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Texas Schools Board Rewrites US History With Lessons Promoting God and Guns
US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation
Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.
Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that, or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about their history.
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."
Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery.
Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the "significant contributions" of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war.
The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
There is also a suggestion that the anti-communist witch-hunt by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s may have been justified.
The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous "Atlantic triangular trade", and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism.
"There is a battle for the soul of education," said Mavis Knight, a liberal member of the Texas education board. "They're trying to indoctrinate with American exceptionalism, the Christian founding of this country, the free enterprise system. There are strands where the free enterprise system fits appropriately but they have stretched the concept of the free enterprise system back to medieval times. The president of the Texas historical association could not find any documentation to support the stretching of the free enterprise system to ancient times but it made no difference."
The curriculum has alarmed liberals across the country in part because Texas buys millions of text books every year, giving it considerable sway over what publishers print. By some estimates, all but a handful of American states rely on text books written to meet the Texas curriculum. The California legislature is considering a bill that would bar them from being used in the state's schools.
In the past four years, Christian conservatives have won almost half the seats on the Texas education board and can rely on other Republicans for support on most issues. They previously tried to require science teachers to address the "strengths and weaknesses" in the theory of evolution – a move critics regard as a back door to teaching creationism – but failed. They have had more success in tackling history and social studies.
Dunbar backed amendments to the curriculum that portray the free enterprise system (there is no mention of capitalism, deemed to be a tainted word) as a cornerstone of liberty and argue that the government should have a minimal role in the economy.
One amendment requires that students be taught that economic prosperity requires "minimal government intrusion and taxation".
Underpinning the changes is a particular view of religion.
Dunbar was elected to the state education board on the back of a campaign in which she argued for the teaching of creationism – euphemistically known as intelligent design – in science classes.
Two years ago, she published a book, One Nation Under God, in which she argued that the United States was ultimately governed by the scriptures.
"The only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the founding fathers at the time of our government's inception comes from a biblical worldview," she wrote. "We as a nation were intended by God to be a light set on a hill to serve as a beacon of hope and Christian charity to a lost and dying world."
On the education board, Dunbar backed changes that include teaching the role the "Jewish Ten Commandments" played in "political and legal ideas", and the study of the influence of Moses on the US constitution. Dunbar says these are important steps to overturning what she believes is the myth of a separation between church and state in the US.
"There's been this amorphous changing of how we look at religion and how we define religion within American history. One concern I have is that the viewpoint of the founding fathers is very clear. They were not against the promotion of religion. I think it is important to present a historically accurate viewpoint to students," she said.
On the face of it some of the changes are innocuous but critics say that closer scrutiny reveals a not-so-hidden agenda. History students are now to be required to study documents, such as the Mayflower Compact, which instil the idea of America being founded as a Christian fundamentalist nation.
Knight and others do not question that religion was an important force in American history but they fear that it is being used as a Trojan horse by evangelists to insert religious indoctrination into the school curriculum. They point to the wording of amendments such as that requiring students to "describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies".
Among the advisers the board brought in to help rewrite the curriculum is David Barton, the leader of WallBuilders which seeks to promote religion in history. Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible. Among his recommendations was that pupils should be taught that the declaration of independence establishes that the creator is at the heart of law, government and individual rights.
Conservatives have been accused of an assault on the history of civil rights. One curriculum amendment describes the civil rights movement as creating "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among minorities. Another seeks to place Martin Luther King and the violent Black Panther movement as opposite sides of the same coin.
"We had a big discussion around that," said Knight, a former teacher. "It was an attempt to taint the civil rights movement. They did the same by almost equating George Wallace [the segregationist governor of Alabama in the mid-1960s] with the civil rights movement and the things Martin Luther King Jr was trying to accomplish, as if Wallace was standing up for white civil rights. That's how slick they are.
"They're very smooth at excluding the contributions of minorities into the curriculum. It is as if they want to render minority groups totally invisible. I think it's racist. I really do."
