Easter Weekend Post
Okay, so I was supposed to post this yesterday, but life intervened. So, I'm posting it today.
I want to take a look at theocracy, in connection with the Blog Against Theocracy" movement.
Initially, I wanted to cover art and theocracy, taking specific looks at the chocolate Jesus statue and the Obama as Jesus sculpture. However, that was before my letters to the editor of my local newspaper received another reply.
You can read my original letter and the first reply at the links provided in that post. My next letter was published on March 16, 2007. I answered Mr. Absher and his claims about James Madison not wanting a Bill of Rights. Mr. Absher proceeded to attack me more and to show his ignorance of history even more.
This has started me thinking more about the Religious Right's wish to revise history. There are other gems like Mr. Absher's on my local newspaper's site. So many people are so ignorant--willfully or purposefully--about religious history, government history, and national history that it is becoming easier and easier for the leaders of the far-right to revise history however they see fit.
For example, Texas is currently considering a bill that would require schools to teach Biblical literature. That, in itself, I do not have a problem with. However, this particular Bible-lit course has some big issues. First of all, it is created by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. If you just glance at their site, you might be fooled into thinking that it is a mainstream, freedom-loving council harmlessly trying to educate our youth. However, this Talk To Action piece will soon disabuse you of that notion.
The NCBCPS uses a lot of historical revisionism in its "curriculum." This comes in the form of misquotes and misattribution of quotes. Harmless mistakes? I doubt it. If any teacher taught about evolution without carefully checking his/her facts, or if any council put out "educational" material on evolution that wasn't thoroughly cross-referenced and safe from misquotes and misattribution of quotes, there would be quite a hue and cry from the public. So why would a group trying to put biblical literature into the curriculum of our public schools not thoroughly check its own work? Historical revisionism. (Follow the links on the Talk To Action site to read more about specific revisings found in the NCBCPS curriculum.)
Why is this dangerous? First, it isn't just a "Texas issue." TIME Magazine's April 2 issue featured a cover article on "Why We Should Teach the Bible in Public School." We all need to be aware of this movement, especially if sources such as TIME are picking it up.
Second, as you can see from the Letters to the Editor of my local newspaper, above, if we don't educate people on real American history and real religious history, they will spread the lies themselves. We've all seen people forwarding stupid chain e-mails even with the ease of use and availability of sites such as Snopes.com. People do the same thing with any kind of inaccurate information.
Third, we already have an administration in place that wants to use an erroneous theological platform to take away our freedoms. At what other point in our history have we considered writing discrimination *into* the Constitution? Now we have people pushing bills to restrict marriage to a church-recognized union between one man and one woman; to raise "Covenant Marriage" (which makes it all but impossible for couples to divorce) above other forms of marriage; to bring about the Rapture/Apocalypse.
Of course, none of these things are biblical concepts, but the far-Right wants their form of "Christianity" to hold sway in their vision of a theocratic society, and their form of Christianity includes these concepts.
Isn't it scary that there are people out there who *want* to bring about the destruction of the world via their vision of a bloody Apocalypse? Isn't it scary that there are people out there who believe in the "Rapture"--used here to refer to a theology that did not arise until 1840--and want to push that view down everyone else's throats? And isn't it scary that there are people who actually want to see other people go to hell and be punished for eternity?
Of course, not all Christians feel this way; I myself am one who is disgusted by historical revisionism and by Dominionist tactics. Historical revisionism, though, threatens to wipe out all the hard, honest and integrity-driven work of our forebears in the name of pushing specific, narrow, intolerant religious beliefs on a nation of people of many different religions. And its success so far can be measured by the number of people who swallow the lies laid forth in such "education"--the Letters to the Editor are just a representative example.
One way we can fight such revisionism is to broaden our reading scope. Instead of taking in just one or two media outlets, we can engage with many different outlets. Such is the wonder of the internet. :) I myself subscribe to Alternet and to The Christian Worldview Network. One gives me a mostly-liberal perspective, the other gives me a very conservative perspective. I also try to stay abreast of the mainstream news via outlets such as my local news stations in the morning, AOL news, and MSN news. We can--and should--educate ourselves on any perspective offered on things like teaching biblical literature in schools and historical revisionism.
Another way we can fight revisionism is by joining with organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State and First Freedom First and DefConAmerica. These organizations are dedicated to protecting our great nation from becoming a theocracy.
Third, we can educate one another. I'm attempting to do so with my Letters to the Editor; this is an activity most of us can participate in with our own local newspapers. We can learn what our Constitution actually says and pass that knowledge on to others.
And now I'm going to go do my duty to educate other people against erroneous knowledge by writing another Letter to the Editor.
Peace.
I want to take a look at theocracy, in connection with the Blog Against Theocracy" movement.
