Sham homeschools are fostering a radical right wing fifth column
Until the 1980s homeschooling was a benign activity that affected very few children. After homeschooling became dominated by right wing Christian theocrats, millions of vulnerable children (estimates are suspect because of poor reporting requirements) became virtual prisoners in their own homes, pawns in a scheme to overthrow the United States Government and replace it with a theocracy. The theocrats scheme includes lobbying state legislatures, pressing free exercise of religion cases in the courts and collusion with extreme right wing Republican officials. The result is an almost total lack of oversight by government officials. It will require dedication for the new administration to undo the Bush administration handiwork.
Legitimate homeschools are in league with the sham homeschools because they also want to prohibit any kind of oversight or control. Although the legitimate people have a small public voice, the radical right are loaded with resources and lobbyists.
The Supreme Court gave parents the right to teach children the tenets and the practices of their faith back in 1944. (Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 164 (1944). The Prince decision, together with the Yoder vs Wisconsin decision inspired theocratic zealots to create a rebellious strain of home schooling. Lead by radicals, this movement is creating a virtual fifth column of ignorant children raised to hate democracy and to revile and distrust their government institutions. In this way, the theocrats are systematically grooming innocent children through a staged process involving homeschools, a project called Generation Joshua and the Patrick Henry College. Their aim is to quietly infiltrate, hamper, frustrate and then dismantle the government of the United States and establish a theocracy according to Dominionist theology. The theocrats plan seems to be working because the Bush administration opened the doors of government to Patrick Henry College graduates while the general public has taken little notice. But then, the devious theocrats are anything but honest and above board. They are like cockroaches, termites and other vermin that hide out of sight. They will not advocate a public position because they know they cannot win an honest public debate.
No one contemplated the political power extreme right wing Christians would usurp in the latter decades of the 20st century. Nor, how they would first systematically attack the public school system and then in frustration, how they would begin to withdraw their children from public schools in astonishing numbers. Able to mobilize thousands of parents to swamp legislatures with denial of service calls and emails, they steam rolled their agenda of removing truancy laws across the country. There was little or no opposition from the federal or state governments, who depend upon reliable telephone and Internet connections to operate. Denial of service attacks combined with bare knuckle political threats became weapons of choice and are still used today. HSLDA even brags about their success in hampering the functioning of government.
With sequestered children constantly supervised by zealous despotic parents, the indoctrination of a backward debauched religion can take place 24 hours a day seven days a week. Out of sight, the indoctrination goes unnoticed. The unfortunate children’s parents rigorously shield them from civilian authority, and they are not allowed to associate with anyone that has not been pre-approved. Parents heavily monitor and restrict radio, television, movies, the Internet and live entertainment events. When legal problems threaten, parents use the threadbare guise of sacrosanct religious liberty and call on well heeled advocacy groups like Michael Farris’s Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), Focus on the Family, The Pacific Justice Institute, and The Eagle Forum to name just a few far right heavily funded special interest groups of dubious character.
In these families, there will be no nonsense about Title 9 gender equality, or sex education or tolerance of other’s beliefs; parents are convinced they alone have the truth and all outsiders are Satan’s spawn that are going to hell. There is no effort to teach the children how to reason or make moral judgments based on logic; morality lessons consist of picked over biblical dogma.
This trend has been in place for nearly 20 years and has spawned a vast infrastructure of lobbyists, legal assistance groups, and purveyors of “approved” curriculum materials. Many curriculum materials advertise that they teach subjects in a “godly” way. Believe it or not there are even teaching materials that extend this pedagogy to mathematics!
Dr. Rob Reich (Professor of Political Science and Ethics at Stanford University ) explains what he considers is the major problem in terms of parents deliberately frustrating the development of autonomy in their children:
The problem with homeschooling and parental authority over education arises not out of conflicts over whether children should become independent adults. Few people wish to defend the authority of parents who plainly care too little. The problem arises over parents who, as it were, care too much in seeking to prevent the development of autonomy in their children. I mean to suggest that parents who wish to control the socialization of their children so completely as to instill inerrant beliefs in their own world view or unquestioning obedience to their own or others’ authority are motivated often by a fervent care for, not neglect of their children. Even when defined minimally, some parents may object to the idea that their children should receive an education that promotes their critical thinking and capacities for reflection on their own and other’s ends. Being minimally autonomous, I claimed, was in the interest of the child for personal and civic reasons. The fact that autonomy is necessary for citizenship makes education for autonomy an interest of the state as well. Thus, when parents reject the facilitation of autonomy in their children, they find themselves in conflict with both the interests of the child and of the state.