The blizzard of amendments has produced the occasional farce. Some figures have been sidelined because they are deemed to be socialist or un-American. One of them is a children's author, Bill Martin, who wrote a popular tale, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Martin was purged from the curriculum when he was confused with an author with a similar name but a different book, Ethical Marxism.
66 Comments so far
Show AllAnd then they wonder why Texas gets a bad name after all.
It seems that christian fundamentalists are, still, on the rise in the US. Proponents of enlightenment, modernity, whatever, they are, at best, fighting a rear-guard action.
It was either P.T. Barnum or H.L. Mencken who declared, "You will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the Amerikkkan people."
Murphy's law that states that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
Both of these aphorisms seem appropriate to the ignorance and stupidity of Cynthia Dunbar the Texas School Board.
Neither P.T. or H.L. used that phrase. The phrase was used by another writer and a character in his book, but I am not telling unless you pay me a dollar. This old Indian has to eat, too, you know.
Check's in the mail!! Inquiring minds want to know. :-)
A couple of observations.
The reason why this Texas propagandizing should be big news outside of the Lone Star state is because school book decisions made there become de-facto course work for the rest of the USA due to the size of the state's purchasing power. Thus a cabal of kooks has potentially determined what American history is taught.
This article is coming out in a non-US media outlet.
I've got a question for you. Texans and others are fighting over their text books. And US states, not unlike other jurisdictions, it seems to me, are generally bent on preserving their "state's rights", right? So even if it costs them a little money, why don't other US states make their own damn books? Surely most of them must be sizable enough to afford to publish a text book?
In all fairness, it is Texas that should be paying extra to have textbooks made especially for their own INCORRECT US History curriculum.
With book production programs like InDesign, it is quite easy in today's publishing industry to produce revised editions of books for a special market. If Texas wants to revise the history books to reflect this radical right-wing LIE, then a publisher can quite easily revise the current textbooks _just_for_Texas_ ... and charge them about $100 more per book.
The main reason why Texas has such leverage is that the state centrally buys its' approved textbooks, then distributes them to local school districts. Central buying for a large state such as Texas gives them great leverage, economically and what is put into the textbooks.
In the state where I reside, California, that does not occur as textbook decisions are made on a school district by school district level based upon what is available in the marketplace (which is largely dictated in the USA by Texas). Where the state of California can step in or not is to bar certain texts. This is being proposed in the California State Senate (SB 1451) by Senator Leeland Yee of San Fransisco. Expect the right wing noise machine to scream "social engineering by the liberal elite" real soon.
One Nation Under the Cash Register of the Temple of Mammon & for all it's stands. Another day closer to this old Indian's journey being completed through your insane world.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
I do so hate evangelical christianity. And Texas. Ever wonder if Dubya was actually one of the smart ones? Stupid is as stupid does.
He was badly misunderestimacated.
I wonder how much of the textbook swill will find its way into each state's standardized tests.
I don't know much about the changes proposed, there have been so many or exactly what is happening at the moment, exactly what they will vote on, but...
Perhaps it would be better to see what is passed, what is really in the text before making comments about it.
Holder and Napalitano were recently embarrased by commenting on something they hadn't even read, why join them in their bigotry?
Did anyone think to ask why Texas buys more textbooks that California or New York? Or any other state for that matter?
"Did anyone think to ask why Texas buys more textbooks that California or New York? Or any other state for that matter?"
To keep those book corporations fat and happy and keep those sales tax revenues coming?
Are you out of your mind or were you merely mis-educated in Texas? Of course we know what changes they are proposing, and we do NOT need to wait for the fait accompli before speaking out against such distortions and hallucinations.
By the way, Texas does NOT buy more textbooks THAN (not "that") California or New York. Texas has a state-wide Board of Education that makes decisions for every school district in the state, whereas those "liberal" and "big government" bastions such as N.Y., CA, MASS, et. al., allow each local district to select which texts they want to use in their schools. In other words, Texas' purchasing power outweighs, say, Massachusetts' Essex County. The sheer numbers involved means publishers limit the variety to the rest of the country.
