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Christian Right Aims to Change History Lessons in Texas Schools
State's education board to consider adding Christianity's role in American history to curriculum
The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state's education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.
A painting of Jesus in a wheat field hangs along Interstate 70 on Wednesday July 8, 2009 in Colby, Kansas. (AP Photo / The Hays Daily News, Steven Hausler) Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state's history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America's moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.
Opponents have decried the move as an attempt to insert religious teachings in to the classroom by stealth, similar to the Christian right's partially successful attempt to limit the teaching of evolution in biology lessons in Texas.
One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that "there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature", that "there is a creator" and "government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual".
Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to "American exceptionalism" because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.
Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat in the Vietnam war were God's punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuals. Marshall recommended that children be taught about the "motivational role" of the Bible and Christianity in establishing the original colonies that later became the US.
"In light of the overwhelming historical evidence of the influence of the Christian faith in the founding of America, it is simply not up to acceptable academic standards that throughout the social studies (curriculum standards) I could only find one reference to the role of religion in America's past," Marshall wrote in his submission.
Marshall later told the Wall Street Journal that the struggle over the history curriculum is part of a wider battle. "We're in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it," he said.
Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself as a "counter to the religious right", called the recommendations "troubling".
"I don't think anyone disputes that faith played a role in our history. But it's a stretch to say that it played the role described by David Barton and Peter Marshall. They're absurdly unqualified to be considered experts. It's a very deceptive and devious way to distort the curriculum in our public schools," he said.
Quinn says that the issue is likely to lead to a heated political battle similar to the one in which the religious right tried to force creationism onto the curriculum. While it wasn't able to inject religious theories in to the classroom, the Texas school board did make changes to teaching designed to undermine lessons on evolution such as introducing views that the eye is so complex an organ it must have involved "intelligent design".
"I think, as there was with science, there's going to be a big political battle," he said.
Social studies teachers will meet shortly to consider the panel's views and make their own recommendations to the board of education which has the final say. The board is dominated by conservatives who appointed Barton and Marshall to the panel.
Other states will be watching what happens in Texas carefully as the religious right campaign seeks new ways to insert God in to the classroom after the courts limited the extent to which creationist theories could intrude on the teaching of biology. But religion is not kept out of schools entirely. Many children recite the pledge of allegiance in class each morning which includes a reference to the US as "one nation under God".
The panel made other recommendations.
Barton, a former vice-chairman of the state's Republican party, said that Texas children should no longer be taught about democratic values but republican ones. "We don't pledge allegiance to the flag and the democracy for which it stands," he said.
And while God may be in, some of those he influenced are out.
According to a draft of guidelines for the new curriculum, Washington, Lincoln and Stephen Fuller Austin, known as the Father of Texas after helping to lead it to independence from Mexico, have been removed from history lessons for younger children.
There's no doubt that history education needs a boost in Texas.
According to test results, one-third of students think the Magna Carta was signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and 40% believe Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation was made nearly 90 years earlier at the constitutional convention.
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183 Comments so far
Show AllJust how in the Hell did these Bible-thumping Amerikan Taliban get so much GD influence?
Next, we will be burning people at the stakes for heresy, like they did centuries ago.
We must stop these fanatics right here and now to prevent them from putting Medieval claptrap into the Constitution and schools.
For the past quarter century fundamentalist christians (fc)have worked with the neocons on revisionist history. The neocons provide the platform and media outlets, the fc provide content.
The neocons found that a lie repeated three or more times and left unchallenged becomes a fact. When you own as much media as the neocons do its easy to repeat the same lies for years or decades without being challenged. This mode of operation as made the neocons masters of revisionist history.
Too true. This is how Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister of Italy....He was a lounge singer who got some backers, started buying up radio & tv stations and then newspapers until he owned almost all of them. Then he ran for office.....and, surprise, surprise--he won! If you own the media, you own the debate.
Those Texas kids gotta learn that Jesus was a dope smokin Commie fellow traveler... and that is why he was nailed!
Two points about this story:
First, it demonstrates conclusively that the fundogelicals in Texas are just as stupid and as ignorant and as arrogant as the fundogelicals in Kansas.