A measure of just how thoroughly the theocrats took control of the US Department of Education can be gained by the comments made by Jack Klenk, Director of the Office of Non Public Education at the U.S. Department of Education at a recent meeting sponsored by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA a vociferous foe of homeschool oversight ) and featuring eight congressional representatives . Here is part of the HSLDA report on their web site:
Mr. Klenk has served in the Department for over 20 years, and he talked about how he has seen homeschooling start and grow through the years. He also acknowledged that the Department of Education has heard the homeschool community’s message that the “federal government must leave homeschoolers alone,” and will honor that message. He closed by sharing his and the current administration’s belief that “homeschooling is good for children, good for families, and good for society.
Have we no right to expect impartial judgments emanating from such a high government official? Mr Klenk has hopefully departed to other pursuits by this time, if he has not been fired.
The corrupt Bush administration and his allied theocrats were determined to surreptitiously undermine and drag down the government of the United States. Accordingly, it should be obvious to Americans that the Obama administration must act decisively to regulate homeschools on an urgent basis.
Professor Rob Reich proposed the following provisional framework some years ago:
A PROVISIONAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR HOME SCHOOLING
Recall that the purpose of these regulations is to help ensure that the state’s interest in providing a civic education for children is met, and to protect the independent interest of the child in developing into a free or autonomous adult. … I propose three minimal regulations. The results of the democratic process might yield additional regulations, which would not necessarily be inconsistent with my views, but these seem to me the bare minimum, as follows:1. All parents who home school must register with a public official. The state needs to be able to distinguish between truants and home-schooled students, and it needs a record that specific children are being home schooled so that its other regulations can be enforced.
2. Parents must demonstrate to educational officials that their homeschool curriculum meets some minimal standard. The minimal standard will include academic benchmarks as well as an assurance that children are exposed to and engaged with ideas, values, and beliefs that are different from those of the parents. For instance, every home-school curriculum should include information about a variety of religious traditions (I believe this should be the case, as well, for public and private schools.) Parents are free to teach their children that their own religious faith is the truth, but they cannot shield children from the knowledge that other people have different convictions and that these people are, from the standpoint of citizenship, their equals.
3. Parents must permit their children to be tested periodically on some kind of basic skills exam. Should home-schooled children repeatedly fail to make progress on this exam, relative to their public or private school peers, then a case could be made to compel school attendance. Label this educational harm. (The same kind of educational harm surely exists in some public schools, of course. And this is one reason that I believe parents should have the authority to hold the state accountable for public schools by pulling their children from failing schools and enrolling them elsewhere.) In short, these regulations amount to the following:
• The state registers who is being home schooled.
• The state insists upon a curriculum that meets minimal academic standards and that introduces students to value pluralism.
• The state tests students periodically to ensure that minimal academic progress is being made.Would many home schools be unable to meet these regulations? …. If creating and enforcing regulations would prevent even a few children from suffering educational harm or from receiving an education that stunted or disabled their freedom, the regulations would be worthwhile. Strictly enforced regulations ensure that parents do not wield total and unchecked authority over the education of their children. What is at stake here is not a question of social utility or stability, whether home schooling could threaten democracy. What is at stake is the justice that we owe children, that they receive an education that cultivates their future citizenship, their individual freedom, and that teaches them at least basic academic skills, skills that are necessary for ably exercising both their citizenship and their freedom.”
I wish I could be as sanguine as Rob Reich, because our democracy could clearly be at risk if millions of compromised children continue to go through this warped religious soaked system. In addition, why settle for minimum standards?
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1020/cover.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7630851222567912489#docid=5881186192356745364
God’s Next Army
Documentary about Patrick Henry College for homeschooled evangelical children.
http://www.truthout.org/article/christian-reconstructionists-trying-take-dominion-america
http://www.parentalrights.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={1F86E588-AA4A-43A1-998D-D9BF4FBE4D09} Michael Farris brags about denial of service attack.
About Michael Farris and sham home schools:
http://a2zhomeschool.com/homes
Purge of Professors at Patrick Henry
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/26/83129/0021
http://www.publiceye.org/christian_right/dominionism.htm
Reports on the web include:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm#_edn14
http://www.theocracywatch.org/
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v19n3/clarkson_dominionism.html
http://www.theocracywatch.org/chris_hedges_nov24_04.htm
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/5/155457/0298
http://a2zhomeschool.com/homeschool/2009/06/16/reconstruction-theology-and-home-education/
Books
American Fascists, The Christian Right and The War on America, by Chris Hedges
Kingdom Coming, The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg
American Theocracy, The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury by Kevin Philips
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2047
Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling
Author: Robert Kunzman
Product Code: 3291 ISBN: 978-080703291-6
Copyright Date Ed: 08/01/2009
A compelling look at conservative Christian homeschooling families—and the worldview that could radically alter American political and intellectual life.
