Man burns self in religious protest

(snip)
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. --A man doused himself with flammable liquid and set himself afire, apparently to protest a school district's decision to change the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter vacation.
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The man suffered first degree burns on his shoulders and arms on Friday, Fire Department Capt. Garth Milam said.

He had a sign that read "(expletive) the religious establishment and KHSD," said Kern County Sheriff's Deputy John Leyendecker. On Thursday, the Kern High School Board of Trustees had voted to change the names of the holiday breaks.

The man, whose name was not released, also set fire to a Christmas tree and flags in a public area, Milam said.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/12/23/man_burns_self_in_religious_protest/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

Whoa!

What am I supposed to say? At least he opted not to harm anyone else in his escapade of lunacy?

Jeez!

I'd like to say something nice about the guy...But...I can't. He's an idiot.

but that's the way to go when religious nuts try to label things to conform to their religion and theirs, alone.

snip/
Milam said that on his way to the hospital, the man made some sort of statement about the destructive effect of religion.

I think that the statement that this was against the renaming of vacation breaks was just a guess by one of the local-yokel sheriffs.

snip/
Leyendecker believes the man may have set himself on fire as a protest of the recent Kern High School District board decision to call winter and spring break, Christmas and Easter break.

The school boards around here are rife with fundies like the following (& he IS that - I've followed his spewings, he is one of the ones that push to teach intelligent design in school as fact) ...

snip/
“I’m sad that any man would light themselves on fire because they disagree with a decision by a representative board elected by the voters,” said Trustee Chad Vegas, who brought the issue to the board. “My reaction as pastor is that it demonstrates the deep depravity of man and his need for the grace of God through Jesus Christ.”

http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/90745.html

Not a terribly wise protest, but the fundie faction around here are very strong & in your face - I'm not surprised that it pushed someone over the edge.

And this story is making the freepers orgasmic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1757547/posts

"it demonstrates the deep depravity of man and his need for the grace of God through Jesus Christ."

So only xians (and presumably Pastor Vegas' brand of xian) are not depraved?

And this protester obviously had problems dealing with reality but 'depraved'?!? WTF, this pastor is the immoral one. The Jerk!

and that the only way to save onesself is through God's forgiveness...attainable only by becoming a Christian.

If this is the prevalent attitude of the school board, it's no wonder the protester went wacko.

That doesn't really prove much of a point.

It takes all kinds of nuts to make a good fruitcake.

What did he douse himself, water?

Undoubtedly a psycho.

This guy needs some serious straitjacket and thorazine time in the local ha-ha house.