US' Christian Asshats Plan to Teach Genocide to School Kids

Fed up talking videogames? Why?
User avatar
Alvin Flummux
Member
Joined in 2008
Contact:

PostUS' Christian Asshats Plan to Teach Genocide to School Kids
by Alvin Flummux » Thu May 31, 2012 3:28 pm

Disturbing news from the USA...

The Bible has thousands of passages that may serve as the basis for instruction and inspiration. Not all of them are appropriate in all circumstances.

The story of Saul and the Amalekites is a case in point. It's not a pretty story, and it is often used by people who don't intend to do pretty things. In the book of 1 Samuel (15:3), God said to Saul:

"Now go, attack the Amalekites, and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."


Saul dutifully exterminated the women, the children, the babies and all of the men – but then he spared the king. He also saved some of the tastier looking calves and lambs. God was furious with him for his failure to finish the job.

The story of the Amalekites has been used to justify genocide throughout the ages. According to Pennsylvania State University Professor Philip Jenkins, a contributing editor for the American Conservative, the Puritans used this passage when they wanted to get rid of the Native American tribes. Catholics used it against Protestants, Protestants against Catholics. "In Rwanda in 1994, Hutu preachers invoked King Saul's memory to justify the total slaughter of their Tutsi neighbors," writes Jenkins in his 2011 book, Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can't Ignore the Bible's Violent Verses (HarperCollins).

This fall, more than 100,000 American public school children, ranging in age from four to 12, are scheduled to receive instruction in the lessons of Saul and the Amalekites in the comfort of their own public school classrooms. The instruction, which features in the second week of a weekly "Bible study" course, will come from the Good News Club, an after-school program sponsored by a group called the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). The aim of the CEF is to convert young children to a fundamentalist form of the Christian faith and recruit their peers to the club.

There are now over 3,200 clubs in public elementary schools, up more than sevenfold since the 2001 supreme court decision, Good News Club v Milford Central School, effectively required schools to include such clubs in their after-school programing.

The CEF has been teaching the story of the Amalekites at least since 1973. In its earlier curriculum materials, CEF was euphemistic about the bloodshed, saying simply that "the Amalekites were completely defeated." In the most recent version of the curriculum, however, the group is quite eager to drive the message home to its elementary school students. The first thing the curriculum makes clear is that if God gives instructions to kill a group of people, you must kill every last one:

"You are to go and completely destroy the Amalekites (AM-uh-leck-ites) – people, animals, every living thing. Nothing shall be left."


"That was pretty clear, wasn't it?" the manual tells the teachers to say to the kids.

Even more important, the Good News Club wants the children to know, the Amalakites were targeted for destruction on account of their religion, or lack of it. The instruction manual reads:

"The Amalekites had heard about Israel's true and living God many years before, but they refused to believe in him. The Amalekites refused to believe in God and God had promised punishment."


The instruction manual goes on to champion obedience in all things. In fact, pretty much every lesson that the Good News Club gives involves reminding children that they must, at all costs, obey. If God tells you to kill nonbelievers, he really wants you to kill them all. No questions asked, no exceptions allowed.

Asking if Saul would "pass the test" of obedience, the text points to Saul's failure to annihilate every last Amalekite, posing the rhetorical question:

"If you are asked to do something, how much of it do you need to do before you can say, 'I did it!'?"

"If only Saul had been willing to seek God for strength to obey!" the lesson concludes.

A review question in the textbook seeks to drive the point home further:

"How did King Saul only partly obey God when he attacked the Amalekites? (He did not completely destroy as God had commanded, he kept the king and some of the animals alive.)"


The CEF and the legal advocacy groups that have been responsible for its tremendous success over the past ten years are determined to "Knock down all doors, all the barriers, to all 65,000 public elementary schools in America and take the Gospel to this open mission field now! Not later, now!" in the words of a keynote speaker at the CEF's national convention in 2010. The CEF wants to operate in the public schools, rather than in churches, because they know that young children associate the public schools with authority and are unable to distinguish between activities that take place in a school and those that are sponsored by the school.