Reports on the web include:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm#_edn14
http://www.theocracywatch.org/
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v19n3/clarkson_dominionism.html
http://www.theocracywatch.org/chris_hedges_nov24_04.htm
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/5/155457/0298
http://a2zhomeschool.com/homeschool/2009/06/16/reconstruction-theology-and-home-education/
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Do we have a right to tell people they are wrong?
Believe it or not, this question was posed to me in a public parenting forum, hosted by Amazon.com. This is how I responded.
Yes, you bet we do. In life we all make choices that effect our communities, unless we live alone on a desert island. Incompetent parents raise children who because of the maltreatment they endured are angry and become dangerous to everybody around them. Not to mention they live stunted lives and never achieve the potential every human has a right to aspire to. Some wind up incarcerated for long periods or are even executed for capital crimes. Would it not make a lot more sense to get ahead of the problem and seek KNOWN strategies of prevention?
Others who suffered abuse seem to live quasi-normal lives, marry, and have children. Which are likely going to also wind up abused and create yet more stunted lives. This fact only recently came to light although children have been maltreated throughout history.
An official estimate of the Department of Health and Human Services, using 2007 child abuse data for the US, puts the cost for that year at around 94 billion dollars. We all pay such costs and besides an ethical obligation to improve life for all our citizens, the fact we must pay such staggering financial costs certainly gives us the right to speak out, especially against willful ignorance. It is vital that we drop the pretensions and speak frankly.
If people are so backward and simple minded that they cannot understand this basic fact, that is unfortunate for them. Trying to protect the feelings of such people, who will not listen to reason, commands far less importance that trying to prevent very real harm to thousands of children.
I will bend over backwards for anyone who lacks knowledge and is sincere in wanting to understand the facts. I realize that many people do not, unfortunately, have a grasp of the scientific method or how statistical analysis operates to reveal truth. (I only managed a C in that course and I had to have a tutor.) The average American is mystified by how a tv or radio works let alone the bell curve of statistics. But if I can manage some understanding, others can if they try.
Note:
From the HHS web site:http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/foundation/foundationf.cfm
Studies have documented the link between abuse and neglect of children and a range of physical, emotional, psychological, and behavioral problems. In addition to the tragic consequences endured by the children who have been maltreated, society pays a high monetary cost for child maltreatment. The costs for child maltreatment include both direct costs (i.e., those associated with the immediate needs of abused and neglected children) and indirect costs (i.e., those associated with the longer term and secondary effects of child maltreatment). Since some maltreatment goes unrecognized and it is difficult to link costs to specific incidents, it is not possible to determine the actual cost of child abuse and neglect. As estimated by Prevent Child Abuse America, the total annual cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States may be as high as $94 billion, as shown in Exhibit 6-1
Hitting or humiliating children is maltreating them. Centuries of this practice does not validate it as legitimate.
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Are bigots besmirching your blog, fouling up your forum?
- Image via Wikipedia
Bigotry
1. stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.
2. the actions, beliefs, prejudices, etc., of a bigot.
Synonyms:
1. narrow-mindedness, bias, discrimination.
Some bigotry can be traced to ignorance, but not all bigots are ignorant. There are educated bigots to be sure. These ones are usually mired in hatred of one kind or another. Hate for a person of a different religion, ethnic background, or sexual practice. No matter the cause or target of a bigot they are exasperating beyond description. Stonewall, is a fitting description. Like talking to a stone wall. The concept of intellectual honesty eludes them and so they deliberately misconstrue opponents arguments, engage in hyperbole, non sequiturs, and bombast. Apparently, a bigot feels if they are loud enough and forceful enough, their arguments will sway opinion. Unfortunately, this belief has some credibility.
Times of crisis seem to bring out the bigots in full force, because they are basically cowards and there is nothing like a crisis to promote fear, which is their stock in trade. Radio and TV shows featuring “talk” are a favorite haunt. Unfortunately, the host of conservative talk shows are raving bigots, and here I am thinking of the likes of Fox news personalities like Hannity, Beck, Goldberg, and O’Reilly. How did we come to the point when ignorance and stubbornness became valued, indeed marketable, personal traits. Professional bigots command salaries in the millions of dollars and preside over programming that is a virtual factory for turning out more of their kind. The danger to our democracy is that these Idiot Americans vote and are easily led.
