The Christian Taliban

Although they think the rapture will soon be upon us, before Jesus returns to send Muslims, Liberals, and abortionists to Hell the religious fundementalist Christian movement is trying to impose their medeval belief system into our secular school system.

Revision Marches to Social Agenda

By Scott Gold Times Staff Writer

SPRING, Texas - Outside the Spring Church of Christ, a large roadside sign says a lot about the prevailing sensibility in this cordial town. It reads: "Support New Testament Morality."

This is the home and powerbase of Terri Leo, a state Board of Education member representing 2.5 million people in East Texas.

At the urging of Leo and several other members who describe themselves as Christian conservatives the board this month approved new health textbooks for high school and middle school students after publishers said they would tweak references to marriage and sexuality.

One agreed to define marriage as a "lifelong union between a husband and a wife." Another deleted words that were attacked by conservatives as "stealth" references to gay relationships; "partners," for example, was changed to "husbands and wives." A passage explaining that adolescence brings the onset of "attraction to others" became "attraction to the opposite sex."

Leo said she pushed for the changes to combat the influence of "liberal New York publishers" who by "censoring" the definition of marriage were legitimizing same-sex unions.

Yes, because the definition of marriage is of one man and one woman as laid down by GOD in the Bible, the ultimate textbook of Truth. This seems to be an instance where the religious right is against censorship for once, although their logic is screwed. They are using their power to impose their fundamentalist, superstitious ideologies into our classsrooms, replacing facts with religious conjecture. They have been insisting for years that evolution is a sham and carbon dating unreliable, citing the fact that evolution is still considered a theory. Things that aren't theories to them? Well, the Earth, of course, is 5,000 years old. Any scientist that tells you differently must have a liberal secular agenda.

Research, much of it conducted by the federal government, has raised a host of questions about the effectiveness of abstinence programs in preventing disease and pregnancy. Teenage girls who are taught in the programs do wait longer before having sex, many experts believe, but are less likely to use protection when they do causing them to contract sexually transmitted diseases at the same rates as those who have sex earlier.

"I have very little use for this religion-driven curriculum," Sewall said. "This confuses sex and moral education."

Another thing they love is pushing abstinence only programs that don't work. The right will never let themselves believe the simple fact that under the "immoral" Bill Clinton both teen pregnancy and abortion rates were down. Under Bush they have gone up.

Texas is the second-largest buyer of textbooks in the nation, after California. Books purchased here wind up in classrooms across the nation, because publishers are loath to create new editions for smaller states.

As a result, five social conservatives on the 15-member Texas board, frequently joined by five more moderate Republicans, have enormous clout and often control the content used to teach millions of children.

Publishers have no choice but to heed many of the group's wishes, said Don McLeroy, a dentist, Sunday school teacher and Texas Board of Education member.

"They've got to sell books," he said. "It's business."

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"It does not help our kids to use them as pawns for divisive social agendas," he said. "It might be astute in the short term, but not in any meaningful sense for our kids or our country."

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