In the majority opinion that opened the door to Good News Clubs, supreme court Justice Clarence Thomas reasoned that the activities of the CEF were not really religious, after all. He said that they could be characterized, for legal purposes, "as the teaching of morals and character development from a particular viewpoint".

As Justices Souter and Stevens pointed out in their dissents, however, the claim is preposterous: the CEF plainly aims to teach religious doctrines and conduct services of worship. Thomas's claim is particularly ironic in view of the fact that the CEF makes quite clear its intent to teach that no amount of moral or ethical behavior (pdf) can spare a nonbeliever from an eternity in hell.

Good News Clubs should not be in America's public elementary schools. As I explain in my book, The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children, the club exists mainly to give small children the false impression that their public school supports a particular creed. The clubs' presence has produced a paradoxical entanglement of church and state that has ripped apart communities, degraded public education, and undermined religious freedom.

The CEF's new emphasis on the genocide of nonbelievers makes a bad situation worse. Exterminist rhetoric has been on the rise among some segments of the far right, including some religious groups. At what point do we start taking talk of genocide seriously? How would we feel about a nonreligious group that instructs its students that if they should ever receive an order to commit genocide, they should fulfill it to the letter?

And finally, when does a religious group qualify as a "hate group"?


http://www.guardian....P=FBCNETTXT9038


When will the justice department and the government (state and federal) take seriously the threat that far right religious groups espousing extermination doctrines pose to the education of children, and to the future of the country? It feels like it would take the rise of an American religious equivalent of Adolph Hitler (an orator extraordinaire, passionate and filled with hatred and bigotry) for the supreme court justices to actually unite on taking real action against the indoctrination of the youth of the USA today, but of course by then it would be too late.

These people need to be stopped. Religion, especially of the more extremist varieties, needs to be stripped back away from the education system, and the GNC and CEF forcibly disbanded before they start training their poor, deluded recruits in paramilitary activities and become the Christian Taliban. If they are allowed to continue to grow then, after a certain point, any resistance they meet will inevitably be met with violence and intimidation.


I really do fear for the future of this country sometimes, and this is one of those times.

Last edited by Alvin Flummux on Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Scotticus Erroticus
Member
Joined in 2008
Contact:

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Scotticus Erroticus » Thu May 31, 2012 3:37 pm

Remind me again how they became the most powerful nation on the planet?

ImageImage
User avatar
Pontius Pilate
Member
Joined in 2008
Location: Scotland

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Pontius Pilate » Thu May 31, 2012 3:39 pm

Scotticus Erroticus wrote:Remind me again how they became the most powerful nation on the planet?


Image

Bigerich
Member
Joined in 2008
Location: Bergen

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Bigerich » Thu May 31, 2012 4:09 pm

Sparebanken Møre lol.

jambot
Member
Joined in 2008

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by jambot » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:05 am

.

Last edited by jambot on Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Captain Kinopio
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: Memento Mori
Location: The Observatory

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Captain Kinopio » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:06 am

Alvin has become the KKlein of America-bashing stories

Time for adventure
User avatar
Skarjo
Emeritus
Joined in 2008

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Skarjo » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:10 am

Hands up if you ever drew a picture of Noah's Ark at school.

Oh that's right, teaching kids that genocide is fine so long as God thinks they're naughty has been a cornerstone of our curriculum for years.

Don't worry, pick your shitty religion, pick your shitty story and if you can't reconcile it with basic human ethics; BAM. Symbolism.

Karl wrote:Can't believe I got baited into expressing a political stance on hentai

Skarjo's Scary Stories...
User avatar
Knoyleo
Member
Joined in 2008

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Knoyleo » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:32 am

Skarjo wrote:Hands up if you ever drew a picture of Noah's Ark at school.

I drew a picture of a Hong Kong Star Ferry boat, does that count?

pjbetman wrote:That's the stupidest thing ive ever read on here i think.
User avatar
Skarjo
Emeritus
Joined in 2008

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Skarjo » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:42 am

That's like three times worse.

