What Texan Creationists Can Us

In the future, it’s likely that your children will learn about Phyllis Schlafly over Edward Kennedy, read that global warming and evolution are basically fallible guesses and hear a revised version of history that diminishes the efforts of minority groups.

And it’s all because of a few evangelicals in Texas.

The Texas Board of education has been pushing a far-right, conservative agenda in Texas textbooks which is aimed at countering the perceived (read: imaginary) liberal propaganda in students’ curriculum. Lest you think that this only affects the Lone Star State, Texas is a behemoth in textbook distribution as well as national test standards, which means that what we do in Texas certainly doesn’t stay in Texas. So when your kids, nieces, nephews and younger siblings formulate their opinions through social studies and science, they will be reading it through the cross-colored glasses of the Texas Board of Education.

When you think about it, infiltrating a board of education was quite ingenious. A few religious extremists took aim at the right place, in the right time and wielded a frightening amount of power. Now, why didn’t we, the gay community, think of that?

There are many lessons to be learned from this conservative politicking in America’s schools. But the greatest takeaway is that our cause can sometimes be advanced more effectively by whispering on a local level rather than yelling on a national one. Due to the knee-jerk reactions of most conservatives when any person, issue or piece of legislation comes within a ten-foot radius of gaydom, it’s difficult to win even the smallest victory on a widespread level without a fight.

More at: Gay Rights – Change.org!

In Kentucky, Jesus Rode Dinosaurs Around While Hating Gays

Oh those crazy Religious Right zealots…you know, the Sarah Palin type who believe you can “pray away the gay” and also believe that Jesus rode around on dinosaurs.

Well, in Kentucky, they’ve opened a “creationism” museum that even claims that Noah brought dinosaurs with him on his ark…now that would be some boat.  How big is a zoo?  And you can fit two of every animal on a boat, built by a guy that didn’t even have power tools?  Oh the power of miracles!

Anyway, there is a great post about this over at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  Here’s an excerpt:

Washington, D.C., is a great city. In addition to all of the wonderful historical and political landmarks, there are a ton of tourist attractions: we have the Spy Museum, the Museum of Crime and Punishment and our very own Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.

Northern Kentucky, however, may have us beat. Petersburg is the home of the nation’s largest Creation Museum.

Since its grand opening in 2007, 750,000 people have passed through its doors to be welcomed by an animatronics display of a young girl feeding a carrot to a squirrel as two dinosaurs stand behind her looking on.

So, in these times, when we all get frustrated with the lies, mis-information and hate for the LGBT community that is so widely spread by the Religious Right, it’s great to have a laugh ever now and then, and this, this is funny!

This is a Time for Recovery from the Right

Recovery is the word of the moment: economic recovery from a runaway market capitalism, social recovery from the right-wing agenda to pick and choose who has civil rights, and moral recovery from the kind of blind self-righteousness that can convince itself that torture isn’t torture but “enhanced techniques.” Speaking personally, I think recovery from the temptation to punish the outgoing administration will be the most important healing we can all do together.

This above is an excerpt from an article written by Deepak Chopra and posted on SFGate, entitled “A Defeated President is Not a Defeated Nation”.

I too, feel very strongly, as the worst President in the history of our nation leaves office, it is time to start the healing process.  This nation, which was founded on separation of church and state, has gone through a metamorphasis over the past 8 years as Bush not only allowed, but advocated for government backed faith-based programs which targeted, excluded and oppressed groups of people in the country (especially the LGBT community).  In a country where all are suppose to be equal, the LGBT community has endured taxation without representation, second class citizenship, as well as a war against our attempts at gaining equality.  President Bush led the Religious Right on a crusade, in an attempt to change the U.S. constitution which would ban liberties to LGBT people that the rest of the countries citizens take for granted.

Over the past 8 years we have endured a great deal of rhetoric from the those on the Right as to how God disapproves of homosexuals and homosexual agenda is ruining the moral fabric of our nation.  This, while those from the Religious Right lied in a federal court of law as they attempted to replace Darwin’s theory of evolution with creationism by masking it as Intelligent Design.

We have seen time and time again, the Religious Right gain power through the use fear and hate in an attempt to control a nation based on religious freedoms.

Today we can start to breath once more.  Today we can re-ignite our hope that one day, we too shall be equal and first-class citizens of this great nation.  Today we can start to heal.  Today we can start to work, and work hard, to insure a better tomorrow for everyone!

Texas State School Board Valuing Creationist Ideas

From AU.org (American’s United for Separation of Church & State):

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today urged the Texas State Board of Education to stick to sound science and reject creationist concepts when revising its science standards.

The state school board is currently examining the science curriculum, which is reviewed and updated every 10 years. The Seattle-based Discovery Institute and other Religious Right forces are seeking to include loopholes that undermine instruction about evolution and open the door to creationist ideas.

Scientists, teachers, mainstream religious leaders and civil liberties activists want to improve the Texas standards to ensure that the public school classroom does not become a vehicle for religious indoctrination.

“Public schools should educate, not indoctrinate,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The Religious Right is exploiting Texas public schools to push a narrow viewpoint and in the process is doing a great disservice to its students, not to mention undermining the mandates of our Constitution.”

The battle in Texas is focused on Religious Right-backed language currently in the standards that requires schools to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution. That wording, experts say, is an invitation to introduce creationist concepts based on fundamentalist religion, not science.

“Let’s just hope members of the Texas school board recognize the ‘strengths and weaknesses’ language for what it is,” Lynn concluded. “If they don’t, they could be inviting public school districts to face some costly litigation.”

Christians Smuggle Creationism into Public Classrooms

According to an article posted on alternet.org:

In the 21 years Patsye Peebles taught biology in Louisiana public schools, she never received one complaint from parents for teaching evolution.

“The bottom line is that I never questioned their faith,” she said.

Whenever she had a student who brought up creationism, she always made it clear that science is science, and religion is religion.

“I wanted them to understand,” Peebles said, “that science has to be testable and proven with evidence.”

Whether they agreed with evolution or not, Peebles wanted her students to become what she calls “biologically literate citizens.” Now she worries that a new Louisiana law, which would encourage teachers to question evolution, will push the state’s education backward.

Read the rest on Alternet.org.