Initially, I wanted to cover art and theocracy, taking specific looks at the chocolate Jesus statue and the Obama as Jesus sculpture. However, that was before my letters to the editor of my local newspaper received another reply.
You can read my original letter and the first reply at the links provided in that post. My next letter was published on March 16, 2007. I answered Mr. Absher and his claims about James Madison not wanting a Bill of Rights. Mr. Absher proceeded to attack me more and to show his ignorance of history even more.
This has started me thinking more about the Religious Right's wish to revise history. There are other gems like Mr. Absher's on my local newspaper's site. So many people are so ignorant--willfully or purposefully--about religious history, government history, and national history that it is becoming easier and easier for the leaders of the far-right to revise history however they see fit.
For example, Texas is currently considering a bill that would require schools to teach Biblical literature. That, in itself, I do not have a problem with. However, this particular Bible-lit course has some big issues. First of all, it is created by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. If you just glance at their site, you might be fooled into thinking that it is a mainstream, freedom-loving council harmlessly trying to educate our youth. However, this Talk To Action piece will soon disabuse you of that notion.
The NCBCPS uses a lot of historical revisionism in its "curriculum." This comes in the form of misquotes and misattribution of quotes. Harmless mistakes? I doubt it. If any teacher taught about evolution without carefully checking his/her facts, or if any council put out "educational" material on evolution that wasn't thoroughly cross-referenced and safe from misquotes and misattribution of quotes, there would be quite a hue and cry from the public. So why would a group trying to put biblical literature into the curriculum of our public schools not thoroughly check its own work? Historical revisionism. (Follow the links on the Talk To Action site to read more about specific revisings found in the NCBCPS curriculum.)
Why is this dangerous? First, it isn't just a "Texas issue." TIME Magazine's April 2 issue featured a cover article on "Why We Should Teach the Bible in Public School." We all need to be aware of this movement, especially if sources such as TIME are picking it up.
Second, as you can see from the Letters to the Editor of my local newspaper, above, if we don't educate people on real American history and real religious history, they will spread the lies themselves. We've all seen people forwarding stupid chain e-mails even with the ease of use and availability of sites such as Snopes.com. People do the same thing with any kind of inaccurate information.
Third, we already have an administration in place that wants to use an erroneous theological platform to take away our freedoms. At what other point in our history have we considered writing discrimination *into* the Constitution? Now we have people pushing bills to restrict marriage to a church-recognized union between one man and one woman; to raise "Covenant Marriage" (which makes it all but impossible for couples to divorce) above other forms of marriage; to bring about the Rapture/Apocalypse.
Of course, none of these things are biblical concepts, but the far-Right wants their form of "Christianity" to hold sway in their vision of a theocratic society, and their form of Christianity includes these concepts.
Isn't it scary that there are people out there who *want* to bring about the destruction of the world via their vision of a bloody Apocalypse? Isn't it scary that there are people out there who believe in the "Rapture"--used here to refer to a theology that did not arise until 1840--and want to push that view down everyone else's throats? And isn't it scary that there are people who actually want to see other people go to hell and be punished for eternity?
Of course, not all Christians feel this way; I myself am one who is disgusted by historical revisionism and by Dominionist tactics. Historical revisionism, though, threatens to wipe out all the hard, honest and integrity-driven work of our forebears in the name of pushing specific, narrow, intolerant religious beliefs on a nation of people of many different religions. And its success so far can be measured by the number of people who swallow the lies laid forth in such "education"--the Letters to the Editor are just a representative example.
One way we can fight such revisionism is to broaden our reading scope. Instead of taking in just one or two media outlets, we can engage with many different outlets. Such is the wonder of the internet. :) I myself subscribe to Alternet and to The Christian Worldview Network. One gives me a mostly-liberal perspective, the other gives me a very conservative perspective. I also try to stay abreast of the mainstream news via outlets such as my local news stations in the morning, AOL news, and MSN news. We can--and should--educate ourselves on any perspective offered on things like teaching biblical literature in schools and historical revisionism.
Another way we can fight revisionism is by joining with organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State and First Freedom First and DefConAmerica. These organizations are dedicated to protecting our great nation from becoming a theocracy.
Third, we can educate one another. I'm attempting to do so with my Letters to the Editor; this is an activity most of us can participate in with our own local newspapers. We can learn what our Constitution actually says and pass that knowledge on to others.
And now I'm going to go do my duty to educate other people against erroneous knowledge by writing another Letter to the Editor.
Peace.
Labels: Blog Against Theocracy, dominionism, revisionism, theocracy
posted by A-muse-ing at 9:26 AM
3 Comments:
My inaugural address at the Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead, after I have raptured out billions! The Secret Rapture soon, by my hand!
Read My Inaugural Address
My Site=http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman
Your jaw will drop!
Thank you for this excellent contribution.
Thanks. :)
Post a Comment
<< Home