian" School.