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
-allow each local district to select which texts they want to use in their schools.
If they do that, then if the Texas books are so bad, as they seem to be, won't the local districts across the US simply buy from California, or somewhere else, even if it is a bit more expensive? Are the schools so cashed strapped that they would buy such garbage?
Because Texas (despite my typo) is the largest market for textbooks in the US. Not California, not New York.
No one here knows if its garbage or not yet.
No, we don't yet know if it's garbage or not. But we can speculate from a reasonably informed position, since there is no doubt that it is intended to be garbage. That significantly raises the odds it will be garbage, and certainly reduces the odds that it won't. Have you not heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure? Do you think it's advisable to wait and see, and then try to get the publishers to alter their printers for individual markets? Or do you think it's better to be proactive, to immediately say to the publishers "if you make this the basis of your overall publishing, we won't buy from you anymore?" And given that most other states have small, local school boards, the elections to which are not thrilling and have low turnouts, don't you think we need to quickly start taking a major interest in what previously has been a political arena that's easy to ignore? How bad would you feel if 200 evangelical Christians, racists, and jingoists (every school district in America has at least that many of those three categories) all agreeing to vote on the same day turned out to be all it takes to elect a school board majority in YOUR district that will adopt the Texas curriculum? I'll tell you something from first hand knowledge: that's all it takes. It's been happening all over America over the last 25 years, not by accident, but it doesn't grab headlines because unlike the full state of Texas, it's only local news when it happens. But it happens on a scale that, aggregated, is already a national crisis. And that's why you have to be worried about what happens next once Texas finalizes this and puts in its purchase orders.
The children taught this stuff are going to be running the country pretty soon. If you want to know what that might look like, just look at places that have been run by the people who insist on teaching it to them, and then consider that most of those people were raised on the standard curriculum, and multiply accordingly.
No one knows its garbage yet???? Are you daft????
The elite corporatists, with their money and influence, erect the idea levees that limit and to some degree direct the flow of ideas through the society. In times past, when they required a well-educated US workforce for economic and military reasons, they would erect barriers to prevent self-destructive and backwards flows in the US mainstream. Now that they operate in a world economy with foreign or immigrant labor (whether illegal or through visas) and expect to depend much more heavily on foreign markets, they allow self-destructive and nonsensical ideas to flow freely through the US population, partly out of lack of concern and partly with the goal of creating distractions, divisions, confusion, and ignorance to ensure that the hoi polloi are more easily manipulated and less capable of mounting a resistance to those who would prey upon them.
Oh, dear... I fear that FastEddie75 is right and Dubya was one of the smarter ones... In future textbooks, written by those who still value the idea of truth and honesty in scholarship will point to the fundies takeover of the school board in Texas was a dark day in human history.
They are willfully ignorant fools, determined to be stupid for JayZeus.
["describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies".]
By burning the evil witches the priestly judges established the precident that if you believe in magic you should be burned. I take it that the fundies of the Texas school board will douse themselves with gasoline (or tar from the BP oil slicks) and set themselves alight forthwith.
[Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible.]
Soon to come, Barton will campaign against the idea that the earth is a globe (bible says earth is flat and has foundations.); that the earth goes round the sun (bible says the sun can stop in the sky, hence earth is at the centre of the universe); etc.
I'm not sure how he thinks that the bible doesn't have internal contradictions, perhaps he's not read the thing...
Perhaps other states will follow the lead of California.
Propaganda is not history, nor is indoctrination any more than wishful thinking is fact.
People should really take this seriously and protect our children from these fanatics with their mind-setting agenda.
A child with an open mind will grow up a much happier person than a guilt-ridden totalitarian.
Which of the "Jewish Ten Commandments" is this talking about? The one with only one page of exceptions to Thou Shalt Not Kill or the one with more than one page of exceptions?
