“If there is a God in
Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good.”
Joseph Welch
to Sen. Joe McCarthy, June 9th, 1954
As we contemplate the Republicans’ push for “charter schools”
in the Montana Legislature, let’s not lose sight of what these folks really
want for our kids. Not just for their kids, mind you, but for yours, too, paid
for by you. Not them.
As all of us grown-ups (“progressives” in the modern
vernacular) know by now, politicized evangelicals know no bounds. The
world—including your kids—is their oyster, and with the help of their corporate
enablers who are salivating over their chance to dine on our tax dollars that
go to public education, they’re ready for dinner.
I wrote the following piece during the Darby Creationism
Debacle in 2003-04. It’s somewhat dated, but still relevant, I think, so I’m
sending it out there again.
For those who may not remember, Darby’s rogue school board,
working with a few local preachers, invited the Discovery Institute[i] into our community in an attempt to blast biblical creationism
into the school district’s curriculum. The Discovery Institute (D.I.) is a
corporate/evangelical “think tank” that attempts to rebrand creationism as “Intelligent
Design” or “Objective Origins” in order to gin an appearance of scientific
disagreement of Evolutionary Theory and therefore circumvent the constitutional
ban on the public teaching religious dogma. Of course no such scientific disagreement
exists, any more than the thousands of bedrock discoveries and technologies
based on that scientific discipline don’t exist. But never mind. Where money
and faith intersect, “facts” spring eternal, and that’s what happened in
Darby.
Two of the preachers in the Darby Debacle were Curtis
Brickley and Harris Himes. Brickley openly told at least two Bitterroot superintendents that his
intent was to topple Darby and then roll up the valley’s six other school
districts one by one in D.I.’s faith-based corporate web. Harris
Himes (Oh God if there is one!!) offered the legal services of a fundamentalist lawyer pool called
the American Defense League[ii]
to help the school fight the inevitable-and-huge legal battles these rogue trustees
were inviting on the community.
And the inevitable-and-huge legal battles were what sunk Darby from the self-inflicted shot to the hull from which the entire Darby school district was sunk and has
never really been resurrected. The problem is that the teaching of Creationism is unconstitutional. Everybody knows it is, even the Adherents. But as much as the Adherents tried to cover their
mouths and cross their fingers when they opined that the earth was only 6,000 years old and in fact flat, the public
record is replete with testimony from these conflicted folks that the very
faith that led them down the evangelical road that linked them to such snake-oil
salesmen dictated to them that they couldn’t deny their faith. And so the Adherents—and
the Discovery Institute—played out a disingenuous performance of stellar
proportions, in front of everybody, that proved--scientifically if you count human drama as a science---that their “science” was lifted right out
of Genesis. It was painful and sad to watch, and the community ultimately
rejected “Intelligent Design” as a legal strategy for getting God and Exxon
back into the classrooms.
Curtiss Brickley left town soon thereafter to become a
“fellow” at the Discovery Institute, following an apparent career path of
Salary-Increase-Specialist. Harris Himes’ attempt at following a similar career
path was stifled after he got caught attempting to bilk a fellow believer out
of tens of thousands of dollars. This after Harris (oh that rascal!) threatened gay folks with Death by
Leviticus in full view of everyone following the 2011 Montana Legislature. All
I really can say to this (scientifically-replicatable) human drama is to repeat Joseph Welch question famously asked
to that other famous witch hunter, Joe McCarthy. “Have you no sense of
decency?”
The Discovery Institute moved on, too, and later that year
convinced the Dover, PA school board to carry its water to court. That lawsuit,
along with the school district, went down in expensive flames of glory in late
2005. It’s a good guess that, like Darby, it has not yet recovered its
reputation as a reputable place of learning. But what’s that matter to True
Believers who think your money is theirs by divine right?
Sense of decency? Sons of bitches. Here’s from my archives:
January 1st,
2004
I attended two recent
public-comment meetings held by the Darby School Board concerning whether to
approve Intelligent Design being taught in their science classes and I offer
the following observations.
How many
times, when a controversial issue is before this community, have you seen those
who hold the nominally unpopular view belittled and dismissed by reactionary
elements slinging juvenile taunts at public meetings?
The Discovery Institute, an
out-of-state, right-wing, 'think tank', was invited here by at least one member
of the Darby School Board expressly for the purpose of wedging religious dogma
into Darby's science curriculum. The website of the Discovery Institute is full
of fundamentalist Christian rhetoric and absolutely vacant of any reference to
peer-reviewed scientific literature supporting their claim that Intelligent
Design has any standing within the scientific community. Yet, in the fine
tradition of snake-oil salesmen with a hidden agenda they claim that ID has
nothing to do with religion and that ID is an accepted scientific theory worthy
of countering evolutionary theory. Of course that didn't stop many people who
gave public comments from sticking soley to hard-line fundamentalist doctrine
without ever touching on the stated issue of whether ID had any scientific
standing, or whether Darby could lose its accredidation for teaching it. The
simple unhidden fact was that there wasn't a person in the Darby gym both
nights I was there, including members of the school board nor the preacher who
'presented' ID to that board, who had any doubt that Religion was the issue.
It's bad enough to witness a board charged with respecting the public trust
participating in such a dishonest debate, and considering that these dogmatic
diatribes were aimed at a School Board who invited such comments, scary
besides.
But the
worst part (as always for me) was the dismissive labels bandied around with the
encouragement of Discovery Institute, and I think the disrespect and
intolerance implied by such behavior is the real issue for our
communities.
I've been labeled many things over
the years by people who don't know how to discuss their differences of opinion
civilly, but the label offered up by the Discovery Institute to describe anyone
who doesn't like religion being taught in public schools floored and
entertained me at the same time. I'm not just a politically-correct secular
humanist namby-pamby. I am now that most hateful of creatures (according to the
Discovery Institute) gumming up the skids for the proper upbringing of
God-fearing fundamentalists. I am now a Fringe Darwinist.
I've long told my friends on all
sides of these issues that if you let it slide when it seems you're with the
majority, the same reactionary elements will turn on you when your turn comes
to be in opposition because you didn't defend the minority when you thought you
weren't in it.
So if you
find yourself on the 'politically correct' side of this issue and you're not
used to it, I would ask you to please recognize the common intolerant root from
which these attacks always come from, and to heed the Discovery Institute's
shot across our bow well. How's it feel to be summarily dismissed by those who
feel they have the power to ignore you and yet don't have their facts straight?
The
Discovery Institute accepted the invitation to come here because they thought
the Bitterroot was an easy target to advance their divisive agenda. Curtiss
Brickley, the minister who picked Darby for the thin edge of the creationist
wedge he’s marketing, openly said as much to several superintendents in the
valley. We’re going to move up the valley one school at a time, he told them.
Openly.
This should be scary to reasonable
people concerned with issues rather than dogma, especially those who justifiably
fear intrusive government. I've found that reasonable people of all political
persuasions in Montana have much more in common than they have differences. So
I'd ask any of you who usually feel you're in the majority to consider more
actively defending the dignity of those holding the minority view as a general
principle, so that when those reactionary sights turn on you--and they
certainly will if you’re a reasonable person--you won't be such an easy target.
[ii] The ADL describes itself as "a servant
organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the
spread of the Gospel through the legal defense and advocacy of religious
freedom, the sanctity of human life, and traditional family values". No
secret handshake there.
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