You monster.

Karl wrote:Can't believe I got baited into expressing a political stance on hentai

Skarjo's Scary Stories...
User avatar
Irene Demova
Member
Joined in 2009
AKA: Karl

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Irene Demova » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:51 am

Skarjo wrote:Hands up if you ever drew a picture of Noah's Ark at school.

Oh that's right, teaching kids that genocide is fine so long as God thinks they're naughty has been a cornerstone of our curriculum for years.

Don't worry, pick your shitty religion, pick your shitty story and if you can't reconcile it with basic human ethics; BAM. Symbolism.

I remember being taught the Tower of Babel in infant school, all I took out of that was that learning French wasn't worth the effort

User avatar
Lagamorph
Member ♥
Joined in 2010

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Lagamorph » Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:28 am

So it's wrong to teach Evolution even as a theory, but it's fine to teach the worst parts of the Bible as not only fact, but a moral compass that will define your outlook on life.

Yup, we're in America alright.

Lagamorph's Underwater Photography Thread
Zellery wrote:Good post Lagamorph.
Turboman wrote:Lagomorph..... Is ..... Right
User avatar
Errkal
Member
Joined in 2011
Location: Hastings
Contact:

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Errkal » Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:39 am

Oh For strawberry float Sakes.

User avatar
Scotticus Erroticus
Member
Joined in 2008
Contact:

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Scotticus Erroticus » Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:11 am

jambot wrote:I think it's important that the Bibbel is only taught as a whole, unadulterated document. There are too many people calling themselves Christians, and Moslems for that matter, who haven't read their canonical dogmatic texts; and too much of it is expurgated for modern liberal sensibilities - missing out the parts that are a bit, well, mental.
It's only when people actually look at these texts in totality that they realise what a total and utter load of knuckle-dragging, medieval bullshit these religions really are.

Know your enemy.



No, just no. We got taught and encouraged to discuss the mental bits of the Bible in Catholic school. In fact, it is part of the curriculum.

ImageImage
User avatar
G-Rat
Member
Joined in 2009

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by G-Rat » Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:31 pm

Errkal wrote:Oh For strawberry float Sakes.

Is this a meme that I've missed or something?

Anung wrote:Destroying Japan from the inside like an alcoholic Nagasaki.
jambot
Member
Joined in 2008

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by jambot » Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:57 pm

.

Last edited by jambot on Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Foxhound
Member
Joined in 2011

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Foxhound » Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:03 pm

Can we not call them 'Fundies'? It makes them seem light hearted and playful.

User avatar
Alvin Flummux
Member
Joined in 2008
Contact:

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Alvin Flummux » Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:11 pm

Foxhound wrote:Can we not call them 'Fundies'? It makes them seem light hearted and playful.


'Fundamentalists' and 'Extremists' would not fit into the topic title bar.

User avatar
SEP
Member ♥
Joined in 2008
AKA: Moggy

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by SEP » Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:52 pm

Alvin Flummux wrote:
Foxhound wrote:Can we not call them 'Fundies'? It makes them seem light hearted and playful.


'Fundamentalists' and 'Extremists' would not fit into the topic title bar.


"banana splits" would have worked nicely, though.

Image
User avatar
Alvin Flummux
Member
Joined in 2008
Contact:

PostRe: US' Christian Fundies Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Alvin Flummux » Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:06 pm

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:
Alvin Flummux wrote:
Foxhound wrote:Can we not call them 'Fundies'? It makes them seem light hearted and playful.


'Fundamentalists' and 'Extremists' would not fit into the topic title bar.


"banana splits" would have worked nicely, though.


I'll come up with something less vulgar...

User avatar
Meep
Member
Joined in 2010
Location: Belfast

PostRe: US' Christian Asshats Plan to Teach Genocide to School K
by Meep » Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:12 pm

Funts?


Return to “Stuff”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Dowbocop, Garth, Neo Cortex, poshrule_uk, PuppetBoy, Robbo-92, shy guy 64 and 361 guests