Tuesday, November 24, 2009

“The showing of that video was a mistake,” Llewellyn said.

A new wrinkle!

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed (Religious Meets Litigious), the SOCCCD’s new lawyer, David Llewellyn, acknowledges that his clients committed an error:
Llewellyn did make one concession about an incident specified in the suit.

At the Chancellor’s Opening Session [8/18/09], an event at the beginning of the academic year that gathers students and faculty, a slide show was displayed with the song “God Bless the USA.” The suit states that “the presentation concluded with two images of uniformed service members carrying a flag-draped coffin, with superimposed text reading: Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American G.I. One died for your soul, the other died for your freedom.”

“The showing of that video was a mistake,” Llewellyn said. “It was purely an accident. The district wasn’t aware that was in the video, and it was not intended to be an expression of anything other than patriotism.”
As we reported after the August Board meeting (8/31/09),
Some faculty came [to the board meeting] to object to that seriously in-your-face Christian message stuck at the end of the Chancellor’s silly patriotic video for his Opening Session (nearly two weeks ago).

Jesus Christ, we were informed, died for our souls.

Some faculty said that that nakedly Christian message failed to respect the diversity of the community....

A few minutes later, Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur made a “brief statement.” “It was,” he said, “a diverse chancellor … who was not offended.”
No apologies or admissions of error were offered. (View video of the 8/31/09 board meeting here. See especially "pubic comments" and Mathur's response to them.)

IHR also quoted Trustee Don Wagner’s remarks at the 2008 Saddleback College Scholarship awards ceremony:
“Historically at events such as these we also take the opportunity to offer a moment of thanksgiving to God — if He exists,” said Wagner, according to a transcript of his remarks included in the suit. “And I’m not here to say that He does. That would be wrong for an elected official, I am told. No matter that America’s founders invoked the name of God, and encouraged and participated in religious ceremonies in government facilities.

"No matter that the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens believe, or they have no objection to religious mention at public gatherings. No, no matter to the special interest group that has contacted this college to pursue its agenda of driving God from the public square. No matter to those too uncertain in the strength of their own views that they cannot abide any mention in public of the divine, and that would prefer instead to censor and silence free speech.”

“If you don’t believe in God, that’s fine,” Wagner continued. “The government has no business trying to convince you otherwise. You’re welcome to sit down. We invited you to stand, but no one made you. But if you do believe, I would ask you, personally and not on behalf of the government, to take a moment to thank Him, for the many gifts you believe you have received from Him, including the opportunity to pursue an education in a country explicitly founded on the belief that we are endowed by our Creator with the gift of liberty. If you would, take that moment now, and then if you’re so inclined, say a simple ‘Amen.’ ”
As the lawsuit explains, student scholarship recipients were required to attend the ceremony. For the ceremony that occurred a year later, college officials sent them the following:
You are expected to attend the award ceremony held on Thursday, May 14th and to arrive at 5:00 pm in the Saddleback College Gymnasium. You may forfeit your scholarship if you are not there. If you absolutely cannot attend the ceremony you must send an adult who will represent you.
COMMENTS:

Anonymous said...
A mistake?

They all defended it! - as did some of their supporters on this blog!
7:17 AM, November 24, 2009

Anonymous said...
I attended the subsequent board meeting, and no one said that a "mistake" was made. They did, however, defend the video.
8:15 AM

Anonymous said...
Does Wagner really believe this stuff, or is he just feeding into the local voting demographic?
10:44 AM

Anonymous said...
Check out Matt Coker's latest on the OC Weekly: God's Lawyer
11:11 AM

Anonymous said...
It was a "mistake," yes, like when Fox "news" shows old footage of crowds to imply that the teabaggers have bigger turnouts. An inadvertant "mistake" in the editing of news footage. Right.
12:03 PM

Anonymous said...
I half expected the clock tower here to be replaced by a cross...
12:47 PM

Anonymous said...
Where'd they GET the video? Who produced it? Who obtained it?

Nodbody screened it beforehand?

Come on. I don't believe it. 

I bet one of them saw it at some gathering somewhere and thought "perfect."
4:09 PM

Anonymous said...
Yes, we need to find out about the origins of the video - and who chose it,, etc.

Can you imagine if one of us showed something in the classroom - and then defended it with the lame ass excuse by saying we hadn't screened it before and were unaware of content?

Come on, indeed.

I think they're lying.
5:03 PM

Anonymous said...
When told by an audience member that the video failed to respect the diversity of the community, the Chancellor responded with “a diverse chancellor … who was not offended.”???? Your chancellor and Board of Trustees are in serious need of diversity/sensitivity training.
5:21 PM

Anonymous said...
Come on, of course they WATCHED the video before they showed it to an auditorium full of college employees. For all they knew it could have showed a naked lady in the last slide -- and you know THAT would have been a major problem for Raghu, so of course they knew the video's contents. They looked at it and ok'd it. Ridiculous.
8:14 PM

Anonymous said...
They're lying - to their lawyer and to us and to everyone.
8:55 PM

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...