The Assault on Reason
The Assault on Reason is a 2007 book written by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. In the book, Gore argues that there is a trend in U.S. politics towards ignoring facts and analysis when making policy decisions. He heavily criticizes the George W. Bush administration for its actions in furthering the “assault on reason”, and also the Congress, Judiciary, and press for being complicit in the process. Gore also suggests the average citizen must be proactive in “restoring democracy”. He expresses hopes that the medium of the Internet will supersede television and what he argues is its inherent bias, creating a “marketplace of ideas” that has not been present since the replacement of the printed word with mass media.
The book ranked number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover nonfiction during the first four weeks of its release, and was on the list top 35 for fifteen weeks.[1] Actor Will Patton narrates the audio version. – Wikipedia entry
You can read excerpts from this book here:
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622015-3,00.html#ixzz0YMQD8QS6
Book Excerpt in Time Magazine: The Assault on Reason
By Al Gore Wednesday, May. 16, 2007The Last Temptation of Al Gore
Long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: “This chamber is, for the most part, silent-ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate.”
Why was the Senate silent?In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: “Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?” The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.
It is too easy-and too partisan-to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America’s public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason-the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power-remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.
[...]
So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way-a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response.
So what can we do about them if we wish to have civil productive public discourse? Lately my strategy has been to tell them I am going to ignore them. In the Amazon discussion forums, the designers of the software thoughtfully provided an “Ignore this customer” button. Once pressed, you no longer see any further posts by the bigot but you can guess from the reaction of the other participants how things are going. This strategy usually has the effect of enraging a bigot and they began calling you names, or otherwise making an ass of themselves, which when reported gets them removed from the forum (and likely any other forums so unlucky to have them). If that scenario doesn’t play out, they usually tire of talking to what is effectively a stonewall (ironic, no) and leave of their own accord. The tactic falls under the category of conversational intolerance. Think about it this way. If you are at cocktail party enjoying a conversation with a group of friends and a bigot saunters in and goes into their act, you can make a face and politely excuse yourself and leave the group. From a distance, keep your eye on what happens next. The bigot will eventually get marginalized and leave. Then you can go back and resume your fellowship with your friends, sans molestation.
In the case of a blog, most blog software makes it easy to remove an objectionable, abusive or bigoted participant. I don’t know about you, but my policy is not to issue any warning. It is like being able to build a stone wall for defense.
Conversational intolerance
[Sam] Harris suggests that he advocates a benign, corrective form of intolerance, distinguishing it from historic religious persecution. He promotes a conversational intolerance, in which personal convictions are scaled against evidence, and where intellectual honesty is demanded equally in religious views and non-religious views. He also believes there is a need to counter inhibitions that prevent the open critique of religious ideas, beliefs, and practices under the auspices of “tolerance.”[13]
Harris maintains that such conversation and investigation are essential to progress in every other field of knowledge. As one example, he suggests that few would require “respect” for radically differing views on physics or history; instead, he notes, societies expect and demand logical reasons and valid evidence for such claims, while those who fail to provide valid support are quickly marginalized on those topics. Thus, Harris suggests that the routine deference accorded to religious ideologies constitutes a double standard, which, following the events of September 11, 2001 attacks, has become too great a risk.[13]
In the 2007 PBS interview, Harris said, “The usefulness of religion, the fact that it gives life meaning, that it makes people feel good is not an argument for the truth of any religious doctrine. It’s not an argument that it’s reasonable to believe that Jesus really was born of a virgin or that the Bible is the perfect word of the creator of the universe. You can only believe those things or you should be only be able to believe those things if you think there are good reasons to believe those things.” — Wiki Entry for Sam Harris
What are your suggestions for dealing with a bigot.
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Parents strongly resist anti-spanking laws
Pro-spanking advocates insist they are against spanking bans because they wish to protect the sanctity of parental discretion. Leave aside the ethics or efficacy of using violence against children as a form of discipline. The issue is that parents must not be hampered in any way as they carry out their parental duties in accordance with their personal judgment. But does their argument withstand careful scrutiny?
Few parents would expect to go into a court and defend themselves against a motor vehicle code violation issued for not complying with a child safety seat ordinance. Laws are in effect all over the country that demand children under certain height and weight specifications ride in child seats and not regular passenger seats. This is because in case of a crash, inflatable air bags can actually kill or maim a small child when they inflate. Passenger car seats are designed for adult bodies, not child bodies and can actually produce injuries to children.
