The Texas State Board of Education is involved in the latest fracas proving that Texas education is still under the thumb of people who may have been educated but never learned anything - Republicans, naturally! For years, these Republicans, being good "Bible-believing" Christians, have tried to foist their fundamentalist religion upon students in Texas schools.
It looks like they have finally succeeded. By a vote of 10 to 5, the Texas State Board of Education voted to approve textbooks that would inform Texas school children that the US of A is a Christian nation, that "portray Moses as an influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of democracy."
Now all that is so far-fetched as to be laughable, but the Republicans who control the state's board of education are serious.
One has to wonder if these morons have ever read the Old Testament or the stories about Moses. If they had, they would know that democracy was not even a concept in those days. Yahweh was king and ruled absolutely. The Israelites made a mutual covenant with Yahweh, their king, which said that Yahweh would take care of them and protect them by defeating their enemies so long as they obeyed Yahweh's every wish. If they failed to obey, Yahweh would take away his protection or kill them outright.
Some democracy.
Furthermore, Moses is not even an historical figure. There was no person named Moses! It's all myth and legend! I think these fundy Christians are so ignorant they have taken one of the three presentations of the so-called Ten Commandments (each containing a different 10 commands!) and want very hard to believe that our Constitution was based on those ten no-no's.
That just doesn't work, though. You shall have no other gods? Is that in our Constitution? You shall keep the Sabbath day? Is that in our Constitution? You shall not make any graven images? Where do you find that in our Constitution? Don't commit adultery? I don't find that in the Constitution, either. And honor your mother and father? What? Where is that, in the Bill of Rights?
Essentially what you have running the public education system in Texas are a bunch of fundamentalist ignoramuses who intend and have the power to foist their specific brand of ignorance on the youth of the state.
Perhaps this is what it's all about. An article at Crooks & Liars states:
"Scholars claim the decision to include the biblical figure of Moses in social studies education is part of a concerted effort by Christian extremists to promote the idea that the United States is a 'redeemer nation' - giving a divine justification for supposed American exceptionalism."
You'll note the title of this post. I said the Texas State Board of Education is misnamed. It should be called the Texas State Board of Christian Propaganda.
2 comments:
I think Sam Houston would shake his head in dismay with how Texas has turned out today.
People who think that our Constitution and the 10 Commandments have anything in common have obviously never read either.
And democracy in the Old Testament? The ancient Israelites had the very definition of a Theocracy. Democracy was not even a concept back then.
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