Southern
Democrats Want the Bible Taught in Public Schools
by RJ Schinner,
Just when you
thought the Democrats couldn’t sink any lower in capitulation, they went up and
done it. In Georgia and Alabama, Democrats in Congress are sponsoring bills
to teach the bible in public schools.
A key pillar of the
Bush regime has been imposing a narrow and hateful of brand of Christian
fundamentalism on all of society. From
the courts, where the Ten Commandments are beginning to find a place on the
wall and the Supreme Court is increasingly stacked with anti-abortion
ultra-conservatives, to Congress, to schools, to AIDS policy, to holiday
shopping, they have already gone a long way towards theocracy. All this has ugly implications for the people
( from the millions dying in Africa from
AIDS due to “abstinence-only” policies, to women who will be forced to submit
to their “traditional role” and government control over their bodies, to youth
being taught creationist nonsense in schools.
The reality of this regime’s morality can be summed up in the words of Congressman
Richard Baker of Louisiana:
“We’ve finally cleaned up public housing in New
Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did it.”
This whole ugly assault under guise of ‘morality’ needs to
be stopped. But instead of standing up
in the face of this, the Democrats’ response is to “tell us to seek common
ground with fascists and religious fanatics’.
As Howard Dean put it, “We have done it in a secular way, and we
don’t have to. I think teaching the
Bible as literature is a good thing.”
And now they’re even trying to outdo the Republicans in the
crusade to impose Christian fundamentalism on society. The proposed bills in Georgia
and Alabama would authorize
school boards to use a new entitled “The Bible and Its Influence” in
high school courses. The book purports
to be an objective look at the influence the bible on society throughout
history. But Barry Lynn of Americans
United for the Separation of Church and State said the book sanitized the
effect of religion throughout history, by minimizing Christian support for
slavery and Christian anti-Semitism. “To teach religion objectively, you
really have to teach the good, the bad and the ugly and this book only teaches
the good,” he said.
In Alabama,
Democrats are taking their game of “who can be more theocratic” even
further. They support prayer in schools,
and their campaign slogan for the Governor’s race is “Give Me That Old
Time Religion.”
While Southern Democrats are at the forefront, this strategy
of taking up the far Right’s program is more widespread among the
Democrats. Just look at the recent
election of Governor Tim Kaine, an anti-abortion Democrat who ran on a campaign
of “moral values”, and the subsequent decision to have Kaine give the
Democrats’ response to Bush’s state of the union address.
As justification for the latest move rightward, the
Democrats claim that after Bush’s election victory, largely based on his appeal
to “moral values” voters, they must take up this program in order to get the
votes. If you can’t (or don’t want to)
beat ’em, join ’em. But what’s really required
in the face of this onslaught is forcefully repudiating this Christian
fundamentalist agenda, not pandering to it.
And in the course of going against the tide of bigotry and intolerance,
we can reach out to many of those who have been so badly fooled by all this,
and peel some of them away from the army of unthinking theocrats. What’s right and what’s true stand in stark
contrast to any of this fundamentalist “morality”, and even if this goes “against
the grain”, it’s necessary, as it was with the civil rights movement or the
anti-Vietnam war protests, to stand up for what’s right. As the Call for The World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out
the Bush Regime puts it, “that which you will not resist and mobilize to stop,
you will learn ( or be forced ( to accept.'”
(sources: ‘Democrats
in 2 Southern States Push Bills on Bible Study’, NY Times,
Reason to Drive Out the Bush Regime’,