The child safety seat laws are founded on scientific research that predicts what will likely happen to children who are not protected by riding in a seat especially constructed for their safe transportation. Likewise, spanking bans are founded on scientific studies of the harm that will likely happen statistically to a number of children if such bans are not in place. Anti-spanking bans are not based simply on conjecture, but derive their authority based on valid data, rigorously compiled and analyzed.
Libertarian supporters of parental rights don’t seem to object to mandatory child safety seat laws. If their concern is really about government interference in their parental decision making, shouldn’t they therefore resist buying and using expensive child safety seats? What right does the government have to insist parents protect their children from harm by putting them in a car safety seat?
Likewise, many cities and towns have vehicle codes that require children to wear safety helmets when riding on a bike or as a passenger on a motorcycle. Do parents who favor unrestricted control over their decision making, think they would survive a court challenge in case they disregard child safety helmet laws?
When you board an airplane your children must wear a seat belt or you and the child will be removed from the plane. Why do libertarians not object to this intrusion into their parental decision making.
The objection to a spanking ban fails for the same reason that the parental rights defense fails in the instances cited. Although parental rights certainly have a place in the overall scheme of how society raises future generations, child safety deserves a higher priority than noble, abstract, theoretical considerations defending unrestricted parental rights.
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The Christian Morality Help Center Project
- Image by Rob Sheridan via Flickr
Christians rely on religious texts such as the bible to guide their moral behavior, or if they cannot find an answer to their moral issue in the Bible they consult their clerics. As our product experts here at the Christian Morality Help Center closely examined these time consuming options, we had no alternative but to conclude a new approach using modern technology will be the best solution to helping Christians live morally. By the way, the Cell Phone Bible Edition and the more compact Cell Phone Ten Commandments edition are going to be ready for release, real soon. Until then, Christians can carry a printed edition of the KJB, NIV, RSV, ASV; Greek N-A or any combination you like. Keep them handy at all times in your purse or backpack. Now, we realize how tiring that can be after a while, but relax, help is on the way. Our product development team has laid in a supply of Jolt Cola and Cheetos and is working around the clock to produce our product spec. Let me tell you about the project.
Problem Definition
Even if a Christian has one or more bibles or a copy of the Ten Commandments with them, it is often difficult to find the exact bible verse or commandment that fits your immediate moral dilemma and time is often a pressing factor. All of us Christians know our Bibles are just crammed with helpful advice, but unfortunately, most of it is contradictory and you wind up after wasting your precious time applying your own common sense, anyway. Well we are going to eliminate time wasting bible searches for you. You’ll see. It’s going to be great. We will even be including a solution to the fat man on the overpass dilemma.
When you think about it, the Ten Commandments are not much help in our modern world what with suicidal religious maniacs and fertilizer bombers on the loose. Plus, who can remember all 10 of the commandments, or is it 18 or 20? Secondly, I don’t recall reading anything in the commandments about overpasses, passenger trolleys or sacrificing one fat men to save other lives. What is the problem with fat men anyway?
We say the Ten Commandments are just too simplistic to help modern people, with all due respect of course. With just a modicum of thought you can easily see that even that old workhorse of ethical thought, the Golden Rule, is no help with the fat man and the train dilemma. Because, if I am the fat man I don’t want to get thrown on the tracks. No way! And I never, ever indicated I would throw someone over the railing, either. How does the Golden Rule apply?
Let me assure you the Christian Morality Help Center Design Team analysts along with our staff of ethicists and moralists are assiduously grappling with all such opaque moral problems Christians may encounter. We promise to supply fast concrete, concise answers to your requests for help using our patented BioEnergyFrequency accelerator software technology (Scientologists, take note!). I’ll just say here however, that to meet our aggressive development milestones we are really trying to avoid getting bogged down in pages and pages of dusty Christian dogma written eons ago by committees that didn’t respect the limited patience for double talk and obfuscation most readers today have for this kind of exposition. No disrespect meant, of course. It is just so wearing on a person to have to wade through texts on dogma. You thought the ISO 9000 QA regulations were a pain. Boy, there is no comparison.
