Religious Kentucky teen refuses to run race after being assigned 666 bib

[rug]

Codie Thacker said she had been training for the cross-country run since June, but when she got ready to compete, she was handed a bib with 'the mark of the beast' in the form of the number 666. Thacker told officials, who reportedly refused to switch it out, so she 'stood up for God' and dropped out of the competition

By Lee Moran / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 9:13 AM

A Kentucky teen refused to run in a cross-country race after being issued a bib marked with the "devil's number" 666.

Codie Thacker said seeing "the mark of the beast" on Saturday made her feel physically sick and demanded that race chiefs issue her with a different tag.

But they refused, so Thacker decided to quit the regional competition before it had even begun.

"I just don't believe that 666 should be a number that's anywhere on your body and I did not want that number associated with me. It kind of made me sick," she later told WYMT.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/teen-refuses-run-race-assigned-666-bib-article-1.1508184

Instead of relying on 2 Timothy 4 : 7, she could have just worn it upside down.

Silly as this seems, she did stand on her principles.

[get the red out]

1. They should have accommodated her

I think they should have given her another number. It couldn't have been that big of a deal. Religious accommodations are made in all sorts of situations. I think the whole 666 thing is silly, but it's her right to be scared to death of it.

[Tanuki]

3. I agree that it would have been a reasonable accommodation to just

give her a different number. I am surprised that in a place like Kentucky there wouldn't have been more sensitivity to her religious aversion to a number biblically associated with "the beast."

[get the red out]

10. I was surprised by that also

I've lived in Kentucky my whole life and I would say that a huge percentage of people have the same belief as this young woman.

To have not accommodated her IMO possibly served to close her mine even further and supports the idea that people not of her faith cannot to be trusted.

[bobduca]

7. Educational organizations should challenge ridiculous beliefs

Doesn't the state owe some responsibility to de-program students burdened with numerology?
Public shame should be the logical rational reaction to this incident.

[get the red out]

9. What about other religions

Should non-Christian religions be accommodated in their beliefs where possible by educational institutions? Or should their beliefs lead to a public shaming? I think if a young person was of a faith other than Christian and they were forced to sit out of an event due to a refusal to accommodate their belief in some manner, we would see people hitting the roof here about how discriminatory and prejudiced the people running the event were.

[bobduca]

11. I beleive that burkas are repressive. I'm a bit of a militant agnostic.

A cross country athlete that tried to compete in a burqa should be shamed by the larger society. I judge many aspects of religious society to be worthy of being shamed, and I feel its regressive to make excuses for patrernalism and misogyny under the label of cultural sensitivity.

I realize that puts me in the uncomfortable position of the french conservatives who are making rules about wearing burqas in schools, but so be it. Medieval traditions that compel 50% of society to cover up or else risk tempting the other 50% into lewd and lascivious behavior need to be challenged in the commons.

[get the red out]

12. I agree with you on misogyny

Which puts me in that uncomfortable position also. (That's actually a big reason for my tag line.)

That does dovetail into what I was saying, if so many good liberal people would fully support a young woman having to wear an uncomfortable symbol of misogyny without interference, how can we deny someone a different number to compete in a race? It seems to be more acceptable to tell Fundamentalist Christians to go screw than any other religion, even when the other religion promotes something that is, when you get down to it, against human rights.

I hope this kid gets over her number phobia.

[bobduca]

14. yes familiarity probably breeds contempt, re: acceptability to be rudest to fundies

I think it was cruel to deny her a new number in the end, but I applaud the instinct to get her question her numeraphobia...
But now that I consider it framed as a medical issue, its' probably best to for her to optionally seek professional help, rather than being publicly shamed by an race official.

[cbayer]

19. There is absolutely nothing here to indicate that this young woman has a

psychiatric disorder and your implying that she does is shameful.

[bobduca]

21. Oh look public shame!

i hope you are not religiously offended by me telling you PLONK.

[cbayer]

23. Exactly my point. See how it made you more receptive to other ideas?

[dballance]

30. Are you sure?

Funny that she isn't classified as having a disorder because she believes in some invisible, all powerful, all knowing being that is called "God." But, if, at her age, she still claimed belief in the all-knowing, all-seeing Santa Claus we'd call her a nut.

[cbayer]

33. There is nothing to indicate that she has a any kind of psychiatric disorder whatsoever.

If you wish to take the position that religious believers are psychiatrically disordered, so be it. And if you believe that beliefs in god and santa claus are equal, so be it.

But you would have no support from the scientific or medical community.

So what would that your your belief? Irrational? Unscientific? Judgmental? Worse?

[Goblinmonger]

41. She seems to have

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

[cbayer]

13. De-program? You think the state has some responsibility

to de-program kids who may think differently or share certain beliefs with others?

And you think public shame should be used in that process?

Wow! That's a really scary world you want to live in.

I'm curious about your TV avatar. Is that part of the problem or do you see that as part of the process to fix the problem?

[bobduca]

15. numerology is silly, numerophobia is a medical issue

like i wrote just now #14, when I think of this as a medical issue I become more forgiving the official should have given her a new number, like 668, just like Reagan.

I like the TV avatar because there's nothing on it. kill your TV.

[cbayer]

17. Numerophobia? Must have missed that in the DSM.

Unless you are just referring to phobias in general, and I don't think there is anything to indicate that this young woman has that. She just objects to the number and doesn't want to wear it.

So in your world where people are de-programmed and public humiliation is used as a part of that process, who will get to decide what crosses the line and what doesn't?

The bottom line is this - the girl asked for an accommodation and was refused. Accommodating her would have harmed or inconvenienced no one.

