Activate the Mechanism!

Creationism spreading in 300 schools, thanks to vouchers

by Zack Kopplin

(MSNBC) - I first began investigating creationist school vouchers as my part of my fight against creationism in my home state of Louisiana. Over the past few months, I’ve learned creationist vouchers aren’t just a Louisiana problem—they’re an American problem. School vouchers are, as James Gill recently wrote in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “the answer to a creationist’s prayer.”

Liberty Christian School, in Anderson, Indiana, has field trips to the Creation Museum and students learn from the creationist A Beka curriculum. Kingsway Christian School, in Avon, Indiana, also has Creation Museum field trips. Mansfield Christian School, in Ohio, teaches science through the creationist Answers in Genesis website, run by the founder of the Creation Museum. The school’s Philosophy of Science page says, “the literal view of creation is foundational to a Biblical World View.”  All three of these schools, and more than 300 schools like them, are receiving taxpayer money.

So far, I have documented 310 schools, in nine states and the District of Columbia that are teaching creationism, and receiving tens of millions of dollars in public money through school voucher programs.

There is no doubt that there are hundreds more creationist voucher schools that have yet to be identified. The more than 300 schools I have already found are those that have publicly stated on their websites that they teach creationism or use creationist curricula.

There are hundreds more voucher schools, across the country, that are self-identified Christian academies, that appear very similar in philosophy to the ones I’ve identified in my research as teaching creationism. These schools may not blatantly advertise that they teach creationism on their websites, or often don’t even have a website, but there is a good chance that hundreds more voucher schools are also teaching our children creationism. Some states, Arizona and Mississippi, haven’t even released lists of schools participating in their voucher programs for the public to audit.

Here are a few highlights from creationist voucher schools I have identified:

• The Beverly Institute in Jacksonville, Florida, teaches “Evidence of a Flood,” and “Evidence against Evolution,” and ”The Evolution of Man: A Mistaken Belief.”
• Creekside Christian Academy in McDonough, Georgia says,“The universe, a direct creation of God, refutes the man-made idea of evolution. Students will be called upon to see the divine order of creation and its implications on other subject areas.
• Life Christian Academy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma says their life science class will “lead the student to recognize that God created all living things and that these living things are fearfully and wonderfully made.” Evolution is taught only in history class, where students “evaluate the theory of evolution and its flaws.” The school uses the creationist Bob Jones and CSI curriculums.
• The principal of the Claiborne Christian School, in West Monroe, Louisiana, says in a school newsletter, “Our position at CCS on the age of the Earth and other issues is that any theory that goes against God’s Word is in error.” She also claims that scientists are “sinful men” trying to explain the world “without God” so they don’t have to be “morally accountable to Him.”
• Trinity Academy, in Gary, uses the creationist A Beka curriculum and says it “presents the universe as the direct creation of God and refutes the man-made idea of evolution.”
• Rocky Bayou Christian School, in Niceville, Florida, says in its section on educational philosophy, “God mandates that children be discipled for Christ. They must be trained in the biblical world view which honors Jehovah, the sovereign Creator of the universe. It recognizes that man was created in the image of God” and says “Man is presumed to be an evolutionary being shaped by matter, energy, and chance… God commands His people not to teach their children the way of the heathen.”
• Wisconsin Lutheran High School, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, says in its biology syllabus that it teaches, “evolutionists are ‘stuck’ because they have no god, therefore they must believe in evolution” and “young earth evidence a disaster to evolutionists.”

This year, we may see even more creationist school vouchers. Both Tennessee and Texas are considering passing voucher programs. Indiana and Georgia may expand their programs.

Advocates for vouchers argue that private schools and more competition would offer a better education for American students.  Schools that teach creationism and do not meet basic science standards will fail our students and do not deserve taxpayer funding.

We must to speak out to prevent funding these creationist schools with our public money. We must speak out and end these existing creationist voucher programs. As Americans, we must do the right thing and teach our students evidence-based science.

Zack Kopplin is a 19-year-old student at Rice University, and one of the leading American voices against the teaching of creationism in schools. He was featured as an MHP Foot Soldier last March, and profiled at length this week by io9.

source

This infuriates me to no end. Not only the fact that taxpayer funds are being used to teach a religious belief in violation of the first amendment, but also because this particular religious belief is being taught as “science”.