The other option questioning Christians have now is to call their cleric for advice. But, our lab tests revealed the trolley and the hapless passengers are probably going to be history long before you ever get through your cleric’s answering machine command options. Let’s see now; press one for condom use, two for school prayer, three for chastity. Nah, that’s not fast enough in the real world and there are no options on his machine for trolleys or fat men. None, that we could find anyway. You can quickly see the problems with this scheme. Even if you do manage to select a good button and leave a message, your cleric might also get dragged down in dogma, which at the risk of being tedious, we have just pointed out, can be extremely vexing and time consuming to wade through (no offense meant). Then when he does get back to you, the answer is going to be filled with so many qualifications, ifs, ands, CYAs, and maybes, you might be more at a loss than you were to start with. You’ll have to go through the entire process all over again hoping to get a more appropriate answer. Can you see why our analysts rejected this solution?
Lastly, you could resort to a more direct, face to face approach if your nearest cleric is reasonably close by. Bear in mind, your cleric is a busy person, what with talking to paving and painting contractors, roofing experts, bankers, and maybe even composing a weighty sermon or two (although they could save time going to Google). Your cleric has to wear many hats. Plus they have to respond to hundreds of other parishioners and they might all have dire moral issues at the same time as you and need a quick response. Please take a number.
So by now, I think you’ll agree our proposed solution is best. I am proudly speaking about our fully modern, computer-equipped Christian Morality Help Center, staffed by knowledgeable friendly assistants. The good part is the assistants really don’t have to know a lot about solving moral dilemmas. They just have to be pretty good at text searches in what I propose to call the Morality Answers Database (MAD).
After we get this Christian project up and running, and the Buddhists, Mormons, Jains, Muslims and Jews see how beneficial it is, we can contract to design especially tailored morality help centers. I am positive all the religions will want their very own. From my limited study, the thing that stands out to me is that all religions don’t exactly agree with Christian morality on some of the more arcane points, like whether to stone apostates and women seen in the company of males who they are not related to or married to. Nonetheless, I’m convinced we are on the right track and this product concept is going to become a “killer app” as we marketing guys say. It will just take some judicious modification to get the Christian MAD ported over. Because of all the differences in religions, think of all the theologists, egg heads, computer programmers and technicians that will find work in these hard times. This will be a huge, badly needed boost to our economy — almost as big as the NASA space station. We may get the Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States. Well it pays to think big.
When we roll out the product, here is how the concept will work:
You, Mr or Mrs Christian, encounter a Christian moral problem. The first step is to connect to the Christian Morality Help Center by phone or computer. After you complete the simple security formalities by stating your full name, customer number, social security number (no hyphens please), pass code, mother’s maiden name, birthplace, color of your first car, make and model of your toaster, your pet dog’s name, your favorite cousin’s astrology sign and your favorite soft drink, the center will complete a quick confirmation of what you supplied. The security check is going to be fast and will probably take no more than 20 maybe 30 minutes tops. Don’t worry, it’s a toll free call, at least for our new customers, for a while.
As soon as an attendant is available (for the fastest service, place your call at 1:00 AM UT) you’ll be whisked right over to your personal help center attendant, who to save costs is probably in Calcutta, India. No worries, they all speak good English, and have easily remembered Anglo Saxon first names. Have you, like me, wondered how they all have Anglo Saxon names? This must have resulted from when the Brits were running India as a colony. Don’t bring this up to your attendant though; they are still slightly peeved at the Brits as I understand it.
Once your attendant completes your interview process and has your problem well in hand they will turn to their computer and type in some key words. Before you know it, their computer screen will light up with all kinds of “hits”. Then all that is required is to read this list to you or send it to your computer. Simple, no? In chat mode with the attendant your amazingly complex, state of the art computer can work just like those Teletypes we used to use, only slower.
To my mind, the absolute best part of the system is that the Christian moral seeker is totally relieved of any tedious effort needed to think through their problem and apply logic and reason to finding a solution. Don’t you agree logic and ethics are two of the most intellectually challenging academic specialties? Who needs them when you have a Bible or better yet our subscription service. Do you know anyone in your family or among your friends who chose such a loser academic path? Not my dad or mom.
I often wonder why god has not updated his commandments to — you know, sort of better suit our modern world (no offense God). Why do you insist on hiding? Maybe the Deists are right and after you made our little solar system, you went in search of bigger and better cosmological projects, thinking we would take responsibility for the planet, all of the life on the planet, and ourselves, of course. Let’s hope we fix it back up before God thinks about returning to check on how we are minding his handiwork. It would not be good to disappoint the big guy.
About the fat man and the trolley problem don’t be squeamish. Toss him over the rail onto the train tracks. It’s really a very simple moral judgment problem. At least that’s how I see it. I gotta get back to writing the spec. I’m jazzed and I’ve only had 10 Jolt Colas.
