If you're not from Texas, and you don't know that the SBOE not only directly influences Texas public school textbook choice, but indirectly influences that of most other states in the nation, you need to read this in-depth profile of the loony bin by the New York Times Magazine.
James Kracht, a professor at Texas A&M’s college of education and a longtime player in the state’s textbook process, told me flatly, “Texas governs 46 or 47 states.”
Yes, it is that powerful, and no, led by a former chairman, several board members are on a "Christian nation" kick right now.
Uhh, NO, Texas State Board of Education, the Founding Fathers were NOT Trinitarian Christians, for the most part.
That said, Russell Shorto does offer a nuanced article about the role of Christianity in American history. Is America sociologically a largely Christian nation? Certainly. But, it never was politically or legally a Christian nation, which is what the Don McLeroys of the SBOE in particular and Religious Right world in general try to claim.
At the same time, though, Shorto, even in a 10-webpage article, doesn't delve into how, on the sociological side, the Religious Right likes to conflate religious belief with morality. He also doesn't cite or interview someone like Garry Wills to refute the whole "reference by incorporation" that claims the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were on the same page. All one has to do is look at the issue of slavery, as did abolitionists, Abraham Lincoln and others (as Wills points out in his writings) to see how laughable this idea is.
So, I note this observation of his:
Ask Christian activists what they really want — what the goal is behind the effort to bring Christianity into American history — and they say they merely want “the truth.”
And, immediately think of Jack Nicholson's response to Tom Cruise in "A Few Good Men."
Beyond this, Shorto's piece is a good read for pointing out the generally ill-informed background, and lack of logical reasoning skills of the McLeroy faction of the SBOE. And, not just on church-state issues.
2 comments:
I'm going to stand up for Don McElroy, Gail Lowe, Ken Mercer, Teri Leo, Cynthia Dunbar, and Barbara Cargill. They have helped to wrest control of education away from the education establishment and put it back in the hands of parents and their representatives, where it should be. Finally, after generations of top down brainwashing from the education establishment, our children are being exposed to facts that were formally hidden or downplayed.
I think of my own experience in public education. I was lied to by my high school counselor, for one thing regarding my position on the SAT distribution curve. I remember the presentation of Jonathan Edwards' sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It was completely mischaracterized, and it didn't mention the effect of his sermons on the society in general at the time. We hear far too little of the positive benefits the Puritans gave to early American society.
You can't say the majority of our foundres weren't Trinitarian. True, Jefferson wasn't. Benjamin Franklin wasn't. But most of our founders were either Episcoplians or Congregationalists. They were certainly Trinitarian. Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics are all Trinitarian. There was no such thing as a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness during America's founding era. Joseph Smith didn't discover the golden plates until after America gained its independence. Those cults developed later.
Certainly, our founders were anti-Papists. They did not want the United States to become entangled in foreign wars with the blessings of the Pope and to achieve the Pope's agenda. Yet, you cannot deny that they looked for scriptural support to break with England. Sermons of the period dealt with the Romans 13 problem. They had to find a way around it. The Declaration of Independence is a recitation of the reasons for a "just war."
Perhaps you need to learn more about more of the founders.
True, Washington was an Episcopalean by church attendance. But, he NEVER stayed for Communion, because he was a Deist. Ditto, that John Adams was a Congregationalist, but one with many Deist leanings, at least.
Let's note that this is similar to today. You'll find a New Ager behind many a Methodist. AND, you'll find a Deist behind many a Baptist, if you ask the right questions about just what their metaphysical stances are as to how God acts in today's world. Pollster John Zogby notes this in his latest book.
Let's also note that the SBOE is either ignorant of, or overlooks that, Madison wanted to "federalize" the entire Constitution, including the First Amendment.
Finally, does either the SBOE or you know that, at the time of the Founders, in part because of distance, but also for purely religious, or non-religious, reasons, only about 10 percent of people went to church on a given Sunday?
(And, contra NRA propaganda, only about 10 percent of early Americans owned guns.)
And, as for "brainwashing" by the establishment, I suggest kids should be taught from "Lies Across America" or "Lies I was Taught in School" by James Loewen.
How many Texas kids know Helen Keller was active in the NAACP? Sent a letter to Lenin congratulating hi on the Revolution.
No, the "establishment" isn't what you may think it is.
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