Jesus prayer opens Texas textbook meeting

[foxfeet]

By David Waters
Friday's meeting of the Texas Board of Education, charged with revising the state's social studies curriculum, began with a Christian prayer on behalf of "a Christian land governed by Christian principles," a prayer made "in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

"I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the Spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses," board member Cynthia Dunbar said.

"I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it... "I like to believe that we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion and as long as we do so no great harm can come to our country."

The board is expected today to approve final revisions in the statewide curriculum, amending textbook standards to correct what conservative board members such as Dunbar view as hostility toward Christianity and traditional values.

And of course they are doing this by being as hostile as possible toward non-Christian and yet entirely American values.

Full article: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2010/05/jesus_prayer_opens_texas_textbook_meeting.html

[Solly Mack]

1. and I like to believe that as long as my entire body is under the covers

that I'm invisible to others - however....

[JBoy]

2. Thereby setting the tone for the open, objective discussion they were about to have.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. +1000

[glinda]

3. Their actions are the result of poor learning in History and other studies. This is obvious.

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, so true. None of them sound very well educated when they start supporting their position. n/t

[glinda]

6. ALL of them haven't a clue about the Constitution either. They just make it up.

[jemelanson]

4. Imagine what the Colleges or Universities that these children will

one day attend if they can get in will do with these skewed facts. What a good job of handicapping a future generation. Good Job Texas! Way to Go.

Isn't Texas still considering seceding from the USA?

[glinda]

7. That is a ploy. The goal is absolute Republican Extremist takeover 4-ever. They have laid

the ground work.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Theocracies can be broken, however. The question is how far will we let this one

entrench itself before it gets squashed like a bug? Unfortunately we are also fighting corporate and military front in this war, and the average person just continues to be dumbed down by the media and much of our purposely broken education system. Just what the RWers wanted.

[RKP5637]

11. Absolutely true! "and the average person just continues to be dumbed down by the media and

much of our purposely broken education system." I know people that don't even want to hear about anything... they are fools enough to think it's just going away. They are fodder for the RW. Being submissive means compliance.

[glinda]

13. Submission by "design". If you spend 99% of the time trying to survive, you are submissive. What

needs to happen for the sake of the Country is that all of these entities must be broken up. It is not enough to hope for the Dems to put laws into place as they are fighting way too big of opposition.
These entities must be broken up and more balance some how restored.

[RKP5637]

17. That's a very good point!!! n/t

[glinda]

12. Righties own the majority of the Media though.

[RKP5637]

19. And yet they scream the media is so liberal. This has become a ridiculous

place in my lifetime.

[glinda]

29. Te Progressives and Libs and Dems must start to organize and fight back more effectively.

[RKP5637]

18. Imagine this country with/if this ideology trying to participate with the rest of the world in the

21st century. These people want to regress the progress the US has made back a couple of hundred years. Already this country is not keeping up with the rest of the world in so many disciplines. What a bunch of ignoramuses.

Texas "should" secede from the USA, they're already off in their own world. I know a lot of good people do live in Texas, but you have to wonder where the state is headed.

It is deplorable for Texas educators to try to reverse/rewrite the progress/history of this country. I am also amazed any other states might submit to their flawed inane line of thinking and logic.

[high density]

22. I had a Baptist classmate in a college geology class

She took issue with the age of everything that was being discussed... I don't know why she was there.

[krabigirl]

9. They should secede but let the cool Texans out first :) or drive the crazies elsewhere.

[KamaAina]

27. Or at least let Austin become a sort of "West Berlin"

their brand, spanking-new airport could be the new Tempelhof.

[Initech]

14. Here's some good stuff I dug up on religion and fascism earlier:

Thanks to Octafish and his BFEE posts:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1547206&mesg_id=1580178

Really it doesn't surprise me in the least that these fuckers would pull something like that.

[RKP5637]

20. +1000 +++ n/t

[RKP5637]

21. Thanks for posting this!!! n/t

[TexasObserver]

15. The nuts took over the board of Education.

Even for Republicans, these people are fringe nuts.

[Sebastian Doyle]

16. Jesus responds to the Texas lunatics

[Initech]

25. And the next verse: "Jesus sayeth unto his disciples: Fuck it, I quit."

[tammywammy]

23. I hope this encourages people outside of Texas to send money this way to our dem candidates

:shrug:

[RandomThoughts]

24. It should also correct any hostility to any other group also.

And not just in teaching of history but in action. Their is a question, what is truth when looking at history. Should something that is truth be not taught because it points out some flaw in some system? Should things be taught that point out flaws in only some systems, while pointing out best in each system?

Couldn't history contain the better parts of many things in society?

Not sure what parts of history they emphasize or leave out. But I can think of some examples. When talking of Vietnam, they could talk about the valiant actions of soldiers serving in the best of their hearts for their country and brothers and family.

But actually both sides did that, just one side was more correct then the other. So wouldn't the whole question be finding what side has more correctness? And wouldn't that be trying to find the best parts of both sides of a discussion? And where each side had faults. So in that example truth can be a bit difficult, since in some situations in history, by lack of knowledge some did a little less then they could in action, but for the highest of ideals in intent and love.

Two groups can fight while both are correct, and both are wrong, and the fight is because of lack of knowing what is best, not because of lack of love. So education has to be part of things in life, including some tougher lessons.

So it comes back to trying the best to know what is right and wrong by thinking and feeling and discussing, even on topics disagreed with. But also knowing nobody knows for sure, so not discounting other thoughts, or judging oneself as always right, or another as wrong.

Is the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, knowing what is right and wrong, or presuming to be able to judge what is right and wrong? Where is the bad from? I think it is presuming to be able to judge another while still in a flawed state, or thinking oneself always correct, although I could be wrong on that. So making a history book would be tough, although I think it should hold many thoughts on many topics, from many views to get as close to truth as possible, but that is just my view.


So discussing viewpoints of other systems, would seem to be better then just a system a group thinks is correct by their own views, doing that assumes they know what is best. It seems what ends up best is when many people think and feel on topics with best information and the better intents.

[foxfeet]

26. You seem to overestimate the willingness of the Texas Board of Education

to entertain the notion that they (the wingnut faction) might possibly be wrong. You also underestimate the calculated nature of this process. Clearly, they are not engaged in a search for historical truth through discussion of many viewpoints. No sir-ree, they think they have sole possession of truth and this is one way to increase their ranks.

[DaveinJapan]

28. K&R for exposure. nt

[mitchum]

30. Bring on the lions