The Religious Right taking over public schools

[AnnieC 305]

Ahem

http://www.alternet.org/visions/154435/ ... ic_schools

This is why I plan to homeschool. This.

[LadyBlue]

Link doesn't work for me

[debrand]

The religious right's big break was a 2001 Supreme Court case, The Good News Club v. Milford Central School, which unleashed a new wave of school evangelization. This decision essentially told schools they could not say no to church groups that wanted to use their facilities for after-school gatherings. Stewart describes “the new legal juggernaut of the Christian Right†—an army of legal advocacy groups, including the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Liberty Counsel, and others — that raise hundred of millions of dollars each year for the common goal of injecting stealth evangelism into public schools. They’ve spent the last 10 years figuring out how to use this decision as a wedge to maximize church control over school curricula, personnel and even the physical campus.

Luckily, the link works for me. Allowing groups to use the school after hours seems innocent. Honestly, I would have been one of those who thought, what's the harm?

But the Supreme Court decision made it legal to bring these classes right into the schools; and the volunteers who teach them typically also volunteer as classroom aides, which gives them a mantle of school authority. To a primary-aged child, it looks as though this indoctrination is simply a part of the school curriculum.

and

Stewart explains how CEF has used this access to teach children to conduct “student-initiated†ideological warfare in school. Public schools are forced to distribute the club’s media and announcements to all students, and to allow tables with media at all kinds of school events. These tables are typically laden with balloons and sweets in order to draw kids in.The coercion extends from the playground to the classroom, so there’s nowhere non-evangelical kids can go to avoid classmates who are insisting — with support from adult aides — that they’re doomed to hell unless they join the club.

Can you imagine if Buddhists, Wiccans or Atheists did something similar? The group would flayed on Fox News. The problem is that a lot of evangelicals do not believe that there are any moral limits on how they should prostelyze. They would be outraged if the same methods were practiced on their kids.

[debrand]

Staver makes it clear that he’s on a war footing. Stewart quotes his keynote address: “If you want to ultimately take over the world, how are you going to do it when you have limited time and limited resources?...The best way to do it, and anyone who studies warfare [knows] you focus on the most strategic part of the human chain link...You focus on youth.â€

Sorry for a second post. I am reading the article while I type and I keep finding interesting tidbits. This statement is frightening. This war imagery gives those on the right justification for using underhanded methods to win their make believe war.

If the upshot of this infiltration is that the community turns its back on the school, that’s considered a bonus.

After all, many CEF teachers and supporters don’t send their kids to public schools anyway. They prefer to send their own kids to Christian academies, or homeschool them — even while they’re devoting many hours each week to infiltrating and undermining their local public schools.

[BayLee_10]

OK, NOW I am a conspiracy theorist, it started with the article linking Palin with Gothard, which doesn't surprise me. What surprises me is that I never thought of that. Let's see a religious wingnut who comes out of No Where, Alaska popping up to be vice presidential material. And now we'll have 'Good News' classes right in the elementary schools our taxes support. Either saner minds will have to organize and combat this, or face the consequences. As for me I am old and tired and already lived through the 60's and 70's.