The First Wild, Wild West:
Jamestown Archaeology and the Origins of Modern America

featuring Dr. Bill Kelso

5:30 to 6:30 pm
Tuesday, November 15

Thompson & Knight, LLP
333 Clay Street, Houston, Texas, 77002
( free parking at the Allen Center Garage)

The topic should be of interest to TFN Insider devotees:

“The lecture will explore the earliest successful English settlement in North America and remember those days before the Founding Fathers crafted the First Amendment and separated church from state. In this Thanksgiving season, we’re going all the way back to Jamestown, where the first representative government in English-speaking North America, the Virginia General Assembly, met inside the Anglican Church just outside the fortress walls where Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614.  There is no better way to see how much progress has been made during these last 400 years in America than to look with clear eyes and the best scientific tools available at the early colonial foundations of our modern world.”

The event is free and open to the public, but they do ask that you register to reserve your seat beforehand (which you can do by clicking here).

“Because my argument all along has been that the purpose of the First Amendment is to protect the free exercise of the Christian religion.” — Bryan Fischer	“However, the fact that our Constitution demands that everyone have the freedom to embrace any religious beliefs, or no religious beliefs, does not mean that the government cannot demonstrate a preference for Christianity.” — Robert Jeffress

The similarities don’t stop at claiming the First Amendment is for Christians only. Both men have called Mormonism a cult. Both are also virulently anti-Islam and anti-gay. And both are pro-Gov. Rick Perry. Really, they’re the same guy except one has a congregation and the other has radio listeners. Oh, and we still don’t know how Jeffress feels about bears, so we may have another difference there.

And to put any doubts to rest, here they are in the same room together going after Mitt Romney and Mormonism. So, no, neither one is Superman:

The point is this: Many may have been surprised by Jeffress’ endorsement of Gov. Perry and appalled at the pastor’s extremist rhetoric. In reality, Jeffress is just the latest from the far right to embrace Gov. Perry, with Perry only more than happy to embrace that person right back.

Below is the press release issued this morning. You can read the bill analysis here (PDF).

TFNEF Analysis: New Law Could Bring Sea Change to Textbook Adoptions in Texas

New Analysis Explains How SB 6 Could Disarm Culture Warriors on State Board of Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 9, 2011

The start of this new school year came with a new law that finally gives school districts the ability to reject politicized instructional materials adopted by the State Board of Education, the president of the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund said today.

Senate Bill 6, passed by the Texas Legislature this summer, for the first time allows school districts to use state dollars to purchase textbooks and other instructional materials for core courses like history and science regardless of whether the State Board of Education has approved those materials.

“This law means local school districts will no longer be held hostage to the personal agendas of state board politicians when choosing instructional materials for their students,” TFN Education Fund President Kathy Miller said. “Schools will finally be able to say ‘no’ to politicized instructional materials when the state board forces publishers to censor or revise information simply because of personal or ideological objections.”

Gov. Rick Perry signed SB 6 into law on July 19. As the TFN Education Fund analysis of the legislation shows, the state board will continue to have the authority to review and formally approve textbooks and other instructional materials. In the past, school districts could use state dollars to purchase only instructional materials approved by the board. Now, however, school districts may purchase any instructional materials that help them teach to the state’s curriculum standards, even if the board has not approved those materials.

The analysis also notes various options that school districts might consider as they explore their new flexibility in purchasing instructional materials. Those options include working with other school districts and Education Service Centers to review materials proposed by publishers.

Adoptions of textbooks have long been heated battles in Texas. In 2001, for example, the State Board of Education rejected a proposed environmental science textbook because members objected to, among other things, passages on issues such as climate change and pollution. In 2007 state board members refused to give a reason when rejecting a third-grade mathematics textbook that some school districts were already using successfully in their classrooms. State board members have also sought to censor information on sex education in health textbooks, evolution in biology textbooks and slavery and civil rights in history textbooks.

The TFN Education Fund analysis is available at www.tfn.org/sb6Analysis.

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The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund is a nonpartisan research and citizen education organization focusing on public education, religious freedom and civil liberties.

TFN Insider has been experiencing some strange technical issues the last two days. We apologize if you’ve had problems accessing the blog. We’re working on it and hope to have everything smoothed out soon.

Grace Haddad, 16, who doesn’t believe the world will end May 21, discussing her mother, who does.