Creationism IS NOT science. Creationism is religion posing as science.

Louisiana Governor’s Voucher Program, Which Would Send $11,000,000 to Creationism-Endorsing Schools, Ruled Unconstitutional

Back in July, we learned that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal passed a voucher plan that would give more than $11,000,000 of taxpayer money to private schools that teach Creationism. Their curriculums obviously wouldn’t meet the state’s science standards. You can read some of the curriculum excerpts from these schools here.

There’s finally some good news to report on the matter.

On Friday, State District Judge Tim Kelley ruled that Jindal’s voucher program was unconstitutional:

While the court does not dispute the serious nature of these proceedings nor the impact and potential effects on Louisiana’s educational systems, vital public dollars raised and allocated for public schools through the [Minimum Foundation Program] cannot be lawfully diverted to nonpublic schools or entities.

The downside to that ruling is that it doesn’t say the program is unconstitutional because it uses taxpayer money to promote religious garbage. The judge says it’s unconstitutional because the program through which these schools are getting the funding is intended only for public schools.

Still, the effect would be the same; Creationism-teaching schools would lose out on public money.

Not surprisingly, Jindal isn’t happy about it… it hurts his image with his Christian base:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who had championed the program, called the ruling “wrong-headed” and “a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education.”

Jindal, a Republican, vowed to appeal.

…

About 5,000 students are currently receiving the vouchers, which cover tuition and fees at scores of private and parochial schools, including some small church-based schools that infuse all their classes with Biblical references and do not teach subjects such as evolution.

Note to Jindal: Parents across Louisiana already have the opportunity to give their students a great education. Stop trashing your state’s public schools. They would get even better if you weren’t taking funding intended for them and using it to promote your illegal pet projects.

National School Boards Association President C. Ed Massey agrees:

“It is clear this law was not created with the best interest of all children in mind; insteadit promotes a narrow political agenda and will harm community public schools that serve the best interest of all children,” Massey said. “It also deprives the public schools of valuable resources that are necessary to carry out the mandate to provide a free and appropriate public education.”

(via Joe. My. God.)

source

Cognitive Dissonance: On the First Amendment and its purpose

cognitivedissonance:

Rebloggable by request:

 Anonymous:

Been wrestling with this for a while, and realized you seemed like a good person to ask. What are you thoughts on what distinguishes free speech from verbal harassment? Is it because what free speech protects is expression for the purpose of conveying perceived truth, and harassment is not about expression but assault or intent to harm another person? It gets so damn murky.

Meg at Cognitive Dissonance:

It depends. I hate to say it, but it really does. Is it a “true threat” or simply annoying? A general threat or specific one? I’m going to turn to the First Amendment Center for this one.

First, here’s speech not protected by the First Amendment:

• Obscenity
• Fighting words
• Defamation (includes libel, slander)
• Child pornography
• Perjury
• Blackmail
• Incitement to imminent lawless action
• True threats
• Solicitations to commit crimes

For example:

What’s the First Amendment issue with legislation against cyberstalking?

It has to do with distinguishing between protected freedom of speech and speech that is not protected. Most of the new laws passed by states require that, for online communications to be considered “stalking,” they must constitute harassment of a person that places the person in reasonable fear for his or her safety. Courts have upheld stalking legislation that deals with threats because the First Amendment does not protect true threats. But some of the measures go beyond punishing true threats and proscribe “annoying” speech.

Here’s a few scenarios I have dealt with as a radio DJ and an activist.

First, here’s a threat. Working as a DJ in Northern Wyoming, I had a man email me very specific threats about what he wanted to do to me and he included my license plate number and my home address. He claimed he’d fallen in love with my voice, and if I didn’t love him back, all these things would happen. He was arrested and jailed. Why? Because he made specific threats and indicated he could, and would, carry them out. 

Now as an activist: I had a conservative dude email me and tell me he hoped I got punched in my mouth for being a fucking liberal cunt, among other general insults/threats. Because they were general and vague, there was nothing that the police could do, even though the guy lived in Laramie. This happens often — the general insults/threats. I just quit giving a fuck. Truly.

