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Failure to Teach Christianity in Public Schools is Mental Molestation
more from Hrafnkell Haraldsson
We’ve seen the disdain of Christian fundamentalists for science. They hate our education system. They hate higher education with a passion and hate public schools perhaps even more, to judge from the words of home school advocate Colin Gunn.
Gunn has made a propaganda film….er, excuse me….a documentary, “IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America,” in which he warns of our “totalitarian education system” and compares public schools to the Hitler Youth.
Right Wing Watch relates that Gunn thinks our public school system is sinful. And of course, he hates the teaching of evolution. I mean, if evolution is taught how will the GOP turn out more subpar thinkers like Todd Akin and Paul Broun? And who will believe their hateful swill if you educate everyone? For that matter, who will listen to Colin Gunn?
Right now there are enough dumb people to buy Gunn’s stuff, and I mean with actual money. You can go to Voice of Christian Youth America (VCY America) and listen or place your order, or load up on crazy goodies at Gunn’s website.
He did an interview on VCY’s show Crosstalk and said there that school busses were emblematic of our totalitarian education system. And here our Founding Fathers thought public education was emblematic of freedom. Who knew?
And here I thought they were big yellow vehicles that got our students to and from school. The ironic thing is, VCY America tells us, ” Colin and his family travel across America in an old yellow school bus exploring the origins and social impact of public school education.”
Ooops, I guess, huh?
Here is the trailer for the film:
IndoctriNation Trailer from IndoctriNation on Vimeo.
Or you can watch this interview Gunn gave on Alex Jones’ InfoWars early this year:
Both Alex Jones and Colin Gunn think the best way to combat declining grades in our schools is to keep the kids at home and teach them the Bible, and to avoid teaching them any science at all. In this they’re completely in lockstep with David Barton, who likes a book called “None Of These Diseases” by S.I. McMillen. McMillen, as Right Wing Watch relates, ”claims that everything we need to know about medicine and health care can be found in the Bible.”
Add to this what Paul Krugman calls Romney’s ”death by ideology”:
Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured.
I don’t know about you but as the father of a boy who would die without medical insurance to pay for his $5,000 per week dose of medicine, my pucker factor shot through the roof. I may not be able to shit for a week. Be afraid, America. Be very afraid.
The guy who interviewed Gunn for VCY America, Vic Eliason, isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree either, which as the Nazis he likes to talk about proved, doesn’t mean he is not dangerous. “According to Eliason,” RRW tells us, “the teachers in the public school system who do not uphold and instill Christian ideology are performing ‘mental molestation,’ which deserves to be recognized and punished alongside physical molestation.”
In other words, it ought to be illegal NOT to turn children into Christians. I suppose whatever their parents might wish.
Mental molestation, folks, is having to read this crap so I can pass it on to you. Trust me there. I’m calling “bad touch” right now.
Here, dig this:
Gunn: Draw a parallel between Nazi Germany where you have an authoritarian government that took over the whole nation, partially through the youth movement by co-opting all of the youth movement into the Hitler Youth, and therefore indoctrinating them into the class of this unbelief and this idolatry of the state. And so sadly that’s what we’re seeing very much today and we wonder why, why can’t people understand the abortion issue or these other issues that are political—well it’s because they’ve been indoctrinated. And we really can’t fix any political issue until we fix the public school system, controlling the future of America by controlling the hearts and minds of all the children that are sent there.
This idolatry of the state, he says. I thought that was a Republican thing, as much fundie as neocon.
Ironically, Hitler was a Catholic. A Catholic until the day he died. And another funny thing: Hitler believed in state-sponsored religion, saying, “I have need of the Church in exactly the same way as had the monarchy and other past forms of government.”
Sure, he got upset at preachers badmouthing the Third Reich, but he also axed some of the harsher stuff coming from his own people, according to his photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. And when it came time for Hoffmann to find a school for his 9-year-old son, Hitler told him, “I strongly recommend you send him to a convent school. For young people, the convent school is the best educational institution we have.”
He even personally drove (in other words, Hitler’s chauffeur drove) Hoffmann and his son to the religious school. Hoffmann relates that it was Hitler who presented his son to the Mother Superior, saying, “See that you make a decent man of him.”