Second, the fundogelicals pushing for revisionist history don't seem to remember that the Puritans, those odd Christian folk who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony, came here because they were being persecuted by the Christians theocracy ruling England. So it could be argued that they were 'bad' Christians. Or that their persecutors were 'bad' Christians. The more reasonable view is that all Christians are bad for freedom, liberty, democracy, individual rights, and human rights.
Christians of the fundogelical kind are perfect Orwellians, but they're not intelligent enough to carry it off.
Well said,,,
Greed was the motivator that populated America, because Christains could pracice thier faith the way they pleased, the single biggest reason they came here, and the powerful rich who wanted to exploite the Americas knew it, so they promoted freedom of religeon as an incentive to populate America with hard working Christians.
And the ministers knew it as well , once again , braindead good people being used for greed.
Dont try to second guess our founding fathers,they made the game and played it, then they decided that seperation of church and state is there for a reason, to protect us from each other. Left and right.
Actually, the original founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony emigrated not because they were being persecuted (that happened later in the Century), but because the elders did not want the members of their congregation to be contaminated by contact with members of the Church of England.
They showed their understanding of Christianity by persecuting anyone who came to their colony preaching ideas other than their own. If I remember correctly, the "outsiders" were treated rather roughly - the men had their ears cut off and the women were whipped. If they returned to continue preaching, they were hanged.
That is the kind of people who settled North America - Christians!
Really! English history says you are mistaken.
Actually, what I wrote is correct. The first immigrants called themselves Congregationalists, not Puritans, and they left England becaues the Church of England was too liberal for them. The persecutions we hear about occurred later in the century. The "outsiders" I mentioned were Quakers, whose views were anathema to the new establishment, so they were dealt with harshly.
odoco
Henry8 - and the substance of your response must have been deleted accidently as you respond with only a generalized statement containing no supportive facts.
Watch how you hit those buttons my friend :)
How ironic it is that the grandchild of the Puritan's church is none other than the United Church of Christ, one of the most liberal churches in the United States.
I suppose that means that God wanted the native peoples to be wiped out for stewarding creation rather than making it productive...?
How dare these people feign to declare God 's role in the invasion and decimation of this continent!
Such Unmitigated and Unseemly Pride... and ignorance
Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live
Creation is productive on its own the natives allowed that productivety the invaders destroyed it.
"According to test results, one-third of students think the Magna Carta was signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower"
Well, if it ain't American, it is worthless. Freedom fries !!!!
"and 40% believe Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation was made nearly 90 years earlier at the constitutional convention."
There was never slavery in the US, no such thing as racism.
Freedom fries what??
(As in: "An exaggerated notion of freedom fries good thinking"?)
What happened to the intelligent people of Texas? Isn’t this the place where NASA is located? What about all those medical centers?
I realize that this is the place that gave us Bush but please there must be some intelligent life in Texas.
God and Christians also condone slavery and genocide. I do believe we are building the wall in the wrong place.
Some intelligent people are lazy and want simple answers to complex issues. Religion provides this.
They're all imports, and just passin' through.
Oh, and Bush is not from TX. He's just passin'.
"The Last Picture Show" probably captures the quality of a large part of rural Texas, at least. I live in Arizona, which has a lot in common with Texas (and New Mexico), except for the 'attitude' of being part of something just a little bit better than anywhere else.
There are a lot of very intelligent very progressive people in TX. They don't all leave like I did. The problem in TX is just like it is in the US on a larger scale; the majority are simple minded traditional cattle. They're easily led, extremely stubborn and willfully ignorant. They tend to be the loudest and proudest too. I say let them pull their kids out and let them have their christian schools and leave the public schools to all those "liberal socialists"
"According to test results, one-third of students think the Magna Carta was signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and 40% believe Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation was made nearly 90 years earlier at the constitutional convention."
These are the same people who believe that Jesus wrote the Declaration of Independence.
There's no dumbass like a religious dumbass.
q
"There's no dumbass like a religious dumbass." So you are suggesting that all people of faith are "dumbasses"? And you are the one that accuses me of generalizing. And as far as being a "dumbass", people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
"So you are suggesting that all people of faith are 'dumbasses'? (sic)"
This is the kind of hysterical response I would expect from the folks who are the subject of this article.
q
That didn't strike me as a "hysterical" response. It seemed a fair question about your posting. Nor did I see in any way that Winning Ticket indicated he favored or was part of the folks that were pushing this agenda.