Now, a grey area: Broadcasting one night in Laramie, a guy called in drunk and said he was sick of my politics, I should play music, or I was going to get my ass beat. I asked, “By you?” and he slurred, “Yeah.” His number was on the Caller ID and I called the police. I gave them his name and number, and they went and talked to him. Evidently, he was in his sixties, and so drunk that he could barely stand — much less leave his house — and was pretty apologetic once the cops showed up. They chose not to charge him, and I declined to press charges when asked. He really wasn’t a threat and he’s never called back.

The First Amendment has nothing to do with truth. It’s noble, but not that noble. If “expression of truth” were the case, the Westboro Baptist cultists would not have won their case before the U.S. Supreme Court and every pundit that spewed bullshit could be charged with a crime. Here’s a great summary of why the First Amendment exists.

So yes, in conclusion, it is pretty damn murky.

Cheers,

Meg

Louisiana State Rep pulls support for school vouchers after realizing it can fund private schools for Muslims as well as Christians.

Louisiana State Rep. Valarie Hodges used to be a big fan of school vouchers. “I liked the idea,” she explained, “of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school.”

Then last month Hodges got a First Amendment reality check when she discovered that Christian schools wouldn’t be the only religious schools getting tax dollars.

“Unfortunately, it (vouchers) will not be limited to the Founders’ religion,” she said. “We need to ensure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”

Although Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher plan passed last month without her support, Hodges vowed to keep looking for alternative ways to “support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools.”

Beyond the fact that some of the Founders were not Christian, Rep. Hodges appears confused — to put it mildly — about the implications of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom for all, including American Muslims.

She is not alone.

Last week, state Sen. Kevin Grantham of Colorado worried out loud about the proliferation of mosques in America. Fresh from hearing an anti-mosque speech by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders (outspoken opponent of all things Islamic), Grantham said that “mosques are not churches like we would think of churches.”

In an apparent attempt to remove mosques from the First Amendment protection afforded Christian churches, Grantham claimed that Muslims “think of mosques as a foothold into a society, as a foothold into a community, more in the cultural and in the nationalistic sense. Our churches — we don’t feel that way, they’re places of worship, and mosques are simply not that.”

Beyond the fact that mosques are indeed places of worship, Sen. Grantham also appears confused about the meaning of religious freedom in America.

read more

Police arrest NBC reporters for reporting in public place, claiming your rights can be terminated if you are creating a scene or whatever

“Your First Amendment rights can be terminated,” yells the Chicago police officer, caught on video right before arresting two journalists outside a Chicago hospital.  One, an NBC News photographer, was led away in handcuffs essentially for taking pictures in a public place.  He was released only minutes later, but the damage was done. Chicago cops suffered an embarrassing “caught on tape” moment, and civil rights experts who say cops are unfairly cracking down on citizens with cameras had their iconic moment.

read more and watch the video

US Rep Walter Jones (R-NC) introduces bill that would allow churches to engage “in partisan politicking,” such as endorsing candidates from the pulpit, “without losing their tax-exempt status”

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) appeared today on Truth that Transforms, the flagship radio program of Truth in Action Ministries, to push his Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which the Interfaith Alliance notes would allow houses of worship to engage “in partisan politicking,” such as endorsing candidates from the pulpit, “without losing their tax-exempt status.” Truth in Action Ministries recently produced a film likening the rule to Nazism, and Jones told host John Rabe that the tax provision is like “communism” and “socialism.”

The congressman also conflated the risk of forfeiting tax-exempt status with losing civil rights, saying that the IRS has eroded the “freedom of speech” in the U.S.  Jones also said that unlike liberals, “those on the conservative side believe in freedom of speech and therefore they’re not reporting anyone.”

The last church to have lost its tax-exempt status was Randall Terry’s church which took out an advertisement opposing the election of Bill Clinton in 1992.

read more (including transcripts and audio)

After reading a late-night news story online about him that he perceived to be inaccurate, Berkeley Police Chief ordered a sergeant to a reporter’s home insisting on changes, a move First Amendment experts said reeked of intimidation and attempted censorship

Meehans’s actions were “despicable, totally despicable,” said Jim Ewert, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publisher’s Association. “It’s the most intimidating type of (censorship) possible because the person trying to exercise it carries a gun.”

Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley said he was shaken by the 12:45 a.m. Friday knock on the door of his Berkeley home. He said at first he and his wife thought something was drastically wrong or perhaps that a relative had died.

read more

Evangelical Christian attends high school football game, has to sit through an evocation by a Buddhist priest, realizes what the First Amendment is all about.

On my travels across the internet, I came across this post on World Net Daily from 2005 written by an Evangelical Christian, entitled, “why I’m against pre-game prayers”.

The long and the short of the post is this; while serving in the military, he was living at Wheeler Air Force Base, located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, just outside of the small pineapple farming town of Wahiawa.

Here, followers of his faith were in the minority, and the population was mostly of Japanese and Chinese ancestry, instead of there being several christian churches as there would in small towns on the mainland, there were several Shinto or Buddhist shrines.

Upon attending his first game at Wahiawa High School with the youths he was working with, an announcement came over the PA to stand for a pre-game invocation, then became very uncomfortable when the evocation was by a Buddhist priest. 

In his own words his reaction was:

We were frozen in shock and incredulity! What to do? To continue to stand and observe this prayer would represent a betrayal of our own faith and imply the honoring of a pagan deity that was anathema to our beliefs. To sit would be an act of extreme rudeness and disrespect in the eyes of our Japanese hosts and neighbors, who value above all other things deference and respect in their social interactions. I am sorry to say that in the confusion of the moment we chose the easier path and elected to continue to stand in silence so as not to create a scene or ill will among those who were seated nearby.

This is how students that are not of the christian faith feel when publically lead prayer of a christian nature is held at school events.
 
I’ve often tried to emphasize that the section of the First Amendment to Constitution of the United States of America is not only there to protect the government from religion, but also to protect religion from the government.
 
All the yelling and screaming about publicly lead prayer not being allowed in public schools never seems to address this. The people advocating this never think about this, again, in the author’s own words:

I would say in love to my Christian brothers and sisters, before you yearn for the imposition of prayer and similar rituals in your public schools, you might consider attending a football game at Wahiawa High School. Because unless you’re ready to endure the unwilling exposure of yourself and your children to those beliefs and practices that your own faith forswears, you have no right to insist that others sit in silence and complicity while you do the same to them. I, for one, slept better at night knowing that because Judeo-Christian prayers were not being offered at my children’s schools, I didn’t have to worry about them being confronted with Buddhist, Shinto, Wiccan, Satanic or any other prayer ritual I might find offensive.

Jesus or Jail…

Behind Bars Or In The Pews?: Alabama Town Tells Offenders To Find Jesus Or Go To Jail

By Rob Boston - from the official blog of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Last week, I wrote about an unfortunate federal appeals court ruling that had the effect of forcing a drug offender in Idaho to choose between staying in jail or living in a halfway house run by fundamentalist Christians of the Pentecostal variety – a faith the woman did not share.

That was bad enough. Now a small city in Alabama has just taken things one step further. It plans to actually establish a “jail or Jesus” program. Under the so-called “Operation Restore Our Community” program, low-level offenders in Bay Minette will have a choice: pay fines and go to jail or agree to attend a church every week for one year. If they choose church, their records will be cleared after twelve months.

[FULL STORY]

Violate the First Amendment much?

Court Rules Republicans Who Confiscate Cameras At Town Halls Are Violating 1st Amendment

By Jason Easley politicususa.com

According to a recent Federal Appeals court ruling, Republican members of Congress who confiscate citizens’ cell phones or cameras and do not allow filming at town halls are violating their constituents First Amendment rights.

One of the ways that unpopular House Republicans have been trying to dodge the wrath of their angry constituents during the August recess is to not allow filming at their town halls. Last week, Rep. Steve Chabot of Ohio directed on duty police officers to confiscate the cameras of citizens who tried to film his responses at a recent town hall. Chabot justified this behavior as necessary for the protection of his constituents, but a Federal Court ruling on Friday makes it clear that the Republicans who engaging in this behavior are violating the First Amendment rights of their constituents.

