Video the Day: Seekers Dance at Stuy

hmmm, mowing green grass and shade? i seem to remember that green grass and shade took nationals in '89 and '90....

The Onion covered this story as well: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33416

Religious fanatics? Ignorant? Yes and yes. Unfortunately, some people are so ignorant, they can't see how lost they are. And don't get me started on keeping religion out of schools!

God bless their little hearts and their terrible terrible choreography.

As problematic as it might be for people of other faiths or no particular religious leaning, religious expression is still "speech." So if we have to err in the schools, we should err on the site of more freedom of speech rather than less, as long as no one else rights are being violated.

Being in a public school does not mean you are never going to hear the word "Jesus." (Or Mohamed or Buddha.) That's a good thing.

I remember a few years ago a sarcastic "Moses Day" being held to counter the Jesus Day.

I was at THHS (class of '99) i totally don't remember the seekers...probably cuz i kept my distance from them...i can see why largmann wouldn't want them around though...he wa a little uptite =)

Oh those Stuy kids...I remember back in the mid-late 90s the Seekers put Band-Aids on their faces for Jesus day because Jesus "healed" them. I also vaguely remember Jesus skits on street corners.

Students evangelizing to other students is also protected free speech, so long as it doesn't cross the line into harassment. Just telling someone something they don't agree with isn't harassment, however.

i noticed that too, the jesus club in my high school was populated mostly by Asians

that's not dancing.

This is new york, right? Not Kansas City?

Oh, apologies for the 2nd post, but I do want to confirm that they -are- mostly Taiwanese and Koreans (the occasional Cantonese or Konger), along with their friendly white/hispanic fetishist FoFs. The dirt poor mainlanders were too busy studying or working, and the 3rd gens had already assimilated enough to be a primary SING participant. It was definitely, as blakgash said, a largley FOBby crew.

Mowing Green Grass and Shade since 1987!

j.b.

"P.S. Why are there only nerdy Asian kids in Jesus Club? Is this the general demographic for Stuyvesant or is it a Jesus Club phenomenon?"

It's not only nerdy Asian kids in Seekers - when I went to Stuy years ago I definitely remember there being one white guy in their club.

The Seekers at Stuy were driven by embarrasment, friendship and a desire to hook up as much as any other event. They only seemed creepy until you realize there was a whole soap opera going on when they're not handing out flyers or hanging out at the weekly meeting. Usually seeker clubs are driven by 1-3 actual evangelicals. The rest are friends, and friends of friends who want to get into the pants of said friends. Because they're all awkward ultimate b-teamers, their self-confidence issues led them to think the best way to get a date with a cute FoF is to spend time with them whilst earning Arista credits.

to prove to the world they are not asian.

self hating.

the only group krazier but probably won't be in stuy are the falun gong's.

i forgot to add, the koreans.

but hey, as long as there's grass on the field and has a pink filling, it's all one god when it cums to that.

Stuy is so lame.

P.S. Why are there only nerdy Asian kids in Jesus Club? Is this the general demographic for Stuyvesant or is it a Jesus Club phenomenon?

The difference as I see it between these Jesus clubs and a Muslim or Jewish Students group is that these groups are evangelical to the max. I'd be fine with it if their signs and members didn't proselytize so much. Like Chris pointed out, it's not a violation of your freedom of religion that these groups exist in public schools. In fact, if the school does not allow them to exist and allows other religious clubs that is contrary to the 1st amendment because the school is favoring certain religions. Of course I'd rather send my children to a school with no religious clubs of any kind, religion should be a private, personal thing.

Aren't they the Happy Hands performers from Napolean Dynamite?

I was still a student at THHS when the Seekers became an accepted school club. When I entered as a freshman in 1998, it was stated that school policy was that there would be no religious based clubs.

That had been a policy that had apparently not been fought since the school's reopening in 1984, but by 2001/2002 a new principal came in, and the Seekers were allowed to become a club, but under the condition that they didn't meet inside the school, but on the campus of Queens College instead.

The officials denying a Jesus-Day were simply following on past precedents. I can't say I disagree - the flyers the Seekers put up stuck out a lot, and I very much enjoyed school without the influence of religion. THHS is (was?) so removed from religion that the Bible is able to be read every year by seniors as a regular piece of literature, in a completely non-theologic manner. Frankly, I hope it stays that way.

I should also add that the federal Equal Access Act also guarantees students the right to form clubs like the Seekers at any public high school that allows ANY non-curricular clubs. So if Townsend Harris has, say, a chess club or whatever, it was acting illegally in blocking the Seekers from forming for so long.

Damn you for luring me into watching that video by saying that the choreography was cool. That jesus freak in the front row was about to fall asleep through the whole thing!

Actually, Diabolix, you have a mistaken view of what the Constitution has to say about this. Students have a First Amendment right, upheld by the Supreme Court, to express their religious (and any other kind of) views in public schools. If the school sponsored a "Jesus Day" or any other sort of religious event that would be illegal and a violation of the separation of church and states, but for students to organize one themselves is perfectly legal. The school has to allow it as long as the students aren't disrupting class time, and the students at Stuyvestant had their Jesus-related festivities after school in the cafeteria. The officials at Townsend Harris got it WAY wrong, and someone needs to point that out to them.

Those rich Asians (probably taiwanese or 2gen on)

try too hard to assimulate that they'll believe all this hookus pookus stuff just to prove they're white.

tell me, seen any fukinese or dirt poor folks in church? You know, the kid sooo pooor he can't even brown bag his lunch, he's using a wonder bread bag.

Umm anyone heard of separation of church and state? This "celebration" called Jesus Day is nothing more than the usual religious nonesense-bigotry and indoctrination wrapped up in the guise of "religion". I think Gothamist should check into facts before lauding fringe groups, such as Stuyvesant High being a public school yet seems to think it's okay to give the finger to the Constitution on religious expression. Maybe we can celebrate the Klan while we're at it.

As an alum of Stuy, all I can say is LOL. what a bunch of nerds.