God and Texas

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/22/christianity-religion-texas-history-education

There's no doubt that history education needs a boost in Texas.

According to test results, one-third of students think the Magna Carta was signed by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and 40% believe Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation was made nearly 90 years earlier at the constitutional convention.

The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state's education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.

Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state's history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America's moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.

Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to "American exceptionalism" because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.

Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat in the Vietnam war were God's punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuals. Marshall recommended that children be taught about the "motivational role" of the Bible and Christianity in establishing the original colonies that later became the US.

Other states will be watching what happens in Texas carefully as the religious right campaign seeks new ways to insert God in to the classroom after the courts limited the extent to which creationist theories could intrude on the teaching of biology. But religion is not kept out of schools entirely. Many children recite the pledge of allegiance in class each morning which includes a reference to the US as "one nation under God".

The panel made other recommendations.

Barton, a former vice-chairman of the state's Republican party, said that Texas children should no longer be taught about democratic values but republican ones. "We don't pledge allegiance to the flag and the democracy for which it stands," he said.

 

[Shapecity]

Has anyone read the business week issue California vs. Texas?

 

[deception]

Has anyone read the business week issue California vs. Texas?

no, post it. nevertheless, this is a remarkable story, it highlights just how entrenched the religious right is in the decision making process.

 

[Shapecity]

no, post it. nevertheless, this is a remarkable story, it highlights just how entrenched the religious right is in the decision making process.

I haven't read it yet, just saw it the other day while I was waiting in line to pay for groceries. I'm not surprised at all by the religious right having an influence in Texas. Just visit the state one day and you'll feel like you're in a different country. It's a disturbing place no doubt.

 

[deception]

I haven't read it yet, just saw it the other day while I was waiting in line to pay for groceries. I'm not surprised at all by the religious right having an influence in Texas. Just visit the state one day and you'll feel like you're in a different country. It's a disturbing place no doubt.

with that in mind- in the vanity fair article about sarah palin, the writer comments about how alaska is a place where u can simultaneously be a meth head and a republican