LSU deletes crosses from fan photo
The Painted Posse wears crosses on their chests -- but not in this photo. (LSU Athletic Dept.)
According to Fox News, LSU officials sent out a photo of the group of fans, the so-called Painted Posse, in a campus e-mail about the Tigers’ victory over South Carolina Oct. 13.
The Painted Posse is a group of Christian students who paint their bodies with LSU school colors and small crosses. The e-mail shows the group at the game, but the crosses had been digitally removed.
“I was a bit surprised, because our pictures get used so frequently, and the cross had never been edited before,” Posse member Cameron Cooke told the website CampusReform.org. “The cross painting is important to me because it represents who I am as a Christ follower. And it reminds me who I need to act like in Death Valley,” he said.
“I knew from the second I was old enough to know that I was going to LSU,” another Posse member, Joel D’Aubin, told NBC33 in Baton Rouge. “And we all have a passion for LSU football and for Christ. Just being able to be that example every single Saturday is an awesome experience.”
School spokesman Herb Vincent told the site the school altered the image to prevent other students from being offended.
“We don’t want to imply we are making any religious or political statements, so we air-brushed it out,” the school said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. “Only one of the students, who didn’t appreciate it, actually contacted us about it. So next time, we’ll just choose a different photo.”
But the statement went on to acknowledge the deletion was a mistake.
“We erred in our judgment and we have communicated our apologies to the group of young men represented in the photo whose school spirit is second to none.”
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294 comments Add your comment
www
October 23rd, 2012
10:43 am
gatag, read closer – OUR VERY WAY OF LIFE IS AT STAKE HERE, lol!
Devil's Advocate
October 23rd, 2012
10:44 am
Individual states practice democratic voting right? The country is a republic of 50 united states plus DC. People put all their political marbles into the presidential election and generally ignore local elections which is where the individual’s real power and influence can be felt. We need to drive change up from our local affairs, not hope that it trickles down from national affairs.
Blame the people, not the system. We aren’t using it right!
KC
October 23rd, 2012
10:44 am
All the more reason to pull against LSU.
jd
October 23rd, 2012
10:45 am
The same reason they deleted the crosses is the same reason obama may win another term, media bias
5150 UOAD`
October 23rd, 2012
10:46 am
what
5150 UOAD`
October 23rd, 2012
10:47 am
www this is The US…..The United States of America (commonly called the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic consisting of fifty states and a federal district.
www
October 23rd, 2012
10:49 am
^ u didn’t read the links, did you? it shows.
Clarity
October 23rd, 2012
10:50 am
What’s all the fuss. Its only a little cross – it could have been any other symbol or brand based on fictional tales. Would they remove a little picture of Harry Potter – or would that offfend the HP fans?
Dave in Marietta
October 23rd, 2012
10:50 am
Okay, if you want to get super technical, the US is a Representative Republic. We’ve all had civics. My posts were not meant to start a debate about the merits of our form of government whether you call it a democracy or something else. My point was and still is that our laws should be based on anything BUT religion. Laws should be based on logic, reason and fairness not intangible theocratic beliefs. You can believe anything you want as a Christian, Jew or Muslim. But don’t use that as a basis for a law that governs a nation’s people.
www
October 23rd, 2012
10:50 am
i agree with this, not that it has anything to do with painted chest crosses on an lsu football email:
“We need to drive change up from our local affairs, not hope that it trickles down from national affairs”
5150 UOAD`
October 23rd, 2012
10:52 am
Look up the US from of Government and you will see we are a Constitutional Representative REPUBLIC.
www try as you must but the US has NOTHING to do with DEMOCRACY.
5150 UOAD`
October 23rd, 2012
10:53 am
http://www……………you have NO RIGHT to elect a president. You DON’T elect the President either.
Devil's Advocate
October 23rd, 2012
10:55 am
5150,
Isn’t a commonly mentioned negative about the federal government that it often exceeds its constitutional authority? The powers of the federal government are supposed to be quite limited in the grand scheme of things while individual states are supposed to be the more active governing of our daily lives.
The federal government exists to manage those things that connect the united states of this republic. You know, “form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”
Maybe the United States needs to model itself after the NFL. Federal government should act like the NFL office while each state operates like a team. How each state goes about their business is up to them but there are rules and regulations for playing ball with the group…imagine the TV deal!
www
October 23rd, 2012
10:56 am
lol. what? i give up. continue with your willful ignorance, i have better things to do than educate a clown. i’m out.
woody
October 23rd, 2012
10:57 am
And people wonder why the world is the way it is today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5150 UOAD`
October 23rd, 2012
11:00 am
www WHAT? You don’t have a Legal Right to elect the President. The people don’t elect the President.
Devil's Advocate
October 23rd, 2012
11:00 am
Dave in Marietta,
Based on your post, how does displaying the cross on those men violate a law in this country? I didn’t think it was against the law to wear religious symbols in public. I also don’t think it’s against the law for photographs to be published featuring said symbols.