What on earth were those old dead Jews thinking about when they put this Hate Manual together?
What ever happened to the idea of Love Your Enemy or is that far too 'Christian' for Texans?
Is there a more despicable place than Texas? The place that has recently given us the Bush Crime Family is now brainwashing their children so more little Bushies can grow up to be just like their ancestors, only worse.
Excuse me, but we're also the state of Barbara Jordan, Jim Hightower, Bill Moyers, Molly Ivins, and whatever you may think of his war policy, LBJ who used all of his political capital to pass Civil Rights Legislation and Great Society Programs. Progressives are still fighting like crazy here in Texas, including against the crazies on the State Board of Education. This is a HUGE state, geographically and culturally more like 5 states. This is obviously also a state influenced by big corporate money interests...I guess you don't have any conservatives or corporate involvement in your state?? How nice for you. And how nice for you that you feel so comfortable in your broadbrushed bigotry and stereotyping. Frankly we could use a little more help down here and a little less self-righteous condemnation. I've been fighting for social justice issues for 40 YEARS here. Had the great honor of hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at, gosh, a CHURCH convention, where he was the keynote speaker. Had the honor of meeting Cesar Chavez when progressives were helping to try and organize farmworkers in the Valley. And I also belong to an incredibly diverse, progressive, inclusive church fighting for social justice, the environment, an end to the war, fighting poverty and hunger. Do any of the church-bashers here remember how instrumental the faith community's involvement has been in the major social justice movements in our country? Do they think how insulting it is to people who sacrificed so much in the Civil Rights Movement to hear their faith bashed by so called "liberals". Those activists are still out here, despite extremist' attempts to co-opt and redefine "true" faith. As with politics, they are the ones with huge amounts of money for media blitz and influence peddling. (I'll admit that I'm responding some to other writers' posts here as well but maybe they'll read this.)
Frankly, I expected (naively I suppose) a little more from the bloggers on CD sites than the average site. Same hatemongering, just different targets. If you want to change the face of the current mess before we lose our democracy all together then I suggest you join wholeheartedly in the battle for publicly-financed elections. independent redistricting boards, organizing boycotts (including fighting the corporatization of media), and hitting the bricks and raising money and awareness for the best candidates you can find.
Oh, maybe you're already doing that. Well bless you and guess what? THERE ARE A LOT OF DEDICATED PEOPLE IN TEXAS DOING THE SAME! Wish us luck...we need it!
The stereotyping and bigotry we can do without.
Stereotyping and bigotry are the only things that Texas understands, sorry. And two dozen names don't make up for millions of idiots.
But yes, I wish you Texan progressives luck, you'll need LOTS & LOTS of it in that dump.
Well it appears bigotry and stereotyping are rampant everywhere from your comment. By the way, ever been to Austin?
~ Santayana is perhaps best known as an aphorist, most famously for his oft-misquoted remark "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
how is one supposed to remember the past if one's predecessors change it or conceal it?
one might say "Those who rewrite history condemn others to repeat it."
texastan, where governors execute inmates and laugh about it, where his successor outexecutes him and brags about it, where that successor wants to succeed from the union, and where that same successor goes on to execute a person his commission tells him is innocent and then dissolves the commission when it tries to investigate why he did such a dastardly thing. then the same crowd that worships at hagee's golden temple in houston goes on to reelect these idiots and their ilk time and again. sounds like texastan to me! think that their state history text'll pick up any of this?
Dear Ms. Dunbar et al:
The Puritans left England because , according to these Puritans" England wasn't doing religion correctly." They came to build " the City on the Hill." If this wasn't done, they thought , then GOD would smite them. Yeah, they really hated those Catholics too. Oh wait, wasn't the first Catholic president shot in Texas, from the SCHOOL BOOK depository? I had no idea that the Puritans were still here and running our shadow government.
