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As a disclaimer preface to the following opinion piece, The Gadfly gladly shares this wonderful piece of historical literature for which he religiously (pun intended) bases his most basic non-religious views upon:
Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.
Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.
'Age of Reason' ~~~ Thomas Paine, 1794
And the American conservative's dogged march to turning this nation into a religious theocracy, not entirely unlike orcs storming the fortress in Lord of The Rings, or the Taliban bullying the peoples of their country into dogmatic submission, continues apace . . .
Christian conservatives win, children lose: Texas textbooks will teach public school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on the Bible, and the American system of democracy was inspired by Moses.
On Friday the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education voted along party lines 10-5 to approve the biased and inaccurate textbooks. The vote signals a victory for Christian conservatives in Texas, and a disappointing defeat for historical accuracy and the education of innocent children.
The textbooks were written to align with instructional standards that the Board of Education approved back in 2010 with the explicit intention of forcing social studies teaching to adhere to a conservative Christian agenda. The standards require teachers to emphasize America’s so called “Christian heritage.”
In essence, Christian conservatives in Texas have successfully forced a false historical narrative into public school textbooks that portray Moses as an influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of democracy.
Critics called the whole process into question after publishers posted a number of last-minute changes to the textbooks yesterday, leaving board members and observers without time to figure out exactly what was in the approved texts.
According to reports, scholars did not have an opportunity to review and comment on the numerous changes publishers have submitted since the last public hearing. Some of those changes appeared to have been negotiated with state board members behind closed doors.http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/11/texas-approves-textbooks-with-moses-as-founding-father/
This proves conclusively that the conservative zeal to dumb down an already frightfully dumbed down populace has not abated in the least. And the fact that they have turned their weaponry of celebrated ignorance on to children truly signifies a worrisome turn in their efforts to remake America in to their own bastardized (fundamentalist Christian) version of Saudi Arabia, should be cause for sane, reality-based Americans to take notice and start finding common ground with other sane Americans, across the religious and political spectrums, to put a stop to this dangerous idiocy.
These are publicly funded schools - and what these morons in Texas are doing is thumbing their collective moron noses at the concept of church/state separation and the constitutional mandate that prohibits government from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, just as equally as it prohibits the government from impeding the free exercise of religion.
And before some conservative knucklehead starts yammering about the evil federal government impeding the state of Texas' will to indoctrinate their children in the superstition of it's choice, let's keep in mind the FACT that there are plenty of private educational institutions and religious institutions where pious parents can send their offspring to be brainwashed in the religion of their choice to their heart's content. However in the public school arena, there are all manner of tax-paying, religious and non-religious belief families who have their children in the public school system. Please explain to The Gadfly what is so fair about having this captive audience of diverse religious or non-religious view children who are offered no choice other than to be taught the fundamentalist Christian version of history? Sounds just like something The Taliban would do doesn't it? Goddamn right it does.
It's your choice America -- you can allow these assholes to hijack your democracy and your religious freedom/freedom from religion, etc., or you can stand up and speak your mind. The Gadfly is doing his part - maybe the rest of y'all could step up and lend a hand huh? . . . .
----TFG
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