This has been an ongoing issue with christians ever since Jesus yelled at Judas for tucking in his “I’m with Stupid” tunic.
Dyker Neyland says she fought for her daughter’s right to attend Irving’s Thomas Haley Elementary School wearing an untucked shirt because of her religious beliefs as a Christian.
Dyker Neyland (right) recently was granted permission by the Irving School board to allow her daughter to wear her shirt untucked to school, based on a scripture verse.
View larger More photos Photo storeThe Irving school board agreed with her this week and overturned decisions by the principal and district administrators, who had told Neyland that her daughter, Javé, must attend school with her shirt tucked in.
Neyland says Javé, a 7-year-old second-grader, has the right to wear her shirttail out because of a Bible verse, 1 Timothy 2:9, which dictates that “women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing.”
“I don’t want her behind showing,” Neyland said. “I don’t want her body being exposed.”
(via Unreasonable Faith who astutely points out that the bible verse they cite is anti-braids while both mother and daughter’s hair are braided. Sucks that they’re both going to burn in a lake of fire for such ostentatious displays of hair tying.)
Comments
16 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Wow. I would be more likely to argue on the basis of personal freedom to allow the kids to dress as they like, not some crazy interpretation of a Bible verse.
Great via blog, btw. Love this story: http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/04/24/christian-missionary-deconverted-by-tribe/
The reason for tucked-in shirts is so that kids cannot conceal contraband under large, un-tucked shirts. You’d be surprised what a gangster can conceal under a big shirt.
Reminds me I have to see that movie “Jesus Camp”.. but I’m a bit concerned it will scare me to death.
I love your blog. This is the first post that has made me feel uneasy.
This isn’t a story about rich, corrupt Christians. As I read it, it’s about a mother protecting her daughter’s self-esteem. You’re right that her argument was primitive, but you misunderstand something about human nature if you think she was trying to defend the bible, instead of her daughter.
@Adam – I think the more disturbing point is that someone in a position of authority is listening to and honoring a biblical argument.
I’m all for parents setting guidelines for moderation and propriety with their young children, and I’m all for them challenging the man when their ideas clash. But the Bible should never stand up as a valid reason for altering/influencing policy.
So good job mom for standing up for your opinions. And shame on you mom and school board for lending more authority to an old fictional book that a lot of other people don’t want influencing their lives.
PS – In addition to the braided hair FAIL, add another huge FAIL for the mom drawing an incredible amount of attention to her 7-year-old daughter’s ass. I for one had never thought about Jave Neyland’s ass until her mother started going on and on about it. FAIL.
No one in authority honored a biblical argument in this case. The judge honored an argument based on personal belief.
According to the article, the policy of granting religious exceptions to dress-code regulations was already in place. The bible was used to take advantage of this policy, not to alter or influence it.
Don’t you take any pleasure in the idea of the bible being used subversively — as it was meant to be used — instead of authoritatively?
Adam said:
ROFLMAO. Ok, pretty sure Adam is a troll.
Not convinced of the subversive thing, but Adam is right that the legalistic side of things is simply whether this can be said to fall under the preexisting rules allowing exemptions to uniform guidelines on religious grounds (akin to the cases over hijab etc in schools). The effect, ultimately, is to highlight how frickin stoopid such exemptions are…
It is fine (and fun) to sit around and compete to come up with the most pithy quote condemning organized religion, but it’s lazy. In this instance, it was also unkind.
Milo, I’d be interested in hearing your answer to the question you quoted, though I get the feeling you won’t indulge its premise.
“Neyland said she was raised Baptist in Louisiana but does not attend church regularly since she cannot afford to buy a nice dress.”
It seems she is a hypocrite on the dress code as well. From my interpretation of the quote she is using she should be dressed an flour sack to go to church.
The braids in the picture are a major fail
This person is clearly being a religious stereotype. Selectively interpreting a vague verse in the text to fit with their own wants and needs. Her mother doesn’t want anyone telling her daughter to do something, so she digs up a random verse in there and claims it justifies what she wants to do. For Christ’s sake you can justify firebombing a Red Lobster if you interpret Leviticus 11:12 a certain way. Give a reasonably creative person 15 minutes with one of those ancient texts and you can justify or vilify just about anything you want.
I’m sorry, does the school uniform require ass-less pants? As I see it, there are still 2 layers of clothing between the ass and the outside world, similar to her boobies, but the mother doesn’t seem too concerned about that.
I’m a supporter of school uniforms as I had to wear one myself and really enjoyed not thinking about what I had to wear to school. Light blue shirt and khaki again!
The whole school dress code thing is stupid. I understand why people think that it’s necessary but we have taken away a very cool part of being a kid. Self Expression.
When I was in school, (the 90’s) there was no dress code, and nothing bad ever happened because of it. Every once in a while a teacher would have to send someone to the office for wearing something inappropriate but it didn’t happen often.
Parents are trying so hard to turn their little snowflakes into watered down, bland, thoughtless zombie carbon copies of themselves.
Parents just don’t defend their children anymore and when these kids are older, they will remember who tried to turn them into robots.
She should have read on…. The female teachers would have oh so loved her…
1 Tim 2:11-12 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.