If you thought that decisions made by the Texas State Board of Education don't affect you, think again.

Led by far-right ideologues, the Texas State Board of Education recently gave preliminary approval to a plan that would radically change what children across the country learn in history class.

The ultra-conservative majority on the board (none of whom are experts in any academic discipline and many of whom are explicitly anti-science) took the curricula proposed by teachers and made more than 100 changes to "correct" the perceived left-wing bias.

But it gets worse. Since Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the country, material written to cater to the Texas curricula will find its way into textbooks across the country unless textbook publishers take a stand.

We can't allow a small group of extreme ideologues on the Texas State Board of Education to re-write history.

Children who use textbooks conforming to the new standards will not learn anything about the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson or his thoughts on the separation of church and state. When they learn about the Civil War, they'll have to study Jefferson Davis' inaugural address alongside Abraham Lincoln's. And when they study the civil rights movement they'll have to learn about the "unintended consequences" of Great Society programs, affirmative action and Title IX. Oh — and Joe McCarthy was right all along no matter what historians actually say about it. Not to mention that there is only one theory of creation ( the religious one ) instead of giving children all theories.

It's outrageous. Education will fail if we can't teach our children history. We can't let these far-right ideologues co-opt our educational system.


Click the link to tell textbook publishers to stand up to the Texas Taliban.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/textbooks/?r_by=8258-1574944-ilbEQOx&rc=paste1


I fear for the future for my grandchildren. Things just get worse all the time. Things like this are only found in countries run by dictators and fascist regimes. It has no place in American Democracy. I signed this and I hope that you will as well.

Love, Connie

The political climate of the U.S. today gets nuttier by the day. There is something new and crazier each day and frankly I'm real tired of the fascist political agendas of the Conservative Right. Talk about the lunatic fringe! So why does the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE)want to change the history books - and in fact, change the history of this nation? Well, it boils down to the political agenda of the Religious Right who have for the past 10 yrs. been trying to establish a Christian theocracy in our government. Thomas Jefferson has always been a big inconvenience to that political agenda. As you know, it was Thomas Jefferson who helped write our U.S. Constitution and made sure there was an article that provided for the separation of church and state. As president he sent out the Danbury Letter to a church to let them know that there will be no church state. The Religious Right did not like that letter and for years tried to give their own interpretation of it. That's not what Jefferson meant they said. Jefferson has been claimed to be a Christian in the past by the Religious Right, the Unitarians have claimed Jefferson and so have the Diests. Today some historians and the Religious Right claim that Jefferson was a Diest and therefore he should be banned from the history books. However, Jefferson was none of the above. He was a free thinker and from his own words he has written and stated, "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know." Jefferson believed that religion was a private matter between the person and the government should stay of it. I agree with Jefferson but that is a very inconvenient thing for the political agenda of the Christian Religious Right. Thus they want to abolish Thomas Jefferson from the history books as it makes it easier for them to indoctrinate children to their way of thinking if they keep them ignorant of the true facts.

Mind you, I am a baptized Roman Catholic and I do consider myself a Christian but I am more like Jefferson in that I feel that my beliefs are a private matter and I respect all other belief systems. Thus, I am not one who believes it is my duty to go about converting others to my way of believing or thinking about God.

The following are some facts about Thomas Jefferson that are very inconvenient to the Texas SBOE and the Religious Right. Including the Danbury Letter of Thomas Jefferson.

The Texas State Board of Education controls what is and is not in school textbooks in Texas as well as in most of the rest of the U.S. due to Texas purchasing huge amounts of school books. The publishers want to please their biggest customers. Therefore, what happens in Texas does NOT stay in Texas, it filters into the rest of the country.

The Christian fundamentalists and religious right are keenly aware of this fact. They know what they do to school books in Texas will influence children throughout America. And they have an agenda: to promote the superstition of Christianity and the Bible over God-given reason and the progress it brings.

Recently board member Cynthia Dunbar was able to have Thomas Jefferson removed from text books in relation to world history standards! This in spite of the FACT that other nations based their own declarations of independence on the American Declaration! Talk about world history! And Thomas Jefferson is the author of the first Declaration of Independence, though many people believe Thomas Paine was at minimum very influential in drafting it. The Texas Freedom Network, which opposes this attack on truth by the religious right, asks the important question: did the religious right remove Thomas Jefferson because he was a Deist?



President Thomas Jefferson was a Protestant. Jefferson was raised as an Episcopalian (Anglican). He was also influenced by English Deists and has often been identified by historians as a Deist. He held many beliefs in common with Unitarians of the time period, and sometimes wrote that he thought the whole country would become Unitarian. He wrote that the teachings of Jesus contain the "outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man." Wrote: "I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know." Source: "Jefferson's Religious Beliefs", by Rebecca Bowman, Monticello Research Department, August 1997 [URL: http://www.monticello.org/resources/interests/religion.html].

Jefferson was born into an Anglican family and was raised as an Aglican. He would later be considered an Episcopalian, after the Episcopal Church was officially founded as a separate province within Anglicanism in 1789 (after the Revolution and independence from England).

Later in his adult life Jefferson did not consider himself an Episcopalian, or a member of any other specific denomination. Later in life Jefferson held many clearly Christian, Deist, and Unitarian beliefs, but was not a member of any congregation or denomination. Today, many Unitarians sincerely believe that Jefferson should be "counted as" a Unitarian, just as many Christians point to Jefferson as a Christian, and many of the small number of Americans who identify themselves as Deists believe Jefferson should be classified a Deist.
There you go!! It seems that what religion Jefferson was depends on what religion you are to some. And he's not around to defend himself.