Frankly it seems to me that Dumbasses are not restricted to any particular section of folks.
An insult is not an answer.
"An insult is not an answer."
Henry, I would like to see you post one substantive response which does not contain a whine about being insulted.
FastEddie gave a good response (below) to you and Ticket's point of view.
q
Redefined: There's no dumbass like a fundementalist "Christian" dumbass.
All religious fundamentalists are the same.
q
"There's no dumbass like a religious dumbass."
Several have taken this statement to mean all religious folk are dumbasses, but the statement says neither that all religious people are dumbasses, nor that the quality of being a dumbass is restricted to the religious.
It does say that, when you find a religious dumbass, they have a quality that sets them apart from your run-of-the-mill dumbass. To me, that quality is restricted to the fundamentalists, so I would say, "There's no dumbass like a fundamentalist dumbass."
Those who are making the inference which you describe are being deliberately obtuse. They know what it says; they're just looking for some excuse to express their indignation.
"'There's no dumbass like a fundamentalist dumbass.'"
You make a fair point, to which I would respond, "A religious dumbass IS a fundamentalist."
q
Darn! Just when I was trying to become more tolerant of the "reasonably religious."
As someone who has been schooled in and has taught logic and linguistc analysis for years, I can guarantee the correctness of that analysis.
Sick, sick. Jesus is a character of fiction. It never existed.
If only these sick, perverted Texans followed some of his teachings, however, Texas would be a better place. Jesus was a peace-loving, tree hugging, communist, liberal Jew. I doubt they'll teach that in schools.
What do you know about Texas? Not much obviously.
You sound like the rednecks I grew up with
This makes for a great argument in history class. If some studen stands up for the truth and argues against the book, they would be right.
Rhetoric aside, the irony is that that Christianity and Judeo-Christian values (for good -and- ill -- as the first two posts point out) really did have a profound influence on the settelment and founding of the United States. Not as the Far Right would teach it, which is based on unprovable theories, but as any decent history teacher would teach it --as based on facts and events.
So they are actually shooting themselves in their own foot.
Well, now ain't that a hoot? These "Christian heritage" groups trying to get a better seat for God in Texas schoolbooks call themselves WallBuilders. Just shows how the same "mentality" can be displayed continents apart. Besides the wall building at the Mexican border in Texas, where else are they building walls so exuberantly but in the West Bank? And just as the WalllBuilders in Texas are trying to get God INTO the textbooks, the Education Minister of Israel is ordering all mention OUT OF textbooks for Arab children within the country of the word "nakba," the Arab word for "catastrophe" to refer to the day Israel gained its independence in 1948. What country, the Minister asks, would allow a mention of its "independence" to be associated with such nasty ideas as "catastrophe" or (gulp) "holocaust?" In case you don't trust my report on this, see BBC News at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8163959.stm
If memory serves, The US founding fathers were DEISTS who wanted to AVOID the excesses they had seen in Europe that exists because of the undue influence of the Church in regimes of the time.
So they SPECIFICALLY includes the SEPARATION of church and state in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
These people are actually working AGAINST the wishes of the Founding Fathers that they pretend to revere. Their ignorance of their own history is only exceeded by their fanaticism.
Walk in peace.
odoco
Two great reads on this subject:
"Liars for Jesus," by Chris Rodda, and "American Fascists - The Christian Right and the War on America," by Chris Hedges.
Galenwainwright (July 23rd, 2009 11:10 am) is totally right.
Did God ask that slaves be brought from Africa? And when they didn't obey "God's" laws, to be lynched? Or to kill the natives? Let's see if they teach THAT.
odoco
One of Columbus's first messages back to Spain:
"Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity keep on sending all the slaves that can be sold."
And from Ambrose Bierce:
"Scriptures: noun. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based."
And of course, from the master philosopher himself, GEORGE CARLIN:
"Religion is sort of like a lift in your shoes. If it makes you feel better, fine. Just don't ask me to wear your shoes."