[FULL STORY]

[WARNING] This post contains rage and dirty words and Louisiana.

Louisiana.

What the fuck man, I mean really, what the ACTUAL fuck.

In justification for his bill that puts a monument of the 10 commandments on display at the Louisiana state capital, Patrick Williams said “The significance is historical, our laws are based on the Ten Commandments. In fact, without them, a lot of our laws would not exist.”

Wait a fucking second here. Are you FUCKING kidding me. 

First of all -

The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense founded on the Christian religion

- article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli

Second of all, lets look at the 10 commandments:

• I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

• You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

• You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

• Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

• Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

• You shall not murder.

• You shall not commit adultery.

• You shall not steal.

• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

• You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

Okay, so, are we talking about US law or Louisiana law? Or are we fucking talking about people saying bullshit that falls the fuck apart as soon as you actually put some thought to it?

So, let’s look at the first commandment, it says not to have any other gods before god, last time I checked this wasn’t a law at any federal or state level.

The second commandment… What’s that? God’s jealous and doesn’t want you bowing down to carved images or worshiping them. Please point me to a state or federal law about this. Furthermore, you are breaking this commandment every time you bow down and pray in front of an image of Jesus or the Virgin Mary… just sayin’.

Commandment 3, god damn motherfucking son of a BITCH. Like GOD DAMN!!!! - shit, I hope I don’t get in trouble for breaking that law!!!!

At number 4 we have keeping the Sabbath day holy, fuck, someone better tell all the people who work in the service industry that they’re breaking the law, I’m going to have a looooong talk with Walmart.

Okay, moving on, let’s look at commandment 5, shit, you mean I could go to jail for not honoring my mother or father? Shit, I haven’t talked to my father in 15 years, the guy’s an asshole, I better hide from the police.

Commandment number 6 - Thou shall not murder, okay, we’re half way in and we’ve finally found something that is actually a law!!! Fuck dude, all glory to god for telling me that killing people isn’t cool. There is no way I would have figured that out on my own, nor would have countless other societies or cultures that aren’t Christian or don’t have laws based on Christian doctrine.

Commandment number - 7 - Thou shall not steal. Thank you god. I know how happy I am and how awesome it is when people steal my shit, I thought it was totally okay, and every other culture in the would did too, thank you for setting that straight.

Number 8 - You shall not commit adultery, okay, I actually wasn’t real clear on the laws concerning cheating on your spouse, so I did some fact checking (see, this is what you do when you don’t know the answer to something, you look it up and don’t make up speculative bullshit) - here is what I found concerning adultery in the US:

In the United States, laws vary from state to state. In those states where adultery is still on the statute book (although rarely prosecuted), penalties vary from life sentence (Michigan), to a fine of $10 (Maryland), to a Class I felony (Wisconsin). In the U.S. Military, adultery is a potential court-martial offense. The enforceability of adultery laws in the United States is unclear following Supreme Court decisions since 1965 relating to privacy and sexual intimacy of consenting adults.However, occasional prosecutions do occur.

So, I’ll kind of give you guys that one, but only kind of, but then again, I just did some more fact checking, and it seems adultery isn’t illegal in Louisiana, it is grounds for a divorce, but you can’t be arrested for it (as is the case, it seems, in most of the rest of the US).

Coming in at number nine we have “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”. Okay, this can be interpenetrated a few different ways, but from what I understand by reading about it, it says you shouldn’t slander, lie, perjure yourself, “spread false reports” - it’s kind of ambiguous, but I think I should get in touch with every fucking politician ever, and anyone else I can think of that lies their ass off and let them know they are breaking the law.

While there are slander and perjury laws, laws like these have been around in one form or another (for example Roman law) before Christianity was.

Lastly, we have commandment #10, Fuck. I didn’t know I could go to jail because I think my neighbor had a hot wife or I wish I had a Dodge Viper too, that arrogant fuck.

If you want to put religions bullshit on government property, I think a much better option would be Jupiter, since a lot of western law is based off of what the Romans came up with.

So, Mr. Patrick Williams, please, kindly fuck off and get your facts straight.