February 7, 2016 6:09 AM

Mixing ignorance and religious zealotry: Like pouring gasoline on a fire

Sometimes I read something online and think to myself “how do these people function in society without assistance from a caretaker, because they are clearly a few cards short of a full deck.”…. Today, those people are John and Melissa Wood of Charles County, Maryland. This bigoted and hate filled couple decided to sue their daughter’s high school because they claim she was “indoctrinated” into Islam after studying a unit on world religions during the 2014-2015 school year, reports WTOP. As is standard in the county, students in 11th grade study a unit on the formation of world religions, learn about the core beliefs and are tested on them. Because we want our kids to go out into the world knowing more about the actual world - ie, history, math, science, etc. Sounds normal, right? Well, not to the Woods. They believe, insanely, that because their daughter was forced to memorize and recite the Five Pillars of Islam that she was somehow indoctrinated into the Muslim faith. Seriously? The family has been raising hell about this supposed indoctrination. Their daughter is an evil Muslim now! Ack!

I’ve always marveled at the reality that one needs a license to drive a car, own a business, go fishing or hunting, and engage in so many aspects of life…and yet anyone half-wit with functional plumbing can contribute to making a baby. Even better, they then get 18 years to thoroughly mess them up by indoctrinating them with their fears, prejudices, and ignorance (this would explain Trump supporters). Then that child gets grows up…and repeats the cycle all over again. The result is that we have generation after generation of truly, deeply stupid and intellectually incurious people whose mental and moral shortcomings directly impact society as a whole.

I’m not certain what part of “knowledge is power” fails to resonate with the Woods, but learning about a faith tradition different than their own (which they follow oh, so closely) is not “indoctrination.” I wonder if the Woods ever stopped to consider (no, of course they didn’t) that understanding other religions is really just about understanding that there are many ways of viewing and interpreting our world?

The late John Wayne once said, “Life is hard. It’s harder when you’re stupid.” I suspect the Woods are struggling mightily to get through life.

[T]he family has retained the Michigan-based conservative Christian Thomas More Law Center, which filed a civil rights lawsuit against Charles County School System, the school board, and the principal and vice principal of La Plata High School. Fantastic! Nothing like suing the school for educating your kids to prove how awful expanding your mind about the world is.

Daily Mail reports that their attorney, Richard Thompson, states the following gems of kindness and love in his filing:

“Such discriminatory treatment of Christianity is an unconstitutional promotion of one religion over another…”

“The course also taught false statements such as Allah is the same God worshiped by Christians and Islam is a “‘religion of peace”

“A school cannot achieve diversity by punishing and alienating students who hold Judeo-Christian beliefs, while bolstering the doctrines and teachings of other religions.”

“Parents must be ever vigilant to the Islamic indoctrination of their children under the guise of teaching history and multiculturalism.”

“This is happening in public schools across the country. And they must take action to stop it.”

So let me see if I have this straight: Islam is a religion of evil, a vile anti-Christian theology bent on destroying that washed in the Blood of the Lamb. Teaching children about Islam is equivalent to violating the separation of Church and State (though I suspect these good Christians would have NO problem with Bible study being part of the curriculum). Unless we teach our children that Muslims wish for nothing more than to kill innocent Americans, conquer the Homeland, and forcibly convert Christians to their pagan religion, we’re shortchanging them by not preparing them for spiritual warfare.

Sound about right?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with “students who hold Judeo-Christian beliefs,” but teaching them about other religions hardly constitutes “bolstering the doctrines and teachings of other religions.” Teaching children that Christianity isn’t the ONLY religion in the world is but one way of impressing upon them the importance of respecting others and their beliefs. When we teach children about the diversity of human thought and belief, we arm with the tools to understand and respect those whose customs and beliefs differ from their own. How that’s a bad thing is something only intellectual midgets like the Woods could explain.

The argument that “Parents must be ever vigilant to the Islamic indoctrination of their children under the guise of teaching history and multiculturalism” is something that should offend anyone with a functional intellect and sense of decency. When we teach our children to understand and respect those who think, believe, live, and yes, even love differently, we increase that chances that peace might become a reality. When we teach them to hate and fear the same ideas and people we do, we perpetuate a mindset that makes it easy to dehumanize those who view their world differently.

The biggest problem is that we allow intellectual and moral lightweights like the Woods to give birth to and raise children. I don’t have an answer to that problem off the top of my head, but it would seem to be in humanity’s best interests that those who lack the intellectual and moral wherewithal to teach their children positive values- understanding, tolerance, acceptance, inclusion- have no business being parents.

And these people call themselves Christians….

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 7, 2016 6:09 AM.

What you see when you look for Marco Rubio's resume was the previous entry in this blog.

A lesson in being Christ-like Rev. Joel Osteen could stand to learn is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 6.0.8