By, Richard Collins
Copyright, all rights reserved
Available on Amazon Kindle
Resources:
http://tinyurl.com/267etl New York Times Magazine – The Moral Instinct
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New Zealand referendum “tragic”
http://yesvote.org.nz/2009/08/13/swedish-newspaper-nz-referendum-tragic/
August 13, 2009
How does our referendum on smacking look to the world? Not good. Journalist Lotta Hördin wrote this editorial for independent newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad the fifth largest morning paper in Sweden on New Zealand’s “tragic referendum”.
It’s never right to hit children (8th August, 2009 – Helsingborgs Dagblad)Tragic referendum in New Zealand
Raising children using violence should definitely be a thing of the past. Unfortunately this is not the case. This is illustrated by the current referendum in New Zealand. Sweden was the first in the world to illegalize hitting children in 1979. Here (in Sweden) how could anyone think about changing this law? But in New Zealand, who introduced the law in 2007, an organization called Family First gathered enough signatures to force the politicians to carry out a referendum. The referendum is now underway.
The current opinion polls show that the majority of New Zealanders think a little “smacking” should be allowed. Indicating they want to remove the current law. It was not easy when the law was introduced here (in Sweden). In the 1920’s a law called “Husaga” allowed the master of the house to hit his wife, children and servants. Up until 1958 teachers were allowed to hit students. But in the 1960’s public opinion turned and laid the foundations for the current law.
Since then 23 countries have created a similar law including our Nordic neighbors, and many other European countries. However, in the UK you are still allowed to smack your child and even in USA it is allowed in the home. In some states it is also allowed in the schools.
A law against smacking children doesn’t mean that all the violence stops. That’s illustrated in the statistics. Children get smacked and abused even in Sweden. You need more than a law to change bad behaviour, but from society’s side prohibition is an important signal. It also provides an opportunity to hold the offender accountable to the law. The increase in the reports of child abuse we have seen (in Sweden) can relate to fact that the tolerance levels have been lowered and in some way this is thanks to the law.Children are vulnerable and defenseless to adults, therefore it is important that there are laws to protect them when people in their close environment fail. In New Zealand the opposition to the law argues that parents that give their children a smack on the bum are criminals. But where do you draw the line?
Well of course you draw the line that all violence is illegal otherwise you’re skating on thin ice. Raising children should, above all, be built on good communication and mutual respect. That is not to say that the adult surrenders and lets the child take over and decide everything. But violence large or small should be forbidden. The referendum in New Zealand is to illustrate public opinion on the issue. Leading politicians are planning not to vote and a NO to the law will be a hot potato to handle, but it shouldn’t be. The only right thing, of course, is that New Zealand in the future has a law against smacking children.
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Hereditary Religion: Cultural Genetics
The End of Hereditary Religion is pleased to publish this article written by David McAfee, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is part one of a multi-part treatment on the subject of Hereditary Religion. We look forward to more articles by this talented young writer.
Richard
My interest in the field of Cultural Genetics began two years ago during an interview with a university student for a local magazine. His name was Mike and he was a second-year Theater Major at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I had the chance to speak candidly with Mike and asked him a series of questions regarding his religious preferences and freedoms, his answer to one question in particular would surprise me more than the rest. I asked Mike a very simple question, “Do you consider yourself a religious person?” A 2001 American Religious Identification Survey indicates that 81% of Americans DO associate themselves with a specific religion, so a “Yes” would not have been cause for alarm. Instead, Mike paused for a moment and answered “I’m half Catholic and half Agnostic.” Before I responded, my mind was filled with ideas of what he could have meant, some blend of Catholic intrigue mixed with skepticism perhaps? Upon elaboration I discovered that Mike’s mother was a practicing Catholic and his father was not associated with an organized religion.
When I describe the “genetics” of religion, I am referring to a phenomenon that I came across during the course of my research and, to me, implies the thought of religion as something similar to heritage; it is passed on from generation to generation via the parents. For example, people who have extremely limited knowledge of the Bible or its implications may still choose to classify themselves as Christians on the basis that their parents do so. This phenomenon of our nation’s children inheriting religion is often overlooked because the perpetrator guilty of indoctrination is not a dictator or cult leader, but their own parents. In the course of my research and daily life, it became increasingly apparent that many Americans consider themselves “religious” with extremely limited knowledge of the beliefs and practices of the particular religion simply because of their parents, peers, and popular culture.
