Religious Assault on Democracy (Religious Bill of Rights)

[LAGC]

The following events were well reported and recorded during this past week. Colorado Senator, Dave Schultheis proposed a bill, SB089 (1), this past week, which would have undermined important democratic institutions. Fortunately, poor negotiating skills made killing the bill in committee possible(2). The vehicle for this subversion was a Religious Bill of Rights, that, in addition to being an insult to the First Amendment, was deemed generally redundant to the ‘real’ Bill of Rights.

This Bill was purportedly necessary for the protection of religious persons from attacks on their religious rights in the public school system despite the fact that there was no evidence or even anecdotal testimony to support such ridiculous claims. The particulars of the Bill and it’s outrageous demands have been well covered (3)(4). The two most controversial areas of concern are first, that teachers would not have to teach anything that may disagree with their religious views, and that they could openly display their own religious material in their classrooms and, second, that students could refuse or oppose course material for the same irrational reasons(1). The part of the story that I would like to draw attention to is the resulting affect any such Bill would have on the ability of the elected officials of the school board to implement the wishes and demands of the electorate. What is the affect on our democracy if the curriculum of our public school system is influenced by dictates from either one, or even several competing, religious theologies?

The bill is laden with tacit threats of increased and ongoing costly court challenges, even against individual board members, if the public school system refused to adopt and assertively implement its guidelines and demands. The goal of this blatant coercion was the usurping of the authority from our duly-elected school board officials.
..
..

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/02/21/religious-assault-on-democracy/

The day we take science out of the classroom and replace it with religious offerings, is the day this nation ceases being a democracy.

Scary, to think people are actually trying to pass such stuff...

[Chulanowa]

1. A few atheist history teachers could mess that up right quick.

"Okay kids, today we'll be starting at chapter one with hte Sumerian civilizzations, and will be wrapping up the book with hte final chapter set in the 80's.
"Hey.. .teach? What about the rest of the stuff?"
"Oh, that's just religious people doing things, you know, the church and stuff. I'm not teaching that. Now, open your books to page one..."

[MadMaddie]

2. This is such a false argument

<snip>
teachers would not have to teach anything that may disagree with their religious views, and that they could openly display their own religious material in their classrooms and, second, that students could refuse or oppose course material for the same irrational reasons
<snip>

The teachers that want to abide by religious doctrine....can teach in church run schools or participate in home schooling. They have alternatives. Why isn't this hammered home....?

[darkstar3]

3. Meh.

It's Colorado, whaddaya gonna do? When the men are manly, the women are few, and the sheep are nervous, people get a little nuts.

[EC]

4. Aren't there already enough

religious schools they can send their kids?

[struggle4progress]

5. These wackos aren't going to disappear, but I don't see them winning either: we'll be forced

from time to time to stomp out the little brush fires they set, but it's not that hard to do so

[damyank913]

6. That's 100% true but...

look at VA. Gov Macdonald. He's been in office for a month and already is challenging family planning groups financing, and "unnecessary" high school programs are getting cut. His next move is gonna be to approve vouchers for financing religious based schools. That's how they plan to bring down public education. That's why we ALL need to vote every time!