Do what feels good as long as you feel good about what you do.
For LSU to feel that they had to alter the picture before publishing it should have been a hint and a half that they shouldn’t use the picture at all. We’re not talking about whitening teeth here…
5150 UOAD`
October 23rd, 2012
11:01 am
The Electoral College. Each state gets a number of electors equal to the total number of senators and representatives it has. Washington D.C. gets three even though it is not a state.
Each political party chooses the people it wants to serve as electors if it wins that state. On election day, although the names of the presidential candidates appear on the ballots, people are actually voting to choose electors who are pledged to vote for that candidate.
In December, after the popular election, the electors meet in their respective state capitals and cast their ballots for president and vice president. Theoretically, except in a few states, they can actually vote for anybody they want to but of course in practice they almost always vote for whomever they were pledged to support. the person who gets the majority of the electoral votes becomes president.
gatag
October 23rd, 2012
11:04 am
Who said displaying the cross on men violates a law? No one is saying this.
JohnD
October 23rd, 2012
11:04 am
Clarity – you’ve actually stumbled onto the point of the issue.
If the symbol had been an LGBT symbol/flag, Muslim star and crescent, some other perceived minority – the outrage would be as strong or stronger.
The point is this – if LSU didn’t want to offend by representing the reality as it was (with the actual picture unaltered) – then use a different picture. The ‘fuss’ is essentially about how the institution used the image. LSU has every right to use the picture as it was taken in a ‘public place’ and therefore protected. LSU has no right to alter the image to be represented as something different.
If you’re not bothered – you probably haven’t thought about it. Assume a photo is taken of you and then represented to your spouse, friends, employer – whoever – of you engaged in some activity that wasn’t occuring. Still no fuss??
Your agreement with the value/worth of the symbol is frankly irrelevant. The issue is does LSU have a ‘right’ to commercially use a digitally altered photo?
Cross4
October 23rd, 2012
11:06 am
crosses are politically incorrect and offend atheists and non-Christians such as muslims.
Nigel Cogburn
October 23rd, 2012
11:06 am
who cares. They did it because they didn’t want to turn off any potential group of people from coming to that school and thus giving them money! $$$
Oh, and you people that think you’re going to an eternal lake of fire because you say GD or have intercourse before marriage or smoke a cigarette are just silly. God has much better things to worry about.
Devil's Advocate
October 23rd, 2012
11:12 am
JohnD,
Thank you!
JohnD
October 23rd, 2012
11:14 am
Dave – your wrong about the basis of the law.
The basis of the law – as established by the government- is simply an agreed upon set of principles some formed entity establishes as relevant and acknowledged by the culture at large. Example: In China forced abortion is the law – because the legal authority has mandated that in the best interest of ‘the state. So ultimately the state can never establish anything but a relative morality that is accepted/approved by some majority of hte population – and that can change over time.
The reality is – that much of our ‘common law’ and the US Consitution does use biblical law as the basis. For example – what’s the logic behind ‘don’t steal’??? On the principle of natural selection – shouldn’t the strongest be able to take from the weakest? Isn’t it more ‘fair’ that everyone be required to pay the exact same percentage in tax? Dirt poor or Bill Gates – shouldn’t matter, right? Or does it matter?
So – you might want to rethink a little the premise that you only want a law based on logic and fairness, because outside of some objective standard – you can’t get there.
gatag
October 23rd, 2012
11:18 am
I would be willing to bet stealing being a bad thing to do has been shared by people long before the compilation of the Bible.
TrishaDishawareagle
October 23rd, 2012
11:18 am
What is funniest to me is that people, from obama supporters to atheists, think I value their feelings enough to give a damn if they are offended.
GRAPHITE
October 23rd, 2012
11:18 am
What doe’s Mattheiu have to say about this???
Brad Carter
October 23rd, 2012
11:19 am
“And it reminds me who I need to act like in Death Valley”. What, a total moron?? I guess that IS what your little crosses remind you of. You said it genius.
JohnD
October 23rd, 2012
11:21 am
gatag – you’re willingness to bet don’t make it so. Is not paying for music stealing? I’d suggest most people under 25 would say no. Is creating/selling counterfeit items stealing? Maybe not all people feel the same way you do..
dick whiskey
October 23rd, 2012
11:22 am
@clarity, you make a good point, it’s like people getting offended by santa claus,the easter bunny or the tooth fairy all along the same lines as these crosses fairy tale stuff
Booze Hound
October 23rd, 2012
11:22 am
Most of these taxpayer-supported diploma mills are just cancers on the taxpayers. Shut them down, along with their idiotic sports programs.
Devil's Advocate
October 23rd, 2012
11:24 am
gatag,
Who said it’s a bad thing? Why do so many people lie, steal, cheat, and do other “bad” things even to this day? What authority other than government defines something as “bad”? What about governments that lie, cheat, steal, and kill from its citizens? Are they “bad” too and if so, by whose standards?
