North Georgia craziness

A couple of incidents close to home have come to my attention.  Most recently, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on an incident at Berry College (in the north Georgia city of Rome), where junior Nathan Mallory claimed to have exorcised a fellow student during a worship session in Mallory’s dorm room.

The Berry College newspaper The Carrier provides considerable detail on the affair, including this nearly 7-minute-long video:

I can’t say for sure what happened here, but it sure as hell wasn’t an exorcism.  In an open letter to fellow members of Winshape (a campus Christian organization sponsored by Chik-fil-A founder Truett Cathy), Mallory claims that a “random girl” showed up at his dorm room, and during the course of worship “her face changed right in front of me, and the most evil, hideous grin came on her face, and her eyes seemed to turn red.”  Well, I’m calling bullshit on that one.  I don’t believe for one second that Mallory saw, or even believed he saw, a girl transformed into a red-eyed demon.  Judge for yourself.

Meanwhile, right up the road in Fort Oglethorpe (a community in far north Georgia right across the state line from Chattanooga, Tennessee), the school board has informed cheerleaders at the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School that they must stop painting Bible verses on banners displayed at the school’s football games.  The locals, of course, are outraged, and the school’s principal has made matters worse with statements like “I’m not naïve enough to believe everyone in the school are Christians. I would like them to be because I believe that’s what’s best, but you can’t force anyone to believe what you believe.”  No, but you can make them have to read scripture on banners (or worse, run through such a banner) at the school-run football games?

The community has staged frenetic rallies in support of the cheerleaders, including one that involved a record-breaking attendance for the school’s football game.  Hilariously, the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Warriors were defeated 34-0 by the rival team.  (Thanks to Elton for the tip!)