[bobduca]

20. melodramatic

my first post about public shame was not meant to be part of some formal process.

"in my world" yes that's right such an adept rhetorician you are, revealed me to be a secret agent for dystopia!

[rug]

24. I suspect 301.81 is at work.

[cbayer]

25. Lol. Had to look it up.

:rolling:

[Tanuki]

18. Not a big fan of the 1st amendment, are you? n/t

[bobduca]

22. no I'm an agent of dystopia, clearly...

[wercal]

32. There are all sorts of quirky religious customs and beliefs

Muslims eat Halal meals

Jews wear headgear

Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays during lent

Mormons wear special underwear

Are these all so ridiculous that they deserve 'public shame'?

I don't particularly believe in special Mormon underwear....so I doubt I will ever wear it. But it doesn't hurt me if they want to, right?

I've never understood atheists or agnostics who evangelize their distaste for all things religious with the energy of a southern Baptist preacher.

We've got schools serving vegetarian meals, prisons serving Halal meals, airports building Islamic prayer rooms, buildings missing their 13th floor, laws against black cats on Halloween...I don't think it would have been a stretch to hand this girl a different number.

[DetlefK]

2. Try selling something with the number "4" on it in China...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture#Four

[DetlefK]

4. By the way, the internet is also an invention of the devil. Here's the proof:

http://www.av1611.org/666/www_666.html



Have you ever been to a website that started with www? Then you were doing the devil's bidding.

[Tanuki]

5. The Reagans had their Bel-Air home address changed

because the original street number was 666!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

...."A prominent example is Nancy and Ronald Reagan who, in 1980, when moving to their home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles, had its address—666 St. Cloud Road—changed to 668 St. Cloud Road.[5][6]".....

[TlalocW]

6. When I lived in Tulsa, OK

One of my college friends moved there after she got done with grad school for a job. She went to get her new OK plates, and it had 666 on it. The clerk looked at it and asked if she wanted a new one, and realizing where she was, she said no and took that plate. She got a lot of enjoyment out of the strange looks she got from it.

TlalocW

[cbayer]

8. They should have given her a different number.

People have all kinds of superstitions about numbers. Some are rooted in religion, others aren't.

There was really no good justification for not accommodating her, imo.

[cleanhippie]

16. Superstitions about numbers are rooted in ignorance.

Religion capitalizes on that ignorance and turns it into fear, giving us the story above.

The event organizers should have just given her a different number.

[hrmjustin]

26. I would not have run the race with that number. Shame on them for not giving another number.

[demosincebirth]

27. Couldn't they have changed, just, one number?

[Not Me]

28. I am a runner (long time since HS though...)

and there are so many logistical and safety things that the organizers have to deal with, accommodating bib number requests should not be one of them. A Christian that doesn't want 666 for religious reasons, an Asian runner who doesn't want the number 4 in his/her number, another runner who has a superstitious aversion to the numbers 1 and 3 together.

Either take the number that was assigned or don't participate. Your choice. She made hers. Good for her.

If you hadn't gathered, I am in a cranky mood this afternoon.

[Lint Head]

29. They should give her a different number but this situation emphasizes the iron age ideas that

permeate society. This young woman has probably been raised to believe that a number has power and that a demon loves that number.
It was a number that is supposed to have identified Nero. It's also 616 in Greek and Latin. The triangular number. Wow! Avoid triangles, 616 and 666 and also avoid the internet because it was conceived by mostly atheists or devil worshipers as Antonin Scalia said.

[ZombieHorde]

31. Seems to me that everyone acted appropriately.

The runner didn't want to have the number 666 on her tag, so she refused to run. The people in charge of the numbers didn't want to bend to her anti-Satan bias, so they refused to do so.

[hrmjustin]

34. They could have respected her views and given her a new number.

[ZombieHorde]

35. Sure, but doesn't she have the same "obligation" to respect their views?

Why are her views more important than their views?

[hrmjustin]

36. She did. She said she would not participate. What reason is there not to give her a new

number?

She followed her views and said no. There was no legit reason not to give her a new number.

[ZombieHorde]

37. I don't know the reason for the rule, but I would guess that it has

to do with fairness. If they took requests from one, then they would have to take requests from all, in order to be fair. They have a job to do and a schedule to keep, and requests place an unnecessary stress on the workers.

To be honest, I don't even know why marathon runners have numbers. I can see the use for marking the runners in general, so they can be differentiated from other people, but I don't know why each runner needs a unique number.

[hrmjustin]

38. According to the article they said if they knew they would made adjustments.

KHSAA spokesman Joe Angolia later claimed that officials did not know the teen had objected to the number for religious reasons.

"We've made adjustments to uniform codes and things like that in the past when it's known that religious reasons are in play," he added.

I think they knew. They are covering their tracks.

[ZombieHorde]

39. Hmm.

I wonder if they take requests for other reasons. If not, then that is bigotry.

[hrmjustin]

40. Time will tell.

From there own spokesmen it seems like they do make adjustments.

[Goblinmonger]

42. So maybe she didn't make it clear it was for religious reasons.

I fully understand, running an event like that, not wanting to have a kid give you their bib when you have it recorded whom the number belongs to and then have to give them a new one on a whim. How many kids are going to want their lucky number?

[hrmjustin]

43. According to the article she did ask them to change it.

[Goblinmonger]

44. I agree

But we don't know that she said it was for religious reasons and they have stated that they didn't know it was for religious reasons.

[hrmjustin]

45. I think if she asked them to change it she likely gave religious reasons.