The Truth
October 23rd, 2012
11:26 am
The sad thing is that there is a dumba$$ “educator” drawing a salary from the tax dollars of the good people of Louisiana who thought this was a smart thing to do.
fan
October 23rd, 2012
11:28 am
This needs to be newsworthy. Say one thing about Allah and people start rioting and shooting people.
Christians need to stand up for their beliefs.
The Truth
October 23rd, 2012
11:31 am
One more thing…What about the students freedom of speech rights. Seems to me that LSU directly restricted the students freedom of speech.
WhiteMikeVick
October 23rd, 2012
11:34 am
The unedited photo also had better lighting. They blanched the heck out of it to look like a fat kid trying to hide their weight on myspace. I expect better from LSU, the school that gave us LSUFreek.
gatag
October 23rd, 2012
11:36 am
JohnD, your original argument , “The reality is – that much of our ‘common law’ and the US Consitution does use biblical law as the basis. For example – what’s the logic behind ‘don’t steal’???”
IMO, that statement infers that stealing (or not to steal) is based on biblical law. While it is indeed in the Bible, I doubt it’s the first time mentioned or thought to be something bad.
The logic behind don’t steal is it infringes on someone else’s right and property. It doesn’t take any religion to make that determination, no matter how badly you want it to.
I don’t see how your arguments about what is vs. what isn’t stealing are relevant but maybe you can provide more detail. Based on your prior posts, I’m inclined to believe your other posts are simply strawmen.
gatag
October 23rd, 2012
11:39 am
Devil’s Advocate, I’m trying to understand exactly what you’re asking. Are you implying that religion is what makes lying, cheating and stealing bad?
whodat
October 23rd, 2012
11:46 am
In the end,ALL that will matter is your personal relationship with Jesus! Either you had one or you did not. I know what I would hope for you,but I can’t and will not push it on you. Now if you ask me (and hopefully I live my life in a way that you would) I’ll be more than happy to talk all day.
JohnD
October 23rd, 2012
11:50 am
gatag – Fair to make that point. However, you’ll need to show me support to really sway me. Possibly – point to Greece and Aristotle and the concepts embodied there where we also acquire much of our ethic/moral basis. But – where relations between boys/men wasn’t uncommon. However today – it’s considered ‘illegal’ for such a relationship – except in Greece where it’s now considered a disability.
My point is this – Dave in Marrieta said, “Laws should be based on logic, reason and fairness not intangible theocratic beliefs.” However, the reality is the institution of the ’state’ is what establishes law – but that law is really based on the whims, fancies and opinion of the culture at a point in time. Not something objective or unchanging – unless logic and fairness can change?
Michael
October 23rd, 2012
11:52 am
Not shocking have you been to New Orleans, well then.
5149
October 23rd, 2012
11:54 am
On judgement day tell God you didn’t want to offend anyone and didn’t wish to hurt someone’s feeling…
Proud Christian
October 23rd, 2012
11:59 am
And we wonder why our country is in such a sad state . . .
Todd Cunningham
October 23rd, 2012
12:00 pm
Mr Vincent needs to get a pair…..What a idiot!
LSU just lost a fan..me!
pj
October 23rd, 2012
12:03 pm
Senior Citizen Kane : are you kidding? that’s what advertising is all about.
james
October 23rd, 2012
12:05 pm
One Nation Under God
Southerners
October 23rd, 2012
12:12 pm
Southerners. What a funny breed. No wonder you lost the war. Maybe some day (doubtful), you’ll learn religion is a private matter. And PS: there are thousands of religions in existance today. Everyone, whether they choose to or not, can believe in whatever religion they like. Or in none at all. Those 4 students are idiots – plain and simple. I’m surprised, next to their crosses, they didn’t have Mitt Romney badges. College football games are not for church or politics.
wow.
October 23rd, 2012
12:17 pm
this is exactly what is wrong today.
christians are all worked up about crosses being airbrushed and political issues INSTEAD of worrying about how to be the types of people they should be.
if the christians in america were true to the teachings of christ…we wouldn’t need government programs to take care of those who are needy. but instead of helping others we are all concerned with “defending” the little bubble in which we all live…slinging mud at unworthy political candidates and protesting the “infringement” of our rights. the early christians had no rights…well, they probably had the right to choose between getting thrown into the coliseum with the lions or crucifixion. and they changed the world. we’re too busy fighting about where to hang the ten commandments in our cushy little air-conditioned government buildings. grow up, people.
“before you remove the speck from your brother’s eye, take the log out of yours.” – Jesus Christ
SeminoleNation
October 23rd, 2012
12:19 pm
Oh. I thought those were oil rigs on their chests!
pj
October 23rd, 2012
12:26 pm
what exactly do crosses/christianity have to do with painting yourself crazy colors (reminds me of the Scottish clans in Braveheart) and screaming madly with thousands of other people in a stadium over a bunch of men slamming into each other and doing things with a leather ball? (our modern version of gladiators)?