Education

Virginia Schoolteacher Removes References to God From ‘We Are the World’

Another day, another song getting references to God cut from it. But not to worry – lest you think it’s only songs conservatives love that get butchered, this story shows that even liberal anthems about saving the world can get the ax if they suggest the presence of the almighty.

The scene is Virginia’s Broadus Wood Elementary School in Albemarle County. The song is the infamously saccharine “We Are the World.” And the teacher is one Jean Flaherty. The occasion is an upcoming 4th and 5th grade performance of said song, being organized by Ms. Flaherty. Only Flaherty wasn’t satisfied with the lyrical content of the already vapid, innocuous song, so she decided to do a little alteration.

You see, the original song contains two references to God. In these verses:

We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know, Love is all we need[...]

Send them your heart so they’ll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stones to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

Ms. Flaherty took the liberty of changing these lyrics to something a little bit more secular:

We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of one great big family
And the truth, you know, Love is all we need[...]

Send them your heart so they’ll know that someone cares
So their cries for help will not be in vain
We can’t let them suffer; no we cannot turn away
Right now, they need a helping hand

The second verse isn’t Ms. Flaherty’s original invention. It comes from a more recent version of “We Are the World” recorded to help the people of Haiti. Even so, the substitution has some parents upset, and Flaherty has offered an interesting defense:

While instructor Flaherty reportedly has told concerned, inquiring parents that their kids are allowed to sing “God” in the modified verse if they so choose, the official lyric sheet does not reflect such an option. And, due to social/peer pressures extant in modern-day government schools, few children are likely to deviate from the rehearsed and distributed lyric in order to vocalize “God” over the suggested “one.”

Ironically, this is the same defense (that kids “don’t have to say it”) that atheists explicitly rejected and fought against when it was applied to the Pledge of Allegiance.

Comments (100)

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  • shotzie
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 2:49am

    Hope the Jackson family has something to say about this. I doubt Michael would approve. The advertisements for homeschooling just keep coming.

    Report Post » shotzie  
  • adeleeeee
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 2:32am

    Home school you kids!!!!!!

    Report Post » adeleeeee  
    • godlovinmom
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 3:03am

      I do homeschool…and not because God isn’t in public school…can’t imagine sending my child to a public school and have them teach my child about God…most churches don’t even have it right…do you think that a public school would…If public schools would just stick to reading , writing, math, they would have a much better “product”..instead they are teaching anything but, ie, anti bullying, alternate lifesyles and my favorite, how to properly put on a condom…if you possibly can, homeschool them, it can be tough, but well worth it!!!!

      Report Post » godlovinmom  
    • lukerw
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 7:56am

      Boycotts do not really work… Change the Leadership!

      Report Post » lukerw  
    • 000degrees
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:01am

      You may think you are removing Him…….you’re not…..

      Report Post »  
    • 9111315
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 8:39am

      Home Schooling your kids is step one.

      The Boycott needs to be on the Millage Vote. Starve the Beast.

      Report Post »  
    • Politryx
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:13am

      What do you expect from government schools? Watch this trailer for the movie “IndoctriNation” – it came out this past fall. It’s a must see for every parent! http://www.youtube.com/user/IndoctriNationMovie?feature=relchannel

      Report Post » Politryx  
    • budzy1911
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 9:43am

      We send our kids to a Christian school where they open programs with prayer and the cross is in their logo. I also vote against all school levies.

      Sadly many kids are still forced into government run education centers because their parents can’t afford to home school or are denied vouchers by governments that believe tax money belongs solely to them.

      Report Post » budzy1911  
    • db321
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:28pm

      This teacher is right about one thing – she is of the World! She not going to like Swimming in the Lake of Fire for Eternity – at lease she wont be able to misguide anymore youth!

      Report Post » db321  
    • Ebrady
      Posted on April 21, 2012 at 4:10pm

      We all need to take a closer look at the lyrics to this song in the first place. This song is absolutely blasphemous to God! It says “god showed his love to us by turning stones into bread!” really???Satan tempted Jesus in the desert to turn the stones into loaves of bread if he really was the son of God! Jesus refused and said “man shall not live on bread alone.”.

      I think everyone thinks this song is spiritual and about God, but those lyrics are confused with when Jesus turned loaves of bread into multiple loaves of bread to feed the crowds.

      If God (Jesus) would’ve turned stones into loaves of bread, he would’ve been giving into to the temptations of Satan. Lucky for us Christians, he didn’t! God Bless!