Jefferson's Wall of Separation Letter




Thomas Jefferson was a man of deep religious conviction - his conviction was that religion was a very personal matter, one which the government had no business getting involved in. He was vilified by his political opponents for his role in the passage of the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and for his criticism of such biblical truths as the Great Flood and the theological age of the Earth. As president, he discontinued the practice started by his predecessors George Washington and John Adams of proclaiming days of fasting and thanksgiving. He was a staunch believer in the separation of church and state.

Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 to answer a letter from them written in October 1801. A copy of the Danbury letter is available here. The Danbury Baptists were a religious minority in Connecticut, and they complained that in their state, the religious liberties they enjoyed were not seen as immutable rights, but as privileges granted by the legislature — as "favors granted." Jefferson's reply did not address their concerns about problems with state establishment of religion - only of establishment on the national level. The letter contains the phrase "wall of separation between church and state," which led to the short-hand for the Establishment Clause that we use today: "Separation of church and state."

The letter was the subject of intense scrutiny by Jefferson, and he consulted a couple of New England politicians to assure that his words would not offend while still conveying his message: it was not the place of the Congress or the Executive to do anything that might be misconstrued as the establishment of religion.

Note: The bracketed section in the second paragraph had been blocked off for deletion in the final draft of the letter sent to the Danbury Baptists, though it was not actually deleted in Jefferson's draft of the letter. It is included here for completeness. Reflecting upon his knowledge that the letter was far from a mere personal correspondence, Jefferson deleted the block, he noted in the margin, to avoid offending members of his party in the eastern states.

This is a transcript of the letter as stored online at the Library of Congress, and reflects Jefferson's spelling and punctuation.




Mr. President

To messers Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem & approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful & zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more & more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. [Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from presenting even occasional performances of devotion presented indeed legally where an Executive is the legal head of a national church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect.] Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

(signed) Thomas Jefferson
Jan.1.1802.


It's just plain scary for a nation when we start burning and changing history books to fit our own political agendas. Truthfully, what it amounts to is that the Religious Right uses the Extreme Right Republican Party and the GOP in turn use the major religion of this nation, Christianity, but both only do it for their own political gain. And none of it is true Christianity or of God at all. They both use God for political gain. None of it belongs in a democracy. It belongs in a fascist nation. Which the U.S. is slowly becoming and will become if these things are not stopped.


Love, Connie

Jon Stewart: ‘How Oscar Romero Got Disappeared by Right-Wingers…for the Second Time’

by Jimmy McCarty 03-19-2010

Jon Stewart has pointed out that one of the revisions of the recent Texas high school curriculum controversy is the omission of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero from a list of great political/moral figures of the twentieth century. It saddens me to think that there was an opportunity for a new generation of students to be introduced to his positive influence on the world and it could pass quietly in the night.

You can go to 1:25 mins on this video if you want. Jon Stewart does make what some would consider "off color" jokes at the beginning.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-march-17-2010/don-t-mess-with-textbooks

I did not learn about Archbishop Romero until I was a student in seminary, and once I read his words and learned the way he lived them out I was convinced of the way of Jesus Christ more fully than I had been before. It pains me to think of how different my life may have been if I had learned of him earlier than I did. Another generation of students has been deprived of evidence of the power and efficacy of nonviolence and a commitment to justice in bringing about positive change in the world. This is a reason for lament.

Romero was Archbishop of El Salvador for only three brief years, but his impact continues to this day. In the midst of dire poverty and rampant violence, Archbishop Romero never wavered from publicly preaching nonviolence and the Christian commitment to the poorest of the poor. He did not waver when intimidated, and he loved both the poor and the enemies of the poor. He brought international attention to the gross human rights violations in El Salvador and was a living witness to the gospel of Jesus. His life is recent evidence of the power of the message of Jesus to transform individuals, communities, and social structures. Every Christian can learn from his example.

On March 24, 1980 — precisely thirty years ago next Wednesday — as Archbishop Romero prepared to administer the Eucharist during the memorial service of the mother of a friend, a single bullet pierced his chest, splintered, and struck his heart. He died a martyr and saint of the poor in El Salvador, remembering and imitating the death of his Lord who refused to use violence while bringing good news to the poor of his time and place. Archbishop Oscar Romero was one of the great moral and spiritual leaders of the twentieth century. His testimony and commitment to peace and justice was a bright light in a land of oppression, and his example continues to illuminate the often overlooked efforts of countless Christians who draw on his life and teachings for motivation and encouragement in the never-ending struggle for a better world. His unswerving commitment to the poor in his country flowed from his love and imitation of Jesus. And it is a continuing injustice that more do not know his story or teachings.

I close with a few words from Archbishop Romero for reflection:

I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally.

And:

Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.



Jimmy McCarty is a doctoral student at Emory University studying Religion, Ethics, and Society. He blogs at jamesmccarty.wordpress.com.

My guess as to why the Texas SBOE members "disappeared" Archbisop Romero from history is more because of the two strikes he has against him in a Religious Conservative Right mind: (1) He was a Roman Catholic which is not popular at all with this conservative religious right Christian group who have called the Pope "the Antichrist" and (2) Archbishop Oscar Romero, along with other Latin American priests who brought hope to the oppressed masses of their countries and who were also martyred by assassins began what is known today as Liberation Theology. That branch of Theology has been condemned by some in the RC Church as being what they felt to be "socialist." The Church has softened up it's stance on Liberation Theology to a degree but then again, that was under the direction of Pope Paul. The current Pope Benedict is a conservative so who knows? If you put these two points together it's easy to envision what was was going on the minds of these people on the SBOE in Texas.

Wonder who is going to "get disappeared" from history next.

Love, Connie