In Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal has ensured that the state will pay to have Christian children taught lies and bigotry through conservative, evangelical Christian education courses. Jindal is using vouchers to achieve this and it would be an incredible scandal if the national media cared about this sort of thing.
Bobby Jindal, 2011
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Some of the religious schools that will receive state funding are surely doing a decent job, but others definitely aren't because they will be using texts from the Christian fundamentalist A Beka Book, Bob Jones University Press, and Accelerated Christian Education curriculum. This curriculum is a travesty of lies and deceit.
It's not just that extremist schools teaching lies will get state funding, which is bad enough, but that the funding comes at the expense of public schools. In Louisiana, it looks like the money available for public schools will be cut in half. This will prevent them from doing their job... and how much do you want to bet that this will be used as an excuse to divert even more money to religious schools as a "superior" alternative to "failing" public schools.
One of the schools cleared to receive substantial new funding through LA governor Bobby Jindal's voucher program is Eternity Christian Academy, in Westlake, LA, which according to Independent Weekly writer Walter Pierce, "...has been approved to accept 135 new students."
"That's a considerable uptick in enrollment, which at the end of this school year stood at 38 -- a more than 300 percent increase. Talk about buttressing the budget; $1 million in tax dollars will be diverted from the public school system to Eternity Christian, a school that, according to its mission statement, offers "a quality faith-based curriculum that is soley [sic] based on principles from the Bible ..."
Source: Alternet
Some lies taught by Accelerated Christian Education:
- Science Proves Homosexuality is a Learned Behavior
- The Second Law of Thermodynamics Disproves Evolution
- No Transitional Fossils Exist
- Humans and Dinosaurs Co-Existed
- Evolution Has Been Disproved
- A Japanese Whaling Boat Found a Dinosaur
- Solar Fusion is a Myth
And this is what Christian children are taught when they use textbooks from Bob Jones:
- Only ten percent of Africans can read or write, because Christian mission schools have been shut down by communists.
- "the [Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross... In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."
- "God used the 'Trail of Tears' to bring many Indians to Christ."
- It "cannot be shown scientifically that that man-made pollutants will one day drastically reduce the depth of the atmosphere's ozone layer."
- "God has provided certain 'checks and balances' in creation to prevent many of the global upsets that have been predicted by environmentalists."
- the Great Depression was exaggerated by propagandists, including John Steinbeck, to advance a socialist agenda.
- "Unions have always been plagued by socialists and anarchists who use laborers to destroy the free-enterprise system that hardworking Americans have created."
- Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential win was due to an imaginary economic crisis created by the media.
- "The greatest struggle of all time, the Battle of Armageddon, will occur in the Middle East when Christ returns to set up his kingdom on earth."
Do Christian parents have a right to teach their kids this sort of nonsense or to pay others to teach their kids this sort of nonsense? Absolutely. Part of me wishes that they didn't, but I can't deny that they have a right to do it.
Should the state and taxpayers be paying for Christian parents to teach this sort of nonsense to their kids? Absolutely not. There's no excuse or justification for it -- it's bad enough that parents and Christian leaders are teaching kids this sort of thing, but it can't be allowed to happen with state funding.
It’s hard to imagine that in the Twenty-first Century this kind of right-wing rot can be tought in schools with public money. This is nothing more than child abuse. Every child has a right to the best education posssible. This means growing up with at least a basic knowledge of the facts about the real world and how we obtained this knowledge. Perhaps even more important, students should be well grounded in the skill of critical thinking.
I realize that the last thing conservative, evangelical Christian leaders and right-wing politicians would want taught in their schools is critical thinking. These two groups depend on each other for support. The evangelicals convince their congregations that God’s wrath will be unleashed upon them if they vote for any liberal candidates. In return, right-wing politicians promise to support legislation that these Christian leaders want. The skill of critical thinking would enable the parishioners to see through the religious and political ideologies promoted by both of these special interest groups. Hopefully, this insight would prevent otherwise unelectable politicians from ever wreaking havoc with our social and scientific communities.
I remember George W. Bush admitting after his election that he was victorious because of evangelical support and he owed them a lot of political cash. We all know what his political debt did for America.
Michael
Wha… Wha… What?!
As a budding scientist, I am severely disturbed by their misunderstanding of simple physics.
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics doesn’t apply, because we don’t live in a closed system – external energy from the sun is constantly raining down upon the earth.
And how can they say solar fusion is a myth? Solar fusion is an amazing concept, and artificial fusion may be the future of energy production. If only we can make it self-sustaining. Which it isn’t at the moment. =(
But still. I am stricken speechless by this idiocy. I refuse to believe that they could have an understanding of these things, and refuse them, thus the only option is that they refuse to understand, or are such idiots that they don’t see clear logic.
IT’S SCIENCE PEOPLE. IT MAKES MORE SENSE THAN MUTTERING TO THE AIR, LOOKING FOR ANSWERS.
I just get worked up about this kind of incompetence in the human race.
Can I move planets? Please? Anyone?
SO glad I don’t live in America.
I agree with you Ashby, the ignorance of these God botherers is astounding. Mind you if you can swallow the: “God loves us, so he sacrifices his son who is part of him to himself- though not really because he springs back to life – so that we can be saved from eternal punishment because we were created imperfect by him (God) in the first place” thing then you brain is sufficiently softened up so that any rational argument just passes through without resistance.
Keep up you studies Ashby, your are an inspiration to us all.
These teachings line up very well if one is convinced the only accurate understanding of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament writings is a literalist viewpoint. Otherwise, one must think.