Apache Girls Booted from Private Lutheran School for Sunrise Dance

DaisyDay · Jun 28, 2024

They took part in Apache ceremonies. Their schools expelled them for satanic activities

Educators on the Fort Apache Reservation have repeatedly condemned teens for participating in a sacred dance. It follows a pattern of Christian discipline begun more than a century ago

www.theguardian.com

The private religious-based academy expelled two girls and warned a third for taking part in an Apache cultural heritage dance that celebrates girls' passage into womanhood (sort of a quinceanera or bas mitzvah?) because the school claims it is Satan worship. The dance ceremony took place off campus on the weekend but pictures were posted on social media.

Religious schools are allowed to discriminate against religions and religious beliefs and private institutions may set their own rules. I guess it comes down to whether the ceremony is religious or merely ethnic. I doubt it is in anyway connected to satanism.

okay · Jun 28, 2024

Wow. I wonder if they expel students for idolizing money, or education, or the US flag, or guns, or celebrities, ... I kind of doubt it.

I wonder what the other options are for schools in their community.

essentialsaltes · Jun 28, 2024

Two of her granddaughters were expelled from school in 2018 and 2019. She still has one of the school’s letters tucked away in a box in her house.

It states that these 13-year-old girls will only be allowed to return to school if they agree to confess in front of the Wels church, school and community that they were worshiping the devil when they took part in the Sunrise Dance. They must promise never to do it again.

What is this, some kind of militant wing of the Lutherans?

East Fork Lutheran school was founded in 1951 by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Wels), a religious group which has been active in Arizona since 1893 as part of its Apache Mission – an effort to convert “unreached tribes” to Christianity.

Oh, I guess it is.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also referred to simply as the Wisconsin Synod, is an American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative

DaisyDay · Jun 28, 2024

okay said:
Wow. I wonder if they expel students for idolizing money, or education, or the US flag, or guns, or celebrities, ... I kind of doubt it.

I wonder what the other options are for schools in their community.

They do have public schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Read the article - it explains quite well.

bèlla · Jun 28, 2024

It's things like this that give Christians a bad name. Establishing a school in an area with a different religion and cultural practices knowingly is questionable. Punishing the children for partaking in social events and exhibiting cultural pride is cruel. This happens frequently in other places. I've heard similar reports about missions elsewhere and no longer support it.

~bella

BCP1928 · Jun 28, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
Two of her granddaughters were expelled from school in 2018 and 2019. She still has one of the school’s letters tucked away in a box in her house.

It states that these 13-year-old girls will only be allowed to return to school if they agree to confess in front of the Wels church, school and community that they were worshiping the devil when they took part in the Sunrise Dance. They must promise never to do it again.

What is this, some kind of militant wing of the Lutherans?

East Fork Lutheran school was founded in 1951 by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Wels), a religious group which has been active in Arizona since 1893 as part of its Apache Mission – an effort to convert “unreached tribes” to Christianity.

Oh, I guess it is.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also referred to simply as the Wisconsin Synod, is an American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative

"Theologically conservative" doesn't even come near it. WELS makes the ordinary fundamentalists we hobnob with here seem almost Episcopalians..

RileyG · Jun 28, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
Two of her granddaughters were expelled from school in 2018 and 2019. She still has one of the school’s letters tucked away in a box in her house.

It states that these 13-year-old girls will only be allowed to return to school if they agree to confess in front of the Wels church, school and community that they were worshiping the devil when they took part in the Sunrise Dance. They must promise never to do it again.

What is this, some kind of militant wing of the Lutherans?

East Fork Lutheran school was founded in 1951 by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Wels), a religious group which has been active in Arizona since 1893 as part of its Apache Mission – an effort to convert “unreached tribes” to Christianity.

Oh, I guess it is.

The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also referred to simply as the Wisconsin Synod, is an American Confessional Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Characterized as theologically conservative

Since it’s WELS, I’m not surprised at all. Probably the most conservative Lutheran branch. They’re relatively very small though.

They have a right to run their school as they wish.

Hank77 · Jun 29, 2024

essentialsaltes said:
It states that these 13-year-old girls will only be allowed to return to school if they agree to confess in front of the Wels church, school and community that they were worshiping the devil when they took part in the Sunrise Dance. They must promise never to do it again.

If you lie about what you were doing you can come back to school...how Christian of them. Disgusting.

Pommer · Jun 29, 2024

RileyG said:
Since it’s WELS, I’m not surprised at all. Probably the most conservative Lutheran branch. They’re relatively very small though.

They have a right to run their school as they wish.

They seem to be saying “don’t get caught” (on social media), which is another kettle-o-fish.

RileyG · Jun 29, 2024

Pommer said:
They seem to be saying “don’t get caught” (on social media), which is another kettle-o-fish.

The WELS is rather insular, they are almost very similar to Fundamentalists for being Lutherans.

They won’t even pray with you unless you are a WELS Lutheran, no, not even table grace.

FireDragon76 · Jun 30, 2024

RileyG said:
The WELS is rather insular, they are almost very similar to Fundamentalists for being Lutherans.

They won’t even pray with you unless you are a WELS Lutheran, no, not even table grace.

That insularity results in a naive fundamentalism, unlike other Fundamentalist churches that are more self-consciously so.

You sometimes find this kind of naive religious fundamentalism in the LCMS, but it's more common in WELS.

Lutherans tend to run their own seminary systems and have alot of their basis in rural communities in the midwest, so the insularity can be real.

Pommer · Jun 30, 2024

FireDragon76 said:
That insularity results in a naive fundamentalism, unlike other Fundamentalist churches that are more self-consciously so.

You sometimes find this kind of naive religious fundamentalism in the LCMS, but it's more common in WELS.

Lutherans tend to run their own seminary systems and have alot of their basis in rural communities in the midwest, so the insularity can be real.

It can be a fell thing to be the arbiter of other people’s level of righteousness, (especially if those “in charge” forget this).

RileyG · Jun 30, 2024

FireDragon76 said:
That insularity results in a naive fundamentalism, unlike other Fundamentalist churches that are more self-consciously so.

You sometimes find this kind of naive religious fundamentalism in the LCMS, but it's more common in WELS.

Lutherans tend to run their own seminary systems and have alot of their basis in rural communities in the midwest, so the insularity can be real.

I believe a LCMS pastor once got in trouble for praying with other clergy after 9/11 IIRC. LCMS Is fairly more common and much more moderate.

Apache Girls Booted from Private Lutheran School for Sunrise Dance

I Did Nothing Wrong!! ~~Team Deep State

Active Member

Fact-Based Lifeform

I Did Nothing Wrong!! ~~Team Deep State

❤️

Well-Known Member

Veteran

Well-Known Member

CoPacEtiC SkEpTic

Veteran

Well-Known Member

CoPacEtiC SkEpTic

Veteran

Similar threads