LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

"Intelligent Design" seems, at least on the surface, to be a really neat idea- there was some vast unknown 'intelligence' behind the creation and evolution of the universe. But wait- I said the dreaded "E-word"- the word that the more extreme Christian sects find noxious and untenable. After all, the world is only 6000 years old, the dinosaurs are a Satanic Plant, and the whole lot of us are descended from Adam and Eve.

So, how can a good, God-fearing sect get that nasty evolution out of the schools and have "Intelligent Design" substituted instead? Easy. Pick a state with a below-par school system, take over the school boards at the grass roots level, and have at it. Kansas and Ohio are two of the battlegrounds, as is Arkansas. Kansas has become the poster child of how to make a state a total scholastic laughingstock.

Here are a couple of sites that will educate, and hopefully alarm you. Don't think that it won't happen in your neighborhood, because it probably already is...

Here's a 'how to' blueprint for taking over a failing school district: Intelligent Design Network

And here's what happens when the locals catch on, and kick them out again: Ohio Excludes Creationism

Happy reading....

Sunfell

(PS: I think that the blossoming of our universe was probably some unfathomable combination of deliberate design and random chance. But BibleGod didn't do it. And to use the idea that the universe was created by BibleGod as a way to place our brains into their particularly narrow traces is a poor recruiting tactic.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Interesting article in today's Voice of America (Thanks, Wren!)

"The emphasis on violence often accompanies the view that history is coming to a close, that there will be a final battle, a kind of literal Armageddon that will decide whether the victory is God's or Satan's," he said. "And that kind of apocalyptic strain is one of the strongest motivators of violence."

VOA news article

Sunfell

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Congresswoman Jan Schakowski (D- Illinois) had some interesting and chilling observations about the current administration:

I salute the leadership that the religious leaders – clergy and lay people – have shown on the war. Don't stop now. "God is a Republican" is a guiding principle for this Administration. As long as there are Congressional resolutions and official days of prayer, the United States can continue to preemptively attack any country it wants. As Senate Leader Bill Frist said at a large gathering I attended, "All you need to know is the difference between right and wrong, good and evil."


Their God is homophobic and anti-choice. The Secretary of Education Rod Paige said, "All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community. In a religious environment the value system is set. That's not the case in a public school where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values." The dangerous destruction of the wall between Church and State is well underway. It is religious leaders and the faith community that needs to address this.

Whose 'right and wrong'? Whose 'good and evil'? Yours? Theirs? Is Dark Christianity taking over our country? You'd better believe it, because if you don't, you're going to wake up one day in a real-life "A Handmaid's Tale". Not a scenario many of us- including more moderate and thoughtful and inclusive Christians- want to see.

Read the rest of the Congresswoman's speech here.

Sunfell