When a child is growing up, there is a crucial period in which they begin to ask questions about life and wonder about the origin of existence. In a religious family, these questions are typically answered by creationist ideas in the home, church, or Sunday School. Once these beliefs are instilled in the child, it becomes a part of his or her identity. So much so that, in many cases, the child will grow up and forever identify themselves with that specific religion without question or skepticism. This is not to say that all religious parents pass on their faith to their offspring, but it seems as if it is just as likely as inheriting hair or eye color. For an idea as important as religion, it is a shame that Americans simply take what they are taught from family at face value as opposed to studying, questioning, and learning about multiple religious traditions in order to make an informed decision.
It seems to me that more and more people are treating their religious affiliation as if it were an inherited trait as opposed to an individual right and a decision not to be taken lightly. The momentous event of choosing a religion, or lack of religion, should not be a mindless reflex but a carefully scrutinized moment in life… and the key to this moment is information.
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You do not have to take your children to church
- Image via Wikipedia
There is a presumption that children must be taken to church. This presumption is based on centuries old tradition and the full backing of religious institutions that rely on new converts to keep their faith alive down through the ages.
Morally this is reprehensible because it treats vulnerable children as instruments. Treating others as objects or as instruments to satisfy a desire has been recognized by moral philosophers as repugnant since the days of Kant. Why are children any different? What makes it morally OK to treat children as instruments in a scheme to promote a certain brand of faith?
Secondly, the notion that a child who does not like the faith you chose for them will suddenly recover at age 18 from 15 years of being subjected to a deliberate mind control program is simply risible. There is no reset switch you can press to set a child’s brain back to it’s pristine state at age three. In fact, brain scientists have shown that the brain is actually changed physically by early learning (age 3 to 7). Those changes to the brain are extremely difficult to overcome. Logically, childhood is actually the longest stage in our lives because we retain the memories of childhood for a lifetime.
Do people break the locks on their religious cage? Yes, but usually at great emotional cost. Sometimes people suffer anxiety and depression for years as they break away and recover from religion. Family relations can be stretched to the breaking point.
Personal narratives tell the story of “making up their own minds”. Poignant accounts can be found all over the web at recovery sites established by people seeking mutual aid and comfort. Every faith and sect is represented. The biggest sites look to be for Catholics, Mormons, and Pentecostals.
Is this news to people reading this article and will it shape your thinking about hereditary religion?
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A Strange Form of Indoctrination
The Western religions by no means have a monopoly on childhood indoctrination. This is perhaps one of the more bizarre examples of that:
Boston boy enthroned as Buddhist sect head in Darjeeling
The journey from Jigme Wangchuk to His Holiness Galwa Lorepa; the journey from Boston, USA to Drukpa Sangag Choeling Monastery in Dali, near Darjeeling town in North Bengal was definitely a trying and testing time for both 11-year-old Jigme, his parents and his sister.
However, for the Drukpa Kagyu Sect of Tantrayana Buddhism (Lamaism), it was a time for boundless exhilaration as they had found one of the Gyalwa Namsum (Three Victorious Ones) after a long gap of more than 700 years.
Born in Boston, USA, Jigme Wangchuk was identified as the first reincarnation of HH Galwa Lorepa of the Drukpa Kagyu sect, a reincarnation after more than 700 years. With Jigme Wangchuk coming to Darjeeling even his parents have sold their family business in the USA and come to Darjeeling to stay here and serve him. His sister also will be studying in Darjeeling henceforth.
Talking to HT, he stated it is a big transition. “I do miss being a joyful school boy. I miss my home, my grandparents, aunts and uncles. However, being a Rinpoche is such a great honour and I feel blessed with my past responsibilities.
“My parents keep visiting me here in the monsatery and they told me that they have moved here to serve me and take care of me. As for my friends, I will contact them through emails,” he added.
HH Galwa Lorepa has withdrawn himself (own will) from Grade 5 of St. Peter School in Boston. Henceforth he will be continuing his monastic studies in the Druk Sangag Choeling Monastery in Darjeeling.
However, the transition from a USA schoolboy to one of the heads of a Buddhist sect has not been an easy one for the family. Dechen, mother of Jigme talking to HT stated, “He used to always talk of his past life but we did not take it seriously, dubbing it as a young mind fantasies. Two years back we were visiting South India on a holiday. One afternoon at the Kagyu Nalanda Monsatery in Mysore, Jigme suddenly stopped playing and started narrating his past life as if in a trance.”
…
Perhaps the parents should have trusted their first instinct about this young boy’s childhood fantasies – now he really believes that he is a reincarnation of some 700 year old religious guru.
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