Sadly, these Puritans were into mind control, and humans, being what they are, this treatment drove people away from this religion. You really can't control what people think. It's clouding access to information which is so "devilish,"
By the way. Ms. Dunbar, this nation was actually founded by native American tribes who RESPECTED Nature. I think that the term "Chosen People" must refer to those who keep the PLANET in one piece!
I did notice references to income tax NOT BEING in the Bible, AND THERFORE, IT SHOULDN'T EXIST Yeah, funny thing, CORPORATIONs aren't in the Bible either. USERY is in the Bible though, and it was a "no,no. Geez, Texas, you still have those things, and OMG, you're chery picking the religious ideas you want to keep. MY, what would God say about that?
So, lets's see, GOD seems to be saying NO to corporations, and a definite NO to usery...oh wait every 50 years there's supposed to be a JUBILEE, a forgiveness of debts and lands are returned to their original owners( you know, to help spread the wealth.) The Islamic religion forbids usery, and they actually uphold this. Isn't that refreshing?
By the way, if you read the Bible, CAREFULLY, God does seem to refer to itself as "WE." That must mean both sexes, you think? Either that or God had a personality disorder; that's debateable. Of course there have been so many translations and deletions to this religious document, that committes appear to have been doctoring words for centuries. No wonder you have the moxie to rewrite American history. Then you seem to love Moses. Hmmm, when people went against him, he just murdered them all. Doesn't this sound kind of like a sociopath? A real "family Values, " kind of guy.Ah. Ms. Dunbar, it's one thing to read the 10 Commandments, but quite another to LIVE them.
Oh, by the way, if God, made "man" in "their" own image, I think you would have to include ALL races; otherwise, this God is just for white people, and ALL white people do not believe that. The African American Baptists will not take this well, nor will any other "Christian" religions. You know, there are "Christians" in the Middle East: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan..I think Turley killed all of theirs off. Jerusalem is kind of erasing the Christain religion too, along with historic sites. I had no idea that God loved condos so much. Down with the real history, but by erasing history of others,does this mean, that for certain Christains, that Jerusalem has fallen? O.K. Where the hell is that "Rapture?"
Mc Graw-Hill, I will never again BUY buy a book printed by you. One certainly could not trust your FACT CHECKING on anything!
Ms. Dubar, I fear that your brain has liquified, and you are left, depleted, angry, and possibly drunk, but far from the mainstream of sanity, (not to mention, ) that often quoted concept of "Christian Charity" This unilateral interview is now over. Please, no need to see me to the door; I doubt if you could rise off of your TexASS mindset to do justice to gravity. Sorry about your deleting the "Newton" part of the textbooks. I guess you forgot, " For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction."
Sincerely yours,
Stardust ( stardust... you know, that stuff that WE, and ALL life on this planet came from!)
"By the way, if you read the Bible, CAREFULLY, ..."
That's exactly why there are so many religious people. Nobody reads it. If they actually sat down and read that drivel, they would all be atheists. How is it that they love to quote Leviticus when it was clearly written by a psychopath?
Ya know, I am beginning to increasingly like the chief village idiot's (Governor Perry) proposal for Texas to secede from the Union (this might be a good time for smart people to flee the state). Good riddance Texas - take your stupid textbooks with you!
As a Texan I have to say please take Perry from us. The only way to get rid of our governors is to make them president.
This is the guy who tried to sell I-35 to the King Of Spain.
Texas text books have been going through review and public input was allowed.
A few of us replied. Too few once again.
Other states choose text books based on Californian and Texan studies so it is important for all states.
This year with the state in full swing to republican policies had the great Helen Keller dropped from any mention in history text when it was discovered she was a Socialist and founder of the ACLU.
You are not about to hear about a deaf and blind female leader from 1915 in Texas. Next thing you know people might actually admire this tireless worker for the unfortunate.
Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible.
Jesus was asked and replied, ""Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's".
This from a state that made George Bush Governor.
Is it really a surprise to anyone?
