Please Yell "Fore!"

If I want more freedom, I guess I’d be better off in Henrico County. A few years ago as a group I was affiliated with was trying to lobby the school board for faster funding of our high school’s renovation, we had to seek permission to put information in flyers that were taken home in the kids’ backpacks. We’d often run into resistance, as school officials were afraid of being supportive of a political effort.

But in Henrico, a church can advertise in school flyers, and the school system abets a charade by obfuscating the fact that it’s a church.

Laura Kreisa knew the YMCA, the PTA, the JCC. She couldn't pinpoint WEAG.

She became curious about the acronym when her son came home from his western Henrico County school with a flier advertising a golf event sponsored by WEAG.

She saw no full name, no contact information.

Confused, Kreisa thought it may stand for some West End athletic group.

"I had no clue," she said. "I was looking in the phone book for WEAG."

She asked school staff and was told the letters stood for West End Assembly of God, a church in western Henrico.

"The way it's presented, it's not clear it's a church," Kreisa said. "I would feel better if they are straightforward. Any organization should be fully identified, whether it's religious or not."

That was last year. So Kreisa was surprised to see the acronym again last month when her son brought home a flier advertising an extreme dodgeball league. The flier still did not spell out the name.

So it’s a golf event. If her son is an elementary school child, the event clearly was not for him or his classmates.

"We allow the YMCA to use the acronym, we allow the JCC to use the acronym, and there are some people in Richmond, in the West End especially, that recognize the WEAG acronym," said Marianne McGhee, Henrico schools' director of public information and television services.

Causing confusion about the acronym was unintentional, said David Mercer, executive pastor at West End Assembly of God. WEAG shows up on school fliers most likely because the material is the same that they use in house, he said.

"It's nothing clandestine by any means," he said.

"It's simply an acronym that we've come to identify ourselves by in our internal communications here."

Oh, and we should know that!

This may be innocent as I know little about the church. But let’s be at least clear when we’re advertising a religious-related event in a public school flyer.

Comments

[The Jaded JD]

Nathan,

The point was that SCOTUS and YMCA are known within their constituencues, just as WEAG is known within its constituency. And, what's more, YMCA and JCC are both religious organizations.

There need not be any fear of being straight-forward, but if we're talking about advertising, the phrase "West End Assembly of God" costs 5 words and WEAG only 1 if paying by the word, or however much the added length would cost in area if paying by the size of the ad.

Do people really just show up at charity golf tournaments without knowing who will benefit? I mean, if you didn't know what WEAG was, would you be going to their fundraiser anyway?

Bob,

The reason this is so trivial is that it is, or at least from the article as excerpted, appears to be paid advertising. Why ought not a school to benefit from selling advertisements to whoever is willing to pay the costs? Especially if you're not screaming about the YMCA and JCC ads. As you've excerpted the article, it seems your beef is more with the abbreviation (which you claim is obscure) and less with the fact that the organizations being advertised aren't secular.

[Nathan]

The Jaded JD: Equating WEAG's name recognition with the YMCA or SCOTUS is silly. Just like the woman quoted at the beginning, many don't know the acronym. I lived in Henrico County for over a year and a half and it wasn't until I moved to South Richmond before I heard of the church. The issue isn't so much about name-recognition, but just commonsense disclosure. Any organization would benefit from separating the "internal" vernacular with its public relations materials.

What's the fear of being "straightforward"? What's so wrong with Bob's charge of "let’s be at least clear when we’re advertising a religious-related event in a public school flyer."

Why, one wonders, take the time to write truly outrageous rebuttals, if all the rebuttals are based on faulty logic? //sorry, couldn't resist.

[Bob]

Squandered on silliness? Like maybe not allowing people to marry (but allowing civil unions) because of their sexual orientation? Or maybe Intelligent Design silliness?

[The Jaded JD]

Oh, and we should know that!

I'm not sure where (geographically) you post from, but I'd say WEAG is not exactly obscure in Henrico's West End, any more than SCOTUS is obscure within the legal profession or RTD is obscure among readers of the predominant newspaper of general circulation in the Richmond metropolitan area. For that matter, does JCC stand for Junior Chamber of Commerce or Jewish Community Center? I've seen both. And YMCA (the Village People notwithstanding) is the Young Men's Christian Association, hardly a pillar of secularism. (Its official mission is "[t]o put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all.")

What, one wonders, will there be left to expend on truly outrageous behavior, if all the outrage is squandered on silliness?