AU Board members have been reading a very interesting but very depressing (from our point of view) book, “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children“, by Katherine Stewart. Because of a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, public schools are largely defenseless against evangelical organizations (GNC being the most active, best-funded, and nefarious) who are taking over public schools for activities aimed primarily at children between 4 and 14. Even more alarming is that churches are being “planted” in public school buildings across the country, including here in St. Louis. If you are wondering what “planting” means, it is just as bad as it sounds. Public school buildings, including auditoriums and classrooms are taken over (at minimal ‘rent’, usually covering only utilities) for regular Sunday church services and Sunday schools. Katherine Stewart’s book describes these movements in detail, and the picture is not pretty. Read the book.
We viewed and discussed Vic Losick’s Award-winning documentary film, “In God We Teach” on Thursday evening, February 5 at 7:00p. Our host was again the Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist and Donnybrook founding member Bill McClellan spoke at our annual picnic on September 21 in Shaw Park, Clayton. Bill also wrote an amusing commentary about our organization on July 4 (fittingly). The title was “Finally – A Group That Won’t Break My Heart” -that’s us! Click on the link to read the whole column.
We have photographs of some of the glamorous people in attendance. They will be posted in this space very soon.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on May 5 that sectarian (inevitably Christian) prayers before town hall meetings are not violations of the separation of church and state. It is hard to believe that a Jewish or Muslim citizen seeking a zoning change or a lodging a complaint with his local officials would not be disconcerted when the proceedings at which he is making a request are begun with a prayer to Jesus Christ. The AU national office has comments about this unfortunate development at https://www.au.org/media/press-releases/americans-united-disappointed-that-us-supreme-court-ruled-in-favor-of-sectarian
Most Americans will agree that academic freedom is important in any educational setting.
Kwame Mensah
In 1987, the U.S Supreme Court handed down a ruling that invalidated a Louisiana law that required public schools in that state to offer a “balanced treatment” between the theory of evolution and creationism in their science classes.
It has been 27 years since the Edwards vs. Aguillard ruling. Since that time, several lower federal courts have struck down the idea of teaching creationism in public schools.
Unfortunately, the issue is still alive and well.
Some religious fundamentalists have began to regroup and change the language of creationism to make it sound more appealing.
The terms and strategies to reintroduce creationism back into the sphere of public education are as follows: “evidence against evolution,” “the theory of abrupt appearance” and, of course, “intelligent design.”
Whatever the repackaging scheme, the core ideas consist of the same old biblical fundamentalism fronting as legitimate science.
In addition to the new terms, creationists have attempted to adapt the strategy of wanting to only have a discussion about this supposedly “controversial” issue called evolution.
The assertion of the religious fundamentalist is that they serve as spokespeople for “academic freedom,” a claim made in proposed legislation in many states this year.
So the question becomes, what’s the endgame? The answer is quite old and simple.
It seems to be a pernicious attempt to sway young people who are already disillusioned with science or more difficult concepts, who would now be offered an easier answer to “where did we come from?”
The fundamentalist answer is, “God did it.”
Just having that creationist option in the science classroom would lead to further confusion and distortion of what we as a civilization know about the physical world.
As a teacher I know that the future of our nation depends and belongs to the scientifically literate, specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math.
Students who enter college without the rigorous enrichment of evolutionary theory and its principles suffer a disadvantage.
The good news is that with the exception of a few Christian fundamentalist schools, colleges and universities teach evolution unapologetically and without controversy.
That is, for now.
.Appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 2, 2014: Mensah is a contributor to STLtoday.com/religion. He serves as a board member on the St. Louis Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
On March 20, 2014, we enjoyed a dinner talk by Rev. Barry Lynn, the national Executive Director of Americans United. He was our special guest at our approximately annual dinner meeting at the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, 3415 Olive Street. Food was catered by the Triumph Grill, that is right downstairs. It was a great evening. If you missed it, you shouldn’t have!
You may have heard AU Executive Director Barry Lynn On Wednesday morning, March 12, when he was a guest on Charlie Brennan’s morning program on KMOX. He was our special guest at our dinner on March 20.
We had a good crowd for our showing of “God Loves Uganda”, an award-winning documentary by director Roger Ross Williams. It was premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and has been nominated for an Academy Award. The story is about the influence that American Evangelicals have had on the Ugandan government, encouraging them to adopt severe penalties (including the death penalty) on gay people. We screened it at the Ethical Society.
This issue remains in the news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26320102
AU Board members have been reading a very interesting but very depressing (from our point of view) book, “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children“, by Katherine Stewart. Because of a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, public schools are largely defenseless against evangelical organizations (GNC being the most active, best-funded, and nefarious) who are taking over public schools for activities aimed primarily at children between 4 and 14. Even more alarming is that churches are being “planted” in public school buildings across the country, including here in St. Louis. If you are wondering what “planting” means, it is just as bad as it sounds. Public school buildings, including auditoriums and classrooms are taken over (at minimal ‘rent’, usually covering only utilities) for regular Sunday church services and Sunday schools. Katherine Stewart’s book describes these movements in detail, and the picture is not pretty. Read the book.