Why single them out? The whole country then made him President. Maybe not in 2000, but definitely in 2004, after they had the full information necessary to decide. Based on that, and exacerbated by Texas's purchasing power, shouldn't we be concerned that by four years from now we'll be seeing this in as many states besides New York and California as is required for an electoral college majority?
It wasn't that long ago that a state that tried to remove "slave trade" from its history books could have expected to see millions of people marching, blockading, boycotting, whatever was necessary. Those days are over -- if you want them to be.
I certainly want to thank all here for their display of fair mindedness, reasoned thinking and opinions based on reality.
For a moment I thought it was just going to be a display of bigoted stereotyping, prejudice and hate. Let alone narrowminded follow the leader groupthink.
Has anyone noticed that ever since the phrase "social conservative" entered the lexicon (and quickly replaced all other synonyms) that bigots have been gaining huge victories?
Does anyone remember back when equality and social justice advocates were making big gains, the only word for a bigot was a word (the word being "bigot") that sounded nasty, like something disreputable, something you wouldn't want people thinking about you?
Slave owners would today be called economic conservatives. Klansmen would be social conservatives. It's on us. We have to go public with the vocabulary that suits our goals, even if it makes people angry -- as if we should care whether bigots get angry, which is, to me, far less of a problem than letting them be victorious.
Go back to Alinsky, as the reactionaries did. Making your opponents appear 10% good is as effective as making them appear 100% good. It's vague. It opens the door to interpretation. It fails.
Starting today there is no such thing as a social conservative. Make a point of countering that phrase every time you hear or read it.
Texas may have a kook like Cynthia Dunbar but it also has reformed ex-police officers such as Barry Cooper ready to train pot smokers on how to outsmart the police. Check this out
http://www.alternet.org/story/146897/?page=entire
I wonder if enough pot smokers in TX could make a difference on the state's deep ties to the Religious Right.
This is because Texas is a one-party (Republicrat) state. If the Democrats had run candidates in all SBOE districts, they could have had an 8-7 majority, but they didn't. Now one district only has a Republican and a Green, the latter may be only as a write-in as the ballot access law is intended to make sure no one can qualify.
If the Democrats can "do the math" they will find a coalition is the only way to return to sanity - and Greens are world famous for working in coalitions.
Texas voters should contact txgreens.org immediately to help get on the ballot, The deadline is May 24. The rest might help by sending money to PayPal/hippogriffpub@yahoo.com, live humans only, $1,000 limit.
Cynthia Dunbar is what makes Texas, Texas and America, America!
God Bless Cynthia Dunbar!
How close-minded can progressives be?
Before anyone condemns people for the wisdom of seeking God in the midst of rampant political immorality and for knowing their Constitution enough to realize the 2nd amendment was designed to protect the country from the tyranny of a police state, it might be useful to listen to the man who progressives claim as inspiration because he gave the world non-violence political action and ended a brutal empire.
Gandhi on guns:
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." -- Mahatma Gandhi (An Autobiography OR The story of my experiments with truth, by M.K. Gandhi, p.238)
Gandhi on God:
"God as Truth has been for me a treasure beyond price; may He be so to every one of us."
"God is the source of Light and Life and yet He is above and beyond all these. God is conscience."
"I believe in God, not as a theory but as a fact more real than life itself."
You forgot to mention another pertinent quote by Gandhi:
"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
I fail to see any wisdom in 'seeking' any god. Nor do I see any wisdom in seeking unicorns, leprachauns, witches, mystics or any other made up unprovable bit of cultural rubbish that was left over from the stone age.
