Texas Textbook Wars Part II

Just when you thought the Texas Textbook Wars could not get any more absurd,  Republicans on the SBOE blocked a measure yesterday that would have taught students the importance of the First Amendment. 

Really?

This proves my theory that these zealots are not interested in democracy, but rather in living in either a theocracy or an idiocracy.

Do evangelicals not realize that “separation of church and state” actually protects them? If there were no “separation of church and state,” and Christianity was allowed to be taught as truth in the classroom, there would be nothing in place to stop a more progressive brand of Christianity being taught–one that might challenge their kids to question their parent’s narrow interpretation of Christianity.

Also, not only does the First Amendment guarantee the “separation of church and state”, but also the “separation of state and church.” In other words, it prevents the Federal government from coming into your church and telling you what you may preach and how you may preach it.

Many of the early immigrants to this country came escaping countries with state sponsored churches. Why would we want to revert to the practices of England?

You ask me, there is a lot of value for both conservatives and progressives, Democrats and Republicans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, etc. in the “separation of church and state.”

I said it during the Bush years and I’ll say it again, Christian extremists are scared to death of the First Amendment, not only because of “separation of church and state”, but also because of the guarantee of “freedom of speech.” In the end, that is what this argument is about.

Texas Textbook War

As a five year old kid, I remember riding around in the family station wagon, listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Along with Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Culture Club’s Colour By Numbers, Springsteen’s landmark album was one of the first I remember listening to, beginning to end, over and over again.  As a child, I thought of Springsteen as some American super hero, a contemporary to Ronald Reagan, fighting the Cold War with his music. “Born in the USA” meant nothing more than those words. It wasn’t until I reexamined that song in college that I discovered the song’s true meaning. At that point, a thought came to me, a true patriot may not necessarily agree with Springsteen’s political message, but at least recognizes the song represented a reality for many American heroes.

Many conservatives approach American history in similarly naive fashion that I approached Born in the USA as child, hearing only “USA! USA! USA!”–refusing to dig deeper into the legends surrounding our nation and its founding. No where has this been more evident than in Texas’ State Board of Education’s recent hearings on selecting new textbooks. Due to Texas’ large size, decisions made by our SBOE play a large role in determining textbooks used in classrooms across the United States and the story has captured the nation’s attention, with cable networks devoting entire shows, spreading misinformation and depicting Texas as a state held hostage by religious radicals.

Sadly, this narrow mindset is not limited to politicians. Indeed, this disease has spread to the administrators in school districts throughout the state. In college, a friend of mine applied for job as a history teacher at a school district in rural East Texas. During the interview, the principal told my friend that, if hired, he was to teach “…the United States has never been wrong in any armed conflict” and “…that the United States has made no mistakes as a nation.”

I love this country and I vote Republican more often than I do Democrat, but the audacity of these religious zealots and cultural conservatives who have hijacked the Republican Party sickens me. We can only hope that voters sent a message to some of these ideologues in the recent primaries when they sent Dr. Don McLeroy, the Rapture Right’s vocal leader on the SBOE, packing, choosing instead Thomas Ratliff, a man with a strong pedigree in the traditional wing of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, McLeroy has promised to not go quietly into that good night, choosing instead to take an approach not too different from the Congressional Democrats’ approach on health care reform, attempting to jam an unpopular agenda down the throat of the people.

While I firmly believe the United Sates is the “greatest” nation in the world, we are not without faults. In order to learn from our nation’s mistakes–and as a nation we have plenty–we must study those mistakes. In addition to ignoring causes cultural conservatives find repulsive, the SBOE seems to gloss over many of the dark shadows creeping in our nation’s and state’s past, unlike Mr. Springsteen.

Is there bias involved with the publishing of a textbook? Yes, there is no such thing as unbiased writing.  Every author, no matter how good their intentions, has a belief system and this belief system will seep through their writing.  In order to ensure balance, more power should be placed in the hands of local schools districts, administrators and teachers to supplement textbooks with ancillary materials. In this age of hyper technology, where schools are wired for Internet access, it’s easier than ever to find scholarly material to serve as a counterpoint to any material presented in a textbook.

One final observation, I’ve read a lot of quotes from the extreme right-wingers on the SBOE stating their desire to see an emphasis on this nation’s “Judeo-Christian values” in social studies textbooks. Let’s be clear, what these people really mean to say is that they want an emphasis on the values of the evangelical Christian church.  These people think they can just capriciously add the term “Judeo” in front of Christian and be considered progressive. Don’t be fooled, these people are not friends to the Jewish community. They only use the term “Judeo” to seem open to other faiths. In reality, their world is big enough for only one faith road, a road they seek to force us all travel, whether we want to or not.