That hardly sounds like the scenario Gunn is painting. Hitler celebrated Christmas and went to church (if not regularly) and as Hoffmann also relates, “At every New Year’s reception the representative of the Vatican, Monsignor Orsenige, was invariably present to give Hitler, as Head of the German State, the good wishes and blessing of the Pope.”
But Gunn isn’t done murdering the truth:
Gunn: The nature of the public schools is it allows your child to be subject to those philosophies, whether it is gay rights or the progressives or evolution, if you send your child there be aware that he’s open to all of those views which he wouldn’t be if you kept him home or you put him in a private school.
Eliason: Right now the news is a blare with a man who molested children, and he’s going to prison for the rest of his life. That’s physical molestation. But folks, there is mental molestation going on in the public school, and the people are getting by scot-free. And I’m not criticizing many fine Christian teachers who are trying to do their very best as they are employed in the public schools, but the molestation is a philosophy that is being pushed over all that literally is a molestation of the mind and nobody has a penalty for that.
Somebody needs to read the U.S. Constitution. But if the Constitution goes out the window, science goes out with it:
Eliason: I was talking to [Creationism advocate] Ken Ham about a pastor who was telling his young people, he said there are some people who believe in Creation in six days and some people who believe in the Big Bang Theory, but whatever you like that’s fine, and Ken put it this way, he said, if you can’t be sure about the miraculous power of God to create as the Bible says it, why should a kid believe anything else that’s in that book?
Gunn: Absolutely, I think the faith of many children are undermined very quickly in the science class when they’re taught and the Bible is literally discredited in front of them rather than it being an understanding of real science, which is creation science.
Creation science is real science? How does that work, exactly? The world-knowledge of the Bronze Age is more valuable than what we know now with the benefit not of divine inspiration, but of science?
And Eliason can’t go without parading the aberrochristian lie about love:
Eliason: The godless mentality of the issues of lifestyle, we’re talking about homosexuality being diversity, and pressing for diversity training to kids. And of course we’re not talking about hating people, but when you have abnormal, aberrant lifestyles that are being paraded as normality, isn’t there some wonder that parents would be upset?
No, he sure doesn’t hate anybody, does he? Certainly, not those abnormal, aberrant people he wants to reduce to second-class citizen status. But hey, slave owners loved their slaves too, right? I mean, slavery was the best thing that ever happened to blacks. Isn’t that what they tell us?
These people stand to win if the Republicans are not stopped in 2012. Already, we are seeing instances of state sponsored religion in various states and of support by that state sponsored religion for religious home schooling. More and more children are going to fall pray to this backward-thinking ideology that will destroy America forever as any sort of influence on the world.
Mat Staver was unintentionally correct when he said on Friday, “I’m Not an Alarmist’ but this Election Will ‘Literally’ Determine ‘the Survival of Western Civilization.” I realize he is thinking like Gunn and his buddy Matt Barber, but though wrongly applied, his words are spot on.
This election could well determine the survival of Western Civilization, or rather, American civilization. I think Europe is probably safely free from fundamentalist Christian influences to struggle on. Their problem is Republican economic thinking.
Our own problem is Republican religious thinking. And I’m afraid we’re on our own. We will not be able to get any help from Europe there. They’re too busy laughing. But boy, if they think America is funny now, wait till they get a look at it four years into a Romney presidency.
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19 Responses to Failure to Teach Christianity in Public Schools is Mental Molestation
Sally
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 8:27 am
I doubt America will even last four years into a Romney Presidency. He will bomb Iran on Day One (or whenever his buddy BiBi gives the word,) he will send our economy down the river with his unfunded (again) tax breaks for the rich, he will send the elderly and the poor to the ERs, which in turn will have to raise prices, insurance cpmpanies will once again decide who gets covered and who dies, the energy companies will continue their sytematic takeover of public and private lands for profit, unions will be gone, throwing more people out of work, our infrastructure will crumble further, with no federal incentive and no state funds available as the GOP continues to starve government out of existence, women will be home pregnant due to loss of contraceptives, and our children will have no public education. Yeah, Nazi Germany will have nothing in the history books compared to Mormon and fundie America.
Reynardine
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 9:02 am
I read your last line as “Moron America”. I won’t say I misread it.