      Report Post »  
  • ContinentalArmy
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 2:24am

    Flaherty, You have no damn defense Biatch! The School Board Must Fire This Communist! Man, these Idiots just keep coming out of the woodwork!

    Report Post »  
    • voxpopuli2012
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:31am

      The problem is that most of the school board and a good portion of the residents probably agree with him. Albemarle County/Charlottesville (the localities surrounding the University of Virginia) are infested with this type of vermin..It could well be the fourth or fifth circle of he$$.

      Report Post » voxpopuli2012  
    • Thatsitivehadenough
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:42am

      They’re coming out of the woodwork because their comrade is now in the White House and in total control of the USA. They’re coming out of the woodwork because the leftist media has drummed God out of them, their colleges have drummed God out of them, and their families haven’t done the right thing and given them a foundation in faith. Their families have stopped taking responsibility for teaching them to be individuals, with and individual relationship to God, and minds of their own. They’ve had faith in God drummed out of them, educated out of them, and bred out of them. And they think they are the majority now. That‘s why they’re crawling out of the woodwork.

      Report Post » Thatsitivehadenough  
  • Diane TX
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 2:20am

    All the Marxists/Communists are the direct descendants of apes. The rest of us were created by God, with a soul in his image. Perhaps they are angry about not having a soul?

    Report Post »  
    • Thatsitivehadenough
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:45am

      Oh, they have souls alright. They just stopped nourishing their souls and neglected them. Their souls are undeveloped, underdeveloped, and suffering from neglect. They’ve treated their souls like unfit parents who lock a child in a closet for years and years with no chance of freedom.

      Report Post » Thatsitivehadenough  
  • amerbur
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:34am

    I am so sick of this. We need to get a voucher law passed so parents can start cooperative home schools. My children are grown. I hope my children will not send their children to public schools.

    Report Post »  
  • Brae
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:33am

    Charlottesville~ an obama bastion in a red state. Things are generally changing down there, evidently not for this moron. If this teacher is pulling this junk, I wonder what else she is teaching in her classroom. I wouldn’t trust my child to be under her tutelage.

    Report Post » Brae  
    • nelbert
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:42am

      This is the same school district (Albemarle County, home of Charlottesville and UVA) that in January brought in a group called Kid Pan Alley that had kids singing pro-Occupy songs. (They initially said the children wrote the lyrics without coaching, but that was later shown to be a lie).
      Chairman of the Albemarle County School Board Steve Koleszar is an outspoken liberal Democrat who has more than once been found advancing his political views through the vehicle of the county’s schools.

      Report Post » nelbert  
  • SHOWMESTATEGUY
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:09am

    I expect the dem libs of Virginia to petition the state for a name change. Virginia was named for the Virgin Queen of England. All dem libs know there is no such thing as a virgin, and if there was the public school system of Virginia would work overtime to remedy that. To the dem libs the states name does not fit the states character.

    Report Post »  
  • Kankokage
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:08am

    So the song written by leftists is no longer acceptable in today’s leftist culture without some “re-education”. Swell.

    Report Post » Kankokage  
  • SHOWMESTATEGUY
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:01am

    Democratic left wing school teachers, leave my kids alone. If your kid goes to public schools they are slaves to the democratic left wing school teachers and that’s just they way it is. After all, they take direction from Washington D.C. No such thing as locally controlled schools anymore.

    Report Post »  
  • paperpushermj
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:56am

    What a World we have Created, where the most innocent amongst us thinks it inappropriate to mention GOD because their paycheck comes from Government.

    Report Post » paperpushermj  
  • lassiegirldawn
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:48am

    When I went to school, we said a prayer every morning. Kids were safe and the worst thing that happened would be rarely a fistfight among the boys after school. Now they took God out of the school and look, how that has worked for that matter they took God out of the government how is that working.

    Report Post »  
    • Rohawk
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:01am

      My only memory of anything religious at school was in the 70′ the lunch ladies would sing Christmas carols while we ate. That ended in 1980 when a Jewish schoolboard member with no kids in the district thought it was offensive and shut them down.

      Report Post »  
    • paperpushermj
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:02am

      Not only did they take God out of the Schools, they also took Authority and the power to enforce Standards as well. Liberalism through their handmaiden Lawyers….. Destroy everything it touches.

      Report Post » paperpushermj  
    • lassiegirldawn
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:11am

      60’s over intercom Pledge of Allegiance then God please watch over us and guide us through this day.

      Report Post »  
    • Cat
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:24am

      Written about this before …

      Attended a private school k-6, full of nuns, Mass before class, the pledge before opening a book, 7:00am to 4:00pm, Monday through Friday, with two months off in the summer.
      Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and the 4th of July were celebrated, in school.
      Every single kid who attended that school is now a successful professional or a retired professional helping their communities the best they can.