She’ll say, ‘You need to clean up your room.’ And I’ll say, ‘Mom, it doesn’t matter, if the world’s going to end!

Read the full article

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Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, throwing his support behind a Rick Perry for president campaign.

It’s axiomatic, you are not going to be elected president unless you’ve got at least a ten inch part in your hair, preferably 14-inch.

Read the full article

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Texas state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, on a proposed measure to strip state funding to all hospitals and clinics that perform abortions or even “abortion-related services.”

I’m getting a little tired of men speaking for women’s health.

Read the full article

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Texas state Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, speaking in favor of “noodling,” the practice of hand-fishing for catfish.

I personally don’t noodle, but I would defend to the death your right to do so.

Read the full article

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Texas state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, arguing for “compassionate moralism” as the Texas Legislature debates immigration legislation.

In addition, I wonder how Joseph and Mary would have felt struggling in Egypt as undocumented workers if Pharaoh had decreed a law similar to some of those found in the Texas Legislature this session.

Read the full article

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Craig McClain on his hopes for the team of stalwart scientists who fanned out across the country to participate in the Darwin Day Road Show, offering them an opportunity to share their excitement about science to students and faculty around the country.

We wanted to convey the excitement and relevance of science, that scientists are part of the general public (you may even see us shopping at the grocery store) and to begin building a community of support for science.

Read the full article

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Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, telling an audience that he believes evolutionary science and creationism can coexist.

I believe that creation as an act of faith is true and I believe that science as a mechanical process is true. Both can be true. I don’t think there is necessarily a conflict between the two.

Read the full article

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Fergus Cullen, former New Hampshire Republican Party chair, claiming the Iowa Republican Party has become so dominated by evangelicals that some potential candidates will be tempted to largely skip the state.

[I]t’s hard to talk about real issues when three quarters of the audience wears tinfoil hats.

Read the full article

For a while now, the movie and TV star — and now far-right icon — has been penning opinion pieces for the far-right propagandist website WorldNetDaily. In part three of what he calls the “Top 10 U.S. infiltrations of Shariah law,” Norris repeats a familiar far-right meme in which he accuses President Obama of being more concerned with advancing Muslim interests (and pro-Sharia radicalism) than he is with advancing America and its interests.

From Norris’ article:

There is no greater proponent of the partnership of America and Islam (and therefore Shariah) than President Obama himself. I’m not saying he is a Muslim but a Muslim advocate and apologist. He said it himself. He declared his explicit mission in Cairo in June 2009 for the whole world to hear, when he vowed to establish “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world. … That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.” Have you ever heard of a president talk about “partnership between America and [the religion of] Islam”? And a presidential responsibility to “fight” for the Islamic religion? Or are we naïve enough to believe that Obama’s “fight” will never entail an advocacy for Shariah law when it permeates Islam?

Here’s where it gets ironic and amusing. Norris’ latest article was no doubt set to auto-publish, which it did … at 1 a.m. EST this morning, a mere 90 minutes after President Obama confirmed Osama bin Laden had been killed on his orders.

It would probably stand to reason that if President Obama is the Muslim-lovin’, pro-Sharia secret Muslim that Norris claims he is, then the president wouldn’t be too interested in killing bin Laden, who was A) Muslim, and B) pro-radical Islam.

The timing of Norris’ article was unfortunate — for him. But amusing for us.

Hat tip: Right Wing Watch.

See TFN’s press statement for the basics. And watch TFN Insider for more in the days to come.

CREATIONIST GROUP PUSHES ANTI-EVOLUTION MATERIALS IN TEXAS SCIENCE CLASSES

Texas SBOE Asked To Consider Materials from Fringe Anti-Science Group

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2011

In a move that should not surprise anyone, a well-known creationist/“intelligent design” group appeared on a list of publishers that have indicated an intent to submit science curriculum materials for approval by the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) later this spring. The formal inclusion of this creationist group means Texas will once again be ground zero for creationist attacks on 21^st-century science, TFN President Kathy Miller said.

“In 2009 the State Board of Education approved new science curriculum standards that opened the door to creationist materials in Texas classrooms. Today we saw that one prominent creationist group intends to walk through that door,” Miller said. “Getting their materials in public schools has long been a top priority for creationists, and it’s clear that they intend to make Texas their flagship. Teaching inaccurate information rejected by the scientific community would be a huge disservice to Texas kids and a major setback for science education everywhere.”

