Repudiation: Violent Clergy

There are some excellent blogs that cover this topic on an ongoing basis, such as Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and quite a few atheist blogs.  My purpose is not to attack religion in this post, but to highlight a few examples of religion being used as a cover or an excuse.  So, let's start with the current headlines:

Megachurch Pastor Creflo Dollar is in the news today, arrested for having struck his teenage daughter.

The 15-year-old daughter of megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar told authorities her father choked and punched her, and hit her with his shoe during an argument over whether she could go to a party, according to a police report.

Dollar's 19-year-old daughter corroborated most of her sister's story, but Dollar disputed it, telling a sheriff's deputy he was trying to restrain her when she became disrespectful. When she began to hit back, he wrestled her to the floor and spanked her, according to the police report.

This type of story is not unique to protestant megachurch leaders.  Perhaps the best known ongoing scandal is the Roman Catholic Church cover-up of pedophile priests.

Archbishop Charles Chaput estimates that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has spent more than $11 million on the ongoing clergy abuse crisis and that does not include the trial of Monsignor William Lynn. Chaput stressed that the money to pay the bills will come from the sale of excess property owned by the archdiocese.

Lest it look like I'm just objecting to Christian organizations, let's look at recent news regarding my faith, Judaism.  In fact, Judaism has its own problem with pedophiles and failure to report them.  The Failed Messiah is a blog that pays attention to problems with the Hassidic movement.

Despite frequent examples of rabbis not reporting abuse and rabbis threatening victims who want to report child sexual abuse to police, [Chabad spokesman Rabbi Yaakov] Behrman thinks the law should not be changed in order to make their non-reporting a crime.

This from a man whose own employer, the Chabad-Lubavitch 'news' service, has not written a word about the massive child sexual abuse scandal rocking Chabad's Australian headquarters. In fact, no one from Chabad's International Headquarters in Brooklyn has said anything to condemn or distance itself from the alleged coverup conducted by its Australian headquarters and the intimidation and harassment of alleged victims by Chabad leaders there. And no one – not Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, not Rabbi Avrohom Shemtov, not Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky – have said anything to console or support the alleged victims (of which there are, at this point, at least a dozen vetted by police).

The Chabad community's behavior toward the alleged victims is so offensive that police have condemned it in open court.

There are plentiful examples in other religious communities, but I trust this collection is sufficient to make my point.  Religions are currently being used as places where those who are violent, particularly against children, can hide and can justify their misdeeds.

Many of these same religions have been injecting themselves into politics for the last several election cycles.  The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that the government will not establish a state religion or interfere with the exercise of religious faith, but numerous churches are endeavoring to see their precepts enshrined into our laws even if their institutions are not explicitly "established".

I'm reaching a point where I am thinking that the tax exemption for religious institutions is no longer appropriate.  No, this is not a suggestion that religious freedom be limited, just that collection plates be taxed like any other business income.

I welcome your thoughts, either in comments below or send me an e-mail at TeacherSome@gmail.com

Humor: The Atheist Pig on Religion and Same Sex Marriage

Oh my!  Icky.  One doesn't need to be an atheist (I'm not) to appreciate humor from The Atheist Pig.

FollowUp 2: Opposition to Day of Silence

A collection of hate groups is protesting today's Day of Silence by asking that students stay home and learn nothing of tolerance of others.

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on April 20, 2012. On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day – even during instructional time – to promote GLSEN's socio-political goals and its controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.

Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to reclaim a proper understanding of the role, and limits of public education. Help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child's school allows students and/or teachers to refuse to speak during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

I have never known a teacher, gay or straight, to be silent on the Day of Silence.  When I have a class I still call attendance, give students their lesson and speak with them during any activities.  Those students who choose to do so are encouraged to remain silent but communicate by writing notes to me.

Most schools leave the determination of whether students are required to speak in class on the Day of Silence to the teachers.  So, students may be silent during my classes and must speak during other classes.  As GLSEN and Lambda Legal and the ACLU have made clear, students who are asked to speak during instructional time should do so.  It is only during hallway passing time, lunch, or study halls that students may not be compelled to speak by teachers or administrators.

The goals of GLSEN are only controversial to bigots.  They are common sense and practical to most educators and to all of the major medical and psychological organizations.

The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

We believe that such an atmosphere engenders a positive sense of self, which is the basis of educational achievement and personal growth. Since homophobia and heterosexism undermine a healthy school climate, we work to educate teachers, students and the public at large about the damaging effects these forces have on youth and adults alike. We recognize that forces such as racism and sexism have similarly adverse impacts on communities and we support schools in seeking to redress all such inequities.

GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes in creating a more vibrant and diverse community. We welcome any and all individuals as members, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or occupation, who are committed to seeing this philosophy realized in K-12 schools.

Despite the fears of those opposing the Day of Silence, heterosexual students are encouraged to be straight without any denigration of their majority status.  No bullying of anyone is tolerated, including for religious reasons.  That doesn't stop bigots from being upset.  Here is why they say that they are upset:

One oft-repeated mantra is that the goal of DOS [The Day of Silence] is to keep LGBTQ students safe. The problematic rhetoric of safety,” however, substitutes speciously for the more accurate term of “comfort.” To suggest that in order for those who self-identify as homosexual or “transgender” to be “safe,” no one may disapprove of homosexual conduct is both absurd and dangerous. If this definition of “safety” were to be applied consistently, virtually all statements of disapproval would be prohibited.