George Carlin---how I miss him!
And Molly Ivins too... a reasonable Texan....Anyone know who picked up her standard?
In my hometown newspaper, Molly was replaced by Ann Coulter. That's when I canceled my subscription.
Bill Moyers is from Texas too.
I have postulated for well over twenty years (and have written about it as well) that the only way 'forward' for 'humanity'---is the complete abolition of 'religion' from the public forum, then the social changes that need to be taken for humanity's future would have a chance to work.
Indeed it was the rejection of the "God" myth, that has led to human progress. Galileo was jailed for telling the truth about the Sun being the center of the Galaxy, and that the earth was flat; and it was the "pope" that had him locked up.
There is something deeply embedded in the human psyche that 'needs' to have a "God"---and this needs to be removed at the earliest of ages. Instead of "Sunday School"--there should be, "Separation School"--to separate the child from the fantasy that "God" is an extension of your parents (God the Father, Jesus the Son) and if you are a 'good boy/girl' you'll get ice cream as a reward--if not---you get a 'dog turd'----and you have to eat it there you can't take it home".
On a personal level, if someone wants to 'worship' a doorknob, I could care less, but the very moment that person offers up their 'door knob' as the 'one true "God", 'son of' "God", 'hand picked messenger of "God", or even the "door knob that "God" used to open the door"--they should be required to prove the existence of "God"---or shut up about it, and keep their 'worship' at home---where it belongs.
If they cannot 'prove' the existence of "God", they cannot use "God" as a weapon/tool/excuse for extermination of others/invasion of others/discrimination of others/ or as a 'badge of their goodness'.....
If humanity is expected to progress as far in the intellectual range as they have in the technological range---they must put the "God" myth to rest: for all time.
Instead, the irony of the Texas legislation (they cannot do anything in Texas that would surprise this Native Son---I have watched those fools increase in their foolishness since I was born there--in the middle of the last century) is that
they would use 'legislation' to impose their view points upon others; while they would fight to the death (all of them going to heaven of course) if others were trying to do the same.
The other aspect is the 'misguided concept' that it is a violation of some one's 'freedom of religion' to ridicule their beliefs. Yet, for example if an adult co-worker were to come in to the office and begin talking about "Santa Clause's coming visit this December 24th", they would be locked up in a mental institution for life---or 'until they respond to therapy'. In reality, the 'fantasy of Santa, and the 'fantasy of Jesus' both require 'faith'*---yet, when most Americans are ten years or older (some much younger) they 'learn the truth about Santa' and then---stop talking about him.
The same could apply to the "God" fantasy if more people were willing to exhibit the courage to ridicule some moron who 'wants to talk to them about Jesus'.........
* On the 'faith' subject--this coming Dec 24th and for several weeks before that date--there will be millions of children---in many diverse parts of the world---who will believe in Santa Clause---yet that belief---no matter how faithful, or 'strong': does not make Santa Clause a reality.
The same applies to a "God".
I have also stated many times that I was raised a Christian, the son of Christian Missionaries to their own people. I stopped believing in a God long ago.
If however I AM wrong, and there IS a "God" and a "judgement day"---I will wait my turn in line to 'stand before God' and when my turn comes, rush the podium and slap God around like a rag doll for all of the 'shit' he allowed to happen to my people in "his name"----then I'll take a short coffee break, maybe smoke a 'dube', and then make those "Angels" mop up his blood with their wings for having helped him.
Thank you for your time.
Right on, Native Son! The "door knob of god." I love it!
marvellous post nativeson.................
btw, on another blog the other day i read a question that asked:
why do you never hear of aethiest fundamentalists?..............
I don't know about fundamentalists, but I've met more than a few atheist fanatics. They want to stomp out all belief systems that differ from their own. They have deep contempt for anyone who believes differently than they do. And they are positive -- really positive -- they hold the Absolute Truth about the nature of an infinite universe, when our species has barely left this planet. They're as unpleasant as any other brand of fanatic, I'm afraid. I think any human being goes awry starting at the moment he thinks he has the universe in his hip pocket and it's up to him to correct everyone elses' "errors." Agnostics make for much better neighbors.