SinghX
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 8:58 am
…”Both Alex Jones and Colin Gunn think the best way to combat declining grades in our schools is to keep the kids at home and teach them the Bible, and to avoid teaching them any science at all…”
Basically, it’s ALWAYS the same: keep the kids at home because you never know which one of “them” is “gay” (ie, a pedophile/recruiter), and, avoid teachers with facts because they are “librulls” and will also lead your child to sin and hell.
“…Gunn: The nature of the public schools is it allows your child to be subject to those philosophies, whether it is gay rights or the progressives or evolution, if you send your child there be aware that he’s open to all of those views which he wouldn’t be if you kept him home…”
There, you see? I was right.
The “librulls”, mostly women (gasp) have taken over education (since Obama was elected), hired “the gays” (since same sex marriage was passed in several states) and they work together, with the government, to turn children into atheist Nazis!
It’s always the same friggin’ thang over and over…sigh. And the funny thing is, educations IS the only answer, antidote for radical fundamentalism
“Gunn:..the molestation [philosophy] that is being pushed over all that literally is a molestation of the mind and nobody has a penalty for that…”
(Wow–good grammar there, Gunn)
IMHO, there isn’t any “philosophy” in or of the term molestation. But, I do believe what Gunn and company are doing to their own off-spring is something psychologist have had on their radar for many years; it’s called “soul murder”.
majii
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 6:20 pm
I’m actually a retired teacher, SinghX, and when these tools say things like the following, they are WRONG: ” The nature of the public schools is it allows your child to be subject to those philosophies, whether it is gay rights or the progressives or evolution, if you send your child there be aware that he’s open to all of those views which he wouldn’t be if you kept him home…”
One can always tell when someone has never taught school–he/she shoots sh*t out of their asses. There are so many demands put on teachers from state and local BOEs, that there’s very little time for us to inject any of our own philosophies, or anyone else’s philosophies, on students. I was a social studies teacher, and I can’t ever recall diverting a lesson to discuss LBGTQ Americans or evolution. A major reason many men don’t enter the field of education is due to the low salary most teachers earn. They can make more money by working at other jobs. Most of the male members of my faculty were also athletic coaches because the athletic supplements provided them with a higher salary. Before these tools make claims about public schools, they should teach in one. This would permit them to see that standing on the outside looking in is very different from being in the trenches.
SinghX
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
“…One can always tell when someone has never taught school–he/she shoots sh*t out of their asses…”
Yep. That’s the very reason they do it–they are representing a whole gaggle of people who see anything with the words “public” and “school” in the same sentence as pejorative. I contend they wouldn’t know a “teacher” if they saw or heard one because it’s apparent they’ve learned so little…
And, it’s so very sad knowing we’re expected to tolerate their non-reality, blatant love of ignorance that they call “truth speech”…and, all for the love of an invisible “Big Brother” in the sky.
Thanks for your “service”.
Nina
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Rapeublicans should look up the word “projection” as they spend their entire lives doing it. Religious indoctrination of our youngest and most vulnerable most definitely is child abuse, pure and simple.
A Walkaway
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Hraf, I hate to say this, but Europe is being invaded too.
I saw one pentecostal megachurch while I was in Sicily, and signs for more. Friends from Europe have told of the dominionist churches they have to deal with (there are walkaways in Europe – from European pentecostal/fundamentalist churches), and while their numbers are still small, they are growing.
It seems that some of the people have already forgotten the hard-learned lessons of the past several hundred (we could argue almost two thousand) years.
Much of what you’ve written is what they were teaching years ago, and it is frustrating that whenever you (we – all of us that fight dominionism) point out these facts, people dismiss them. We recognize the threat to our own lives, but most people don’t seem to get it into their head that this is what some of their NEIGHBORS might believe. If said neighbor is a “Good Christian”, they had better watch out.
I have a neighbor who paraphrased what Jones and Gunn spewed… two plus years ago (in a fifteen minute screaming rant where she denied my own faith – said I wasn’t a Christian – after learning I’d taught evolution).
We face an election that may mean our lives or deaths. This blog article only reinforces that fact.
robyn ryan
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Superstition will always fail when confronted by education. Unfortunately, it usually collapses in a river of blood.