No student should be disapproving of fellow students.  Freedom to disapprove of "homosexual conduct" is code for permission to bully.  The argument continues

Day of Silence participants claim they seek to end discrimination. There is, however, a problem with the way “discrimination” is defined in public discourse today. Groups like GLSEN believe that statements of moral conviction with which they disagree constitute prejudice or discrimination. While relentlessly promoting this view, administrators are never asked to provide evidence for the dubious presuppositions on which claims of discrimination are based. They are never asked to provide evidence for the arguable claim that homosexuality is equivalent to race; or that disapproval of homosexual conduct is equivalent to racism; or that homosexual impulses are biologically determined; or that the presence of biological influences in shaping desire renders a behavior automatically moral. The time is long past that parents demand justification for those claims.

Calling out students for being homosexual, bisexual, transvestite, or transgender with religious disapproval has no place in a school.  It is discrimination.  Whether or not sexuality is "equivalent to race", which it is in the sense that both are immutable qualities of each person, discrimination in schools is wrong.  Biological determination versus environmental impact is irrelevant.  Discrimination is wrong.

If we allow schools to define discrimination so expansively as to prohibit all statements of moral conviction, character development is compromised and speech rights are trampled. And if administrators continue to define discrimination in such a way as to preclude only some statements of moral conviction, they violate their pedagogical commitment to intellectual diversity and render the classroom a place of indoctrination.

"Statements of moral conviction" is code for "religious speech".  It belongs in church, not in our schools.  There are limits to freedom of speech, particularly where that speech can lead to violence.  There are too many documented cases of LGBTQ students being physically bullied and too many suicides.  Discrimination masquerading as "statements of moral conviction" must end.

Finally, DOS supporters contend that one of their purposes is to end harassment. What they fail to acknowledge is that the worthy end of eliminating harassment does not justify the means of exploiting instructional time. There are myriad other ways to work toward that end. DOS participants have a First Amendment right to wear t-shirts, or put up posters, or host after-school speakers, or set up tables from which to distribute informative materials. They ought not to be allowed to manipulate instructional time in the service of their socio-political goals.

The claim that instructional time is exploited is debunked by the fact that students may be asked to speak during instructional time, as is clearly stated on the Day of Silence web page.  Claiming otherwise is bearing false witness.

The organizations calling for this walkout (starting a little over halfway down their webpage), a far more extreme curtailment of instructional time, are organizations and a few individuals who are notorious for the anti-gay agenda.  These people who call themselves pro-family are opposed to families that are not in their religious ideal.  Their ideals, when made into laws, harm the children of gay couples, harm consenting adults, and ultimately harm the whole of society in perpetuating a caste system based on fear and hatred.

Running from those with whom you disagree does not solve problems, it reinforces them.  Walking out is a terrible answer.  Their children, those who will grow up to be straight and those who will grow up to be gay, deserve a lot better.

19 March 2012, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

18 April 2012, FollowUp 1.

Repudiation: Republicans Against Republican Ideas

Lamar Smith of Texas

The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith, wrote an opinion piece for Fox News today, The Truth about the DREAM Act.

The DREAM Act has become a rallying cry for President Obama, members of his administration, and liberal Democrats everywhere. President Obama has vowed to “keep fighting for the DREAM Act,” which would grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.

It’s true when listeners or those polled don’t know the facts that the DREAM Act has some appeal. After all, we are all naturally sympathetic when children are involved.

So, what is President Obama's DREAM Act?

The DREAM Act (acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) is an American legislative proposal first introduced in the Senate on August 1, 2001^[1] by Dick Durbin and Orrin Hatch. ^[2] The act was most recently reintroduced to the senate on May 11, 2011.

This bill would provide conditional permanent residency to certain illegal aliens of good moral character who graduate from U.S. high schools, arrived in the United States as minors, and lived in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment. If they were to complete two years in the military or two years at a four-year institution of higher learning, they would obtain temporary residency for a six-year period. Within the six-year period, they may qualify if they have "acquired a degree from an institution of higher education in the United States or has completed at least 2 years, in good standing, in a program for a bachelor's degree or higher degree in the United States" or have "served in the armed services for at least 2 years and, if discharged, has received an honorable discharge".^[3] Military enlistment contracts require an eight-year commitment, with active duty commitments typically between four and six years, but as low as two years.^[4][5] "Any alien whose permanent resident status is terminated... shall return to the immigration status the alien had immediately prior to receiving conditional permanent resident status under this Act."^[6] This bill would have included illegal immigrants as old as 35 years of age.

Let's slow down a minute.  This isn't legislation that originated with President Barack Obama.  Rather, it was bi-partisan legislation that was first sponsored by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.  According to the Library of Congress, Dick Durbin was one of eighteen co-sponsors.  Other co-sponsors included