On Wednesday, two Christian pro-life activists protested abortion outside of a STEM academy. The assistant principal told them to leave, but they persisted in exercising their First Amendment rights. They also brought up the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, telling the principal that Jesus can save him from sins. At this, the principal drew a line in the sand.
When a 16-year-old protester said, “Jesus Christ can set you free from your sins!” the principal, Dr. Zach Ruff, responded, “It’s a public school, we don’t believe in that here.”
The confrontation started when Ruff came up and told the activists to leave and stop “harassing” students at Downington STEM Academy near Philadelphia, Penn. When the protester spoke about innocent unborn children being murdered, the principal shot back, “They’re not children, they’re cells.”
Then Ruff started to identify “science” with pro-abortion arguments. “Go home! They are cells. You’re at a science-based school. Those are cells,” he declared.
When a protester said Jesus can “set you free from your sin,” the principal shot back, “I’m as gay as the day is long and twice as sunny. I don’t give a f**k what Jesus tells me and what I should and should not be doing.”
The protester added again, “Jesus can set you free from your sins. It’s the truth, it’s the gospel.”
At this, Ruff unleashed his vitriol seemingly against religion itself. “Just because you choose to believe a book of fiction doesn’t mean I have to,” the principal declared. “Prove it to me with science. No, you believe it, does not make it true.”
Then, tellingly, he added, “You and Trump can go to hell.” President Donald Trump had not been mentioned at all in the conversation.
When the pro-lifers told the gay atheist that people who don’t believe in Jesus will go to hell, he responded, “That’s only if you believe in hell. If I don’t believe in it, I don’t have to go there.”
Scientifically, that’s not exactly how it works. Hell either exists or it doesn’t — believing in it or not believing in it makes no more difference than not believing that the Earth is round.
At one point, Ruff insisted, “Go to Planned Parenthood, go to a doctor’s office. This isn’t the time or the place for you to harass innocent school children who have nothing to do with your twisted and perverted agenda.”
Right before he decided to stop engaging the protesters entirely, the principal quipped, “Just like a**holes, everybody has them and they all stink.”
After this, Ruff started humming and singing loudly every time the students spoke. “Da, da, da, da, da!” “I love a parade!” It was rather hilarious to see the protesters yelling and the administrator singing and yelling as if nothing was happening.
It was as though all of them had turned into 5-year-olds, with the principal the most obnoxious — all in the name of science. Does that remind you of anything? The assistant principal has been placed on leave.
Watch the video below.
This article was updated to include the name of the school and the assistant principal.
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