Among the dozens of publishers who notified the SBOE of their intent to submit science materials for approval was a Richardson,TX-based group called the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE). Approval of materials published by FTE, a self-described promoter of “intelligent design,” would create several serious problems for the board, including:

• FTE’s troubled legal history – FTE published the “intelligent design” textbook (Of Pandas and People) that was ruled to be unconstitutional for use in public schools in the landmark decision Kitzmiller v. Dover (PA).
• FTE’s well-established record of religious proselytizing through its textbooks – As recently as 2002, the group described its mission on IRS tax returns as “promoting and publishing textbooks presenting a Christian perspective of academic studies.”

The actual materials submitted for approval by FTE and other publishers will not be available to the public until March. The State Board of Education, however, has already begun appointing review panels – made up of citizens, educators and scientists – that will evaluate all materials for conformity to the state’s new curriculum standards as well as for factual accuracy.

There will be a public hearing on these materials at the board in April. The board will take a final vote on approval or rejection of these science materials at the conclusion of that April meeting. All materials approved by the board are available for purchase by local school districts for use in science classrooms.

Think the religious right is willing to let lawmakers focus on critical fiscal issues in these tough economic times?

Think the far right has recognized the need for compromise to govern in a sharply divided nation?

Not in Texas.

“Do they [politicians] have the willingness to die to overturn the tyranny we see not only in this nation but in this state? That’s what it’s going to take. Do you hear me? That’s what it’s gonna take!”

That’s Apostle Clāver T. Kamau-Imani of a group called “Raging Elephant,” speaking at a rally of several hundred tea party activists at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday. Kamau-Imani and other speakers left little doubt about what their extremist vision for politics in Texas entails.

First and foremost, there is little real distinction between the tea party and the religious right in Texas. They are essentially one and the same. Listen to the roar of approval from the crowd when Kamau-Imani defines his standard for lawmakers:

“If they [politicians] don’t have the spirit of Christ, they may be eligible, but they are not qualified.”

These are the same folks who have worked for the more than a decade to make the state GOP platform less a political tract than a fundamentalist religious manifesto. The religious right has controlled the Texas Republican Party for a generation, and changing the name on a rally banner to “Tea Party” can’t hide the fact that social conservatives are still calling the shots at the conservative grassroots level in Texas. And they are hell-bent on ensuring those in elected office continue to bow and kiss the ring.

Second, conservative leaders in Texas have no intention of dialing back the violent rhetoric. Listen to this clip of Kamau-Imani explaining what he believes the Bible teaches about dealing with politicians who compromise:

It is more than a little chilling to hear these words mere days after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who often drew the ire of tea-party supporters in her own state, was shot at a public event:

“When you identify those folks who have self-identified themselves as [sic] compromisers and surrender-ers, then it is our obligation — it is or duty to purify ourselves of them, to rid ourselves of them. The fight is not over.”

And cloaking such eliminationist language in religious terminology doesn’t excuse it. In fact, it makes it even more despicable.

And finally, the tea party/religious right in Texas will remain as unforgiving and rigidly orthodox as ever — for them, compromise is surrender. Ironically, after weeks of nasty wrangling over the race for Texas House speaker, the actual discussion in the Legislature on Tuesday featured calls for cooperation and comity. Contrast that with this clip from the rally outside the Capitol, in which Kamau-Imani shouts that liberals and progressives are “unclean” and “contaminate the spirit of liberty.”

“The Bible also says ‘touch no unclean thing.’ I believe that progressivism, liberalism, socialism, all those evil ‘isms’ are unclean. We should not be touching them. In touching them we contaminate the spirit of liberty. We contaminate our movement. We contaminate our social foundation. We contaminate our families. We contaminate our schools. We contaminate the sovereignty of our state and our nation when we touch these things. When we compromise. When we surrender.”

TFN has often pointed out that the religious right is not a religious movement. It is a political movement that cloaks itself in the language of faith. The scene at the Texas Capitol on Tuesday makes clear that this distinction also applies to the tea party movement in Texas. The same exclusionary, domineering  impulse that sees faith primarily as a handy political weapon also animates the tea party movement.

And the religious right era in Texas isn’t retreating. In the words of far-right activists in recent months, it’s reloading.

You can watch the entire disturbing tea party jeremiad for yourself here: Part 1 and Part 2.

Because if this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. And then admit that we just don’t want to do it.

Check it out. It’s not to be missed.