      The government has stolen our children and we need to yank them out of the socialist’s indoctrination process, STAT.

      We’re going to loose this fight folks, unless we take control, by force if necessary.
      Start with your school board, and your local commissioners and make it your business.
      Make it known we are mad as hell and they can take their crap and fling it in another country.

      Enough already

      Report Post » Cat  
  • South Philly Boy
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:44am

    He NEEDS to be REMOVED

    Report Post » South Philly Boy  
    • CatB
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:56am

      Yes and the only way that will happen is if parents stand up and take back the schools .. or HOME SCHOOL .. when they lose all that lovely per student money they might wake up!

      Report Post »  
  • shoulda coulda woulda
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:42am

    in what universe is a test for a K student so important that the child can’t go to the restroom. Indoctrination takes all the time they can get. What moron.

    Report Post »  
  • hillbillyinny
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:41am

    The line, “. . .God changed stones to bread. . . ” is TOTALLY UNFAMILIAR to me from Biblical sources! Satan (Lucifer) did tempt Jesus to change sone to bread, but Jesus refused to “play Satan’s game”!

    These words should be changed since they are totally a lie!

    As far as ALL being part of “. . . God’s big family. . . “ that depends on whether some one is a ”child of God,” or rather is someone who refuses God’s Love and Gift.

    Change it too, in this senario it is ONLY WORDS WITH NO MEANING!

    God is too awesome to be triffled with!

    Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit; and your neighbor as yourself. . .

    Report Post »  
  • Dde13
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:39am

    Again another so called teacher invoking their own agenda. The reason we have a piss pour education system is for this very reason. The truth has been sacrificed and idea log has replace it.
    The philosophy of the school room in one generation
    will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
    Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States

    Report Post »  
    • Chet Hempstead
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 5:45am

      I went to a public school and they did at least teach me the difference between poor and pour and how to spell ideology.

      Report Post »  
    • ChuckSammich
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 7:40am

      Chetty-
      Let’s not forget the air of superiority and all around elitist attitude. Oh, wait, you had to get that elsewhere on your own. Hmm. Perhaps the govt troll teachers lied to you and told you you were special, as they couldn’t use special ed in hearing of the lil chillren. Special Chet has no ring. Work on that.

      Report Post »  
  • TJexcite
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:34am

    When are the RIAA going to sue them for infringement of copyrighted work. They can use the words as written but when they change them they are infringing. Or something like that.

    Report Post » TJexcite  
    • Chet Hempstead
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:53am

      No, nothing like that. Infringement is using all or part of the song without paying or getting permission. It has nothing to do with whether you use it as written or change it. School teachers change the words of songs all the time. Even when I was a kid, we sang the Big Rock Candy Mountain without the cigarette trees and La Cucaracha without the marijuana por fumar.

      Report Post »  
  • Just in time
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:33am

    When will the attacks on God end?

    Report Post »  
  • pwatkins
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:33am

    I am surprised God hasn’t been replaced with Obama, but I guess he has his own songs.

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on April 19, 2012 at 1:21am

      Don’t give them any ideas .. only a matter of time.

      Report Post »  
  • blackyb
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:33am

    Why that teacher is such a good little Marxist. Give her a handbook with Obbies picture on it.

    Report Post » blackyb  
  • USAMEDIC3008
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:32am

    Your NEA hard at work
    Dad gam futher muckers

    Report Post » USAMEDIC3008  
  • oldguy49
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:30am

    we really need to get rid of dept of education…………..they are just indoctrinate kids instead of teaching…………………..tenur needs to go also

    Report Post »  
  • Sorocialism
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:28am

    When will songwriters/owners start suing for these distortions on intellectual property. It appears to me that these teachers are writng their own songs using 95% someone else’s lyrics.

    Report Post »  
  • toto
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:26am

    Liberals have been rewriting history for years, now they are starting in on songs. Arrogant and shameful.

    Report Post »  
  • Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:25am

    But she did add, “We are the world, we molest the children”. Then grabbed her crotch and yelled, “hee hee”.

    Report Post » Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra  
  • Anamah
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 12:25am

    What an hypocrite! This moron must be fired!!!

    Report Post »  
  • TaxedToDeathInNY
    Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:16am

    I am curious of how many of these people who don’t want God mentioned in schools enjoy having December 25th off. Don’t want God in schools? Go to school on December 25th.

    Report Post »  
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