If Romney wins, America will have its own little Dark Ages. The rest of the world will go on without us. Think Taliban North Korea. Or 1950s East Germany.
Earl of Sandvich
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
Christianity does have a place in the classroom, just not in the science classroom, not as part of a prerequisite daily reading that is deemed unconstitutional long ago, and definitely not in a biased, word-of-god point of view. The place that I’m referring to is as part of a literature unit, and I have no problem with the Bible being brought up as literature, particularly since it does carry a significant cultural contribution no matter what your views are. The fact that there are still quite a few people pushing for creationism or intelligent design into a classroom makes me want to cry. The Catholic church rejects anything as a substitute for evolution, and if I recall correctly many mainline Protestants do at least acknowledge evolution and reconcile it with their faiths, so the sorts of ignorance I heard from a couple members of the congressional science committee is most disheartening.
Larry Conley
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
What these people most definitely do not want is for Christianity to be taught in the public schools as one religion among many. Ironically, I taught a course that covered Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism as World Religions. The main precepts were laid out and other factual information was given.
People such as those you are covering here, want Christianity to be presented as revealed truth. They do not want teaching; they want preaching.
There is no place for such nonsense in authentic educational endeavors be they public or private. The disdain these people exhibit for science, properly so called, is revelatory. They are true believers whose minds are made up and they do not want to be confused with facts or logic.
A Walkaway
Oct. 16th, 2012 at 11:59 am
The very last time I set foot in a mainstream church, they had an “Intelligent Design” speaker. He said, and I quote “Teach the God of the Bible in the schools!”. His claim was that the teaching wasn’t Religious enough and that was why it failed the Supreme Court!
He also spouted some of the most atrocious bullshit I’ve heard in a long time – but because of the way the church had things structured, you couldn’t refute him. (They used the same structure when they passed rules against gays in this diocese.)
I’ll never willingly set foot in a mainstream “Christian” church again… especially since during that evening, I also got treated to “You can’t claim to be Christian and accept Evolution!” (an order from a lay leader in the church) and “God gave us a solution for Gays in the Old Testament – YOU STONE THEM!” from a second, who is highly placed in the diocese and church and a leader in the move against gay people in this diocese.
cathy
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
So they are so against science get off the bus, stay away from camera’s, don’t talk on the phone, don’t use the medical system… these things all come to you thanks to scientists. So stay away…
KP
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
The fact that they’re comparing that to molestation is actually very offensive. I actually was physically molested, by a church deacon nonetheless, and though I’m still a Christian, I feel like forcing religion on children (especially when you’re combining it with physical and sexual abuse) is a million times worse than anything the public schools are doing. Then again, these are the sorts of people who would probably say I brought it on myself for being pretty and underage.
A Walkaway
Oct. 16th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Your story isn’t unusual. I’ve met quite a few people, mostly women, who’d been molested or raped by “church authorities”.
The story of “little girl repeatedly raped by her pastor” is sadly too common, and indeed, if a woman ever says that she was labeled a “Jezebel” by her church (only have heard of this from conservative/fundamentalist churches), the chances are very high that she was raped by a “minister” and made the mistake of going to someone in the church for help.
mediabeing
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Commendations to Hrafnkell Haraldsson for this article. It is an eye opener.
Religion comforts…and cripples.
Anne
Oct. 15th, 2012 at 6:33 pm
It takes a pathologically sick mind to compare not teaching Christianity in classrooms with molestation in any way. This thinking is behind a transparent attempt to force Christianity on everyone regardless of whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or atheists. It’s also part of a dangerous anti-intellectualism that disdains science as well as the role of science in all our lives. There is nothing in these folks that even remotely resembles the character and teachings of Jesus Christ. They are narrow-minded, intolerant, and fearful, particularly of change.
Diane
Oct. 16th, 2012 at 6:20 am
I would like them to teach from the Mormon bible.
Do they realize, if Romney was elected, they would have too?
D. W. Skinner
Oct. 16th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Star taxing the churches pushing this. They’ll shut up.
A Walkaway
Oct. 16th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Many of them recently violated their tax-exempt status anyway, so unless the IRS admits it’s biased towards “Good Christians” and against freedom – and does nothing, it should happen.