It seems reasonable to assume that some of Donald Trump’s support groups are not necessarily thrilled that their hero is “seemingly” embroiled in a controversy involving his ties to a hostile foreign government. Most of his acolytes are probably not concerned at all because this is America and with Republicans running the government, they know the Ruskie sympathizer will emerge unscathed; Republican criminals always escape justice and Trump is no different.
There is one group that has been relatively silent on Trump’s involvement with Russia and it is a fair bet they are celebrating that the attention on Trump-Russia is keeping their unconstitutional activities off the media’s and Democrat’s radar; not that Democrats are necessarily concerned about the drive toward institutionalizing theocracy as the primary function of public education. Democrats, like the preponderance of the media, including liberal media, are terrified of confronting or even reporting on anything unconstitutional the religious right Republicans have in the works.
Although it is true religious Republicans have panted to make public education a theocratic endeavor for a few decades, it is probably true their efforts became paramount after a long-term study’s results last year confirmed their worst nightmare.
Just about the time the presidential primaries were heating up last year, results reported by San Diego State University News Center verified what many other, shorter-termed surveys, polls and general observations had been recording for a decade. The results contradict assertions by evangelical conservatives that Americans are highly religious and detest secularism on general principles, but that is not necessarily why religious Republicans demand that god, Christianity, and bible ascend to a dominant role in public life, including public schools.
The “General Special Survey” between 1972 and 2014 found that there is “a sharp decline in religious observance” among Americans. The report noted Americans were five times less likely to pray, and roughly half as likely to believe in god, or say the Christian bible was “divinely inspired.” In fact, of the nearly 59,000 respondents queried, most say they don’t even “privately practice religion or describe themselves as spiritual.” It is, in any universe, an acutely depressing downward trend for the religious right and confirmation that Americans support secularism in government precisely as the Founding Fathers intended in creating the U.S. Constitution.
That kind of news is likely what is driving the religious Republican efforts to force god-bible into public schools because they believe their godly mandate is “to make the United States a godly Christian nation.” In December there were reports of a policy manifesto from an influential Christian conservative group with ties to Trump and Ed Secretary Betsy DeVos calling for dismantling of the Education Department to facilitate putting god and bible in public classrooms.
The manifesto calls for all K-12 public schools to teach bible classes, post the Ten Commandments in plain sight, recognize and celebrate holidays “from a Judeo-Christian” perspective and abolish secular-based sex education materials from public schools facilities. The manifesto, “Education Reform Report” is the product of the Center for National Policy, a “front for radical conservative Christians” with close ties to DeVos and several “top White House officials,” including Trump’s fascist master Steve Bannon. The report’s demands can be summed up thus; ”the restoration of education in America that promotes religious schools and enshrine historic Judeo-Christian principles as the basis for instruction.”
The radical Christian group laid down some “assumptions” to base the Department of Education’s theocratic agenda such as:
“All knowledge and facts have a source, a Creator; they are not self-existent.” And that “Religious neutrality is a myth perpetrated by secularists,” and schools will “develop training on philosophy of education for K-12 faculty based on historical Judeo-Christian philosophy of education.”
Trump’s choice to dismantle public education and replace it with theocratic indoctrination, Betsy DeVos said her goal is to use the full force of the Trump government to “Confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance god’s kingdom.”
Over the past few years any number of pundits and commentators have claimed the religious right, like the Republican Party, is either suffering its death throes or already dead. Of course that may be every decent Americans’ wet dream, but it is not remotely true. What is true is that Americans are less religious, less Christian, and less likely to believe in an air-fairy controlling the universe. It is that “truth” that is driving the conservative Christian effort to make America more Christian and more godly by indoctrinating the next generation into accepting the idea that American education must proceed in accordance with historic Judeo-Christian principles without question and without choice.
Based on the study revealing that Americans are fleeing religion in droves, one can only assume that the radical Christian conservatives are thrilled that while the nation is mesmerized by the Trump’s espionage problems, their effort to theocratize the public education system is going unnoticed.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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