Woman Escorted off Bus for Reading Bible Aloud

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Woman Escorted Off Bus For Reading Bible Aloud
Reporting
Carol Cavazos
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― A passenger on a Fort Worth bus says the T. Bus Service discriminated against her religion.

Christine Lutz says she was reading her Bible to her children when the bus driver asked her to stop or get off the bus.

Lutz, a Seventh Day Adventist, and her children were on their way to church.

"She then said, 'Well I don't think this is the place or the time to do so.' And I said, 'Oh, but it's the perfect time and the perfect place since it is our Sabbath and it is the time with the Lord and therefore I'm going to continue.' And I continued," she explained.

Then, a TRE supervisor came on board. Lutz also told him that she would not stop reading. She and her family were escorted off the bus.

"This was definitely a clear cut case of persecution," she said.

Or was it a clear cut case of policy?

"Anyone who is loud will be asked to be quiet," said representative Joan Hunter. "That is a standard policy across country in the transit industry."

It doesn't matter what is said, the T has a policy of no loud or abusive behavior.

"It's only if the other passengers will complain, or it's obviously so loud it's distracting the operator, that we will ask them to stop," Hunter explained.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
http://cbs11tv.com/local/woman.bible.get.2.620431.html

Fort Worth is not far from me, only about 100 miles. It surprised me that something like that would happen in North Texas.

Tim

I guess the bus people set the rules on who gets to say what, when and how loud......in this case it must've hit a raw nerve with somebody....

Good thing she wasn't riding a bus in one of the Middle East or African countries...look what happened to that poor teacher from Great Britain and when her seven year old students chose to name a Teddy Bear, "Mohammed.

I don't have a problem with parents reading to their children on the bus. Were the kids in one spot, not yelling, not running but just sitting there?Then why would the bus driver complain? I would wonder then if she was reading Dr.Suess would anyone have a problem. If yes, then maybe she was being way to loud, the bus driver could have just told her to lower her voice, and maybe he did and she refused to. If so then she is the one with the problem. However according to what you've reported to us, she was just reading to them, so I really don't get the problem. It's getting rediculous in our country where saying Merry Christmas and Soluting our Flag has turned into a political incorrectness.....go figure.

The news media need to report the whole story. They constantly leave out important info. Are there no good reporters available?

I never been on a bus where you weren't allowed to talk so it shouldn't have been a problem with her reading out loud to her kids. If she talked too loud, they should have told her to lower her voice. My guess is an atheist, a pagan, a liberal, or someone else who hates Christianity complained to shut her up and they discriminated against her.

Am have been on a bus in Manchester where something similar happened,a woman who have seen [and heard] before a few times,was talking very loudly about her religeons' beliefs on the bus[think it was pentecostal,she has come up to am and dad before and said have been going to church lately if not why not etc.] she was saying how everyone is going to die when something happens [apocolypse?] so should start praying for forgiveness now,and asking people what religeon they have.
No one stopped her,but people avoid being near her.

If the woman was loud,it was right they did something about it,public transport is public,not for private use.
They could have asked her to speak quieter though,rather than stop all together.
Am rarely able to use public transport because of all the noises going on on buses [multiple amounts of talking,shouting,people playing music on their phones out loud,noises from the bus itself etc] but luckily get high rate mobility of dla to pay for more taxies,or get private bus/ring and ride-people need to realise unless they want to pay the extra for their own limosenes,private jets or whatever to read the bible out or play some dodgy tinny sounding hardcore or RnB over their mobile phone speaker,then they need to respect others around them.
If the driver was the one who originally heard the woman speaking,then surely it must be very loud unless she was sat close to him,if it was in this country,drivers would rarely ever confront people about their noises/sound,it would be good if more drivers were like that [as long as noise was the reason and not hate of religeon that is,but they will probably be asking the other people on the bus what it was like as well].

I think it's really rotten to suggest it was terrorists, or the sarcastic lumping of "liberals, pagans, et al" together like non-Christians are all intolerant and controlling. Frankly, this is a nation that should have separation of Church and State and yet there are Christian laws abounding.
If you don't know the whole story, then why make up stuff to fill in the blanks? The bus spokesperson said she was loud. We have rules on our city buses about language and loudness too. The bus driver will tell you to watch your mouth or to be quiet. Polite people, or people who don't want to get kicked off the bus, do as they're told.
According to the story posted the woman was asked to stop reading aloud and she refused. Like she can dictate what everyone else has to listen to on a public bus.

I have to admit that I would have been highly irritated to be forced to listen to the bible while riding on public transport. It would have smacked of proselytizing. Religion is a sensitive and volatile subject, and other people might have felt the same. If they like the bible so much, there are books on tape.

Strangely enough, last night's episode of American Dad dealt with this exact same issue.

Tim

KimJ - Al Quaeda was a joke. Sorry if you don't *get it*. What exactly are you referring to in *filling in the story*? People are giving their opinion here. That's all.