God is the original 'pie in the sky' idea. You get pie when you die, if you 'believe' in him enough. I cannot condemn such foolishness in terms that would be acceptable on any respectable website. (or this one, grin)
People are free to seek what they perceive to be God (I say "perceive" because if such a thing exists, it by definition cannot be proven and is described even by its most vehement proponents as a matter of faith) all the time, anywhere, including in public schools and all public property. That is the law, and it is a just law. However, the illegality of using public funds to finance that pursuit was established at the founding of this nation, and incorporated into the contract that every state signs in exchange for joining. That is all there is to it. We can get into an argument about the side writings of a few members of the original Constitutional Convention, but the second amendment, the actual text that was written and adopted by all member states as written, doesn't say a word about protection from tyranny. Please don't mention it includes the word "free." It says "security of a free state," not security of free people from the state. That is the written and adopted language. It was the Indian State that was dominated by an invading nation's guns, and rendered indefensible by the disarming of its public. Don't recreate Gandhi with out-of-context quotes you got off some gun advocacy website, and don't rewrite the Constitution. We know how to read. Spending taxpayer money to teach religious precepts in public schools is not in there, and no objective legal scholar has ever suggested otherwise -- only the ones who are adherents to the faiths from which the First Amendment protects the population as a whole in government activity.
It never ceases to amaze me how many patriotic proponents of God and Guns holler all day about "constitutional literalism" and "originalism" when their agenda is about precisely the opposite. Kenneth Blackwell of Ohio (remember him? Ohio 2004, anyone?) is currently on a book tour touting how he's a devout "originalist" and he objects to Obama's "war on the Constitution." I have yet to see a single interviewer ask him how he reconciles his book sales rhetoric with the fact that he's not currently defined as property, in chains, and picking cotton. Tragic how the fraud of "manners" in public discourse allows this to happen.
The Constitution was written the way it was in order to protect my kids from Dunbar's indoctrination. People who want Dunbar's views instilled in their kids have plenty of options. Taxpayer-financed public education is for the rest of us.
There are "mainline" Christians who believe in separation of church and state, evolution, et al. These people are rational, logical, and supporters of America as it should be.
Then there are the poisonously irrational, weak minded christian religionists whose icon is the Bible with all it's non-God inspired, human redacted collection of books which are not even applicable to today's society and culture...written for situations and needs of their time, not ours.
It will not be foreign terrorists who may bring down this nation, it will be home grown undermining by people and groups such as these. By their lies and rewriting of history and their selling-out of God that you will know them.
They already successfully rewrote the history of Texas and few know the truth about the ALAMO. Why did Texas want their independence from Mexico in 1836? The fact that it had slaves and was full of slave owners and the Mexican government had just abolished slavery could have a lot to do with it! But all you will read from High School textbooks is claptrap about "freedom loving Texans, fighting for freedom" Yeah, freedom to enslaves another group of people. Don't take my word for it. Look it up. It is in all the period newspapers [primary sources], if you dare face the true heritage of Texas.
Now they want to rewrite US history. Soon we will all be as backward looking as they are. I wonder how long until they remove the fact that JFK was assassinated in Dallas!
Be forewarned.
Mapczar May 18th, 2010 6:42 pm -- I'm a Texan; lived most of my life here, and visited the Alamo more than once. Not until I started reading CD did I become even dimly aware of why Texans (white people in Texas?) wanted independence from Mexico. To me, "Remember the Alamo!" was always just an expression of defiance -- I always thought it was defiance against everything Mexican (I'm white of course, although I'm sure the same message gets through to non-whites).
The educational system in Texas, and I guess nearly every other state, shields children from those aspects of history that are really interesting, such as the one you mention. They grow up as I did, thinking history is a dull, useless subject with no relevance to modern life. So I see the damage caused by the conservatives as the dulling of the child's intellect by a constant barrage of conservative myths and distortions. When I talk to my grandchildren about the Alamo, the first thing I mention to them is that the guys who got clobbered at the Alamo were actually defending the institution of slavery. That puts a little life into the history.
Maybe I should ask if anyone thinks I'm wrong in doing this, and if so, why?
My son just last year took 7th grade Texas history and I was surprised when he told me that they were told that the Mexican ban on slavery was one of the reasons for the Texas revolution. I tend to think it was the main reason, as you apparently do, but still I was pleasantly surprised that it was even discussed.