AUSTIN -- Several state Board of Education members are encouraging public school districts to use a particular Bible curriculum that some experts predict will land them in court if they do.... "It's absolutely jaw-dropping," said Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, referring to the e-mail circulated by state Board of Education members Terri Leo, R-Spring, Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, and Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas.
I may no longer live in Texas, but being here in Houston again reminds me just how much I really do miss the politics. To the uninitiated, Texas politics probably seems like a whole other magnitude of crazy...and, in reality, it is. Actually, crazy doesn't begin to describe the ideological black hole that the Texas GOP has fallen into since it took over the state. Since not a single state officeholder has a "D" behind their name, Republicans here have treated state government as their own personal cookie jar...with sometimes hilarious, sometimes silly, and sometimes just plain disturbing results. The latest exit ramp on this freeway to Hell is the Bible "curriculum" being pushed by four members of the state Board of Edumication. To describe the curriculum as "jaw-dropping" may or may not be true; I don't know enough about the details to speak to that. What I do know, however, is that the separation of church and state is about to completely go the way of the buffalo here in Texas...not that this sort of thing is anything new here in this reddest of red states. God IS a Republican, after all....
The amazing thing is that these maroons, hardly the first to attempt this sort of thing in Texas, aren't even subtle about their attempt to undermine the Constitution. If you live in Texas, and you have a child, then by God you should be able to indoctrinate him as you see fit. Texas Republicans see fit to use tax dollars to force Christianity down the throats of Texas children. Hey, if you're going to live in God's Country....
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this travesty is the Texas Republicans seem to see nothing wrong with obliterating the separation of church and state, one of the very foundations of our system of government. Hey, if Christianity is good enough for Republicans, then it ought to be good enough for everyone...right? And if you believe in majority rule...well, you might as well just beat the rush as put a Bible in your 3rd-grader's backpack.
What would Jesus do? Not being a Christian, I can't speak to that with any authority, but I'd have to think he'd be kicking some serious Republican @$$ and taking names. If these people are Christians, then I'm the Queen of England.
