Bell Curve The Law Talking Guy Raised by Republicans U.S. West
Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

Friday, February 12, 2010

Ignorance instead of Education

Everyone should read this article and get scared, really scared, of the damage that fundamentalist Christians are trying to do to this country, and of the unholy alliance between fundamentalists and the GOP. This explains how the Texas state curriculum is largely set by a man who proudly proclaims he is a "Christian fundamentalist," that America is a Christian nation (not just in a demographic or cultural sense), and believes that the earth was created less than 10,000 years ago. Yes, that's right: the Republicans have put in charge of teaching kids a person who doesn't "believe" in biology or geology. This is why honest, decent people have got to get over the daily headlines and stop voting Republican for any reason. These people are just way too dangerous.

It's about time that decent people begin standing up to these fundamentalist Christians and telling them - and their Republican allies - that there is no religious privilege to choose to "believe" or "not believe" in reality. Believing in one's own special reality is called mental illness. It is a form of insanity, simply put, to decide you are not going to "believe" in biology, or geology, or to choose not to "believe" that the sky is blue, or choose to "believe" that (as Mormons do) the Indians are descended from the Israelites. Sanity requires accepting reality. Once something is proven to be demonstrably true or false, there is no privilege to "believe" otherwise. As the late Senator Moynihan used to say, you are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. Fundamentalist Christians don't get this. People who will construct and believe in their own private reality are too dangerous to allow in the public square. They need to be cast out.

Literally frothing at the mouth here. Serious froth.

4 comments:

Raised By Republicans said...

On an emotional level, LTG, I completely agree with you. But I genuinely fear a state that can decide who is and is not sufficiently realistic to participate in politics. While I would be OK with expelling the nuts you talk about, I'm confident that the next people cast out would be "communists" and groups like ACORN.

The state can't/shouldn't cast these people out. I'm afraid the only option left us is for reasonable Christians - like yourself - to stand up and say "these people are NOT normal. These people are NOT mainstream Christians." And I'm glad that you are using your space on this blog to do just that!

Raised By Republicans said...

LTG,

I didn't have a chance to read the entire article but I did look at some of it. One thing that struck me was the insistence by the Christian Fundamentalists that there be a single unifying theme to the discussion of American History. The pluralistic and complex version supposedly common in today's text books is probably quite accurate.

While they are right to point out that the charter of Connecticut mentions preserving the Gospel as a founding purpose for the Colony, what they leave out of their revisionist view is that the founders of Connecticut were preserving the Gospel from what they saw as a threat from rival sects of Puritans in Massachusetts.

While the fundies are right that many of the Founders were religious what they leave out is that some of the most famous ones (Madison and Jefferson for example) were either vaguely spiritual Deists rather than Christians and/or openly hostile to organized religion. They also leave out that among the Founders who were members of institutionalized Christian churches, there was a plethera of sects represented.

What they want to do is rewrite American history in a way that makes American heritage the exclusive inheritance of Evangelical Protestants that believe in biblical literalism. This is little more or less than a propaganda effort by a Christo-fascist group of far right whack jobs.

The Law Talking Guy said...

It's not the state that will bar these nutjobs, it's the electorate that must refuse to elect and support them.

The Law Talking Guy said...

It's not the state that will bar these nutjobs, it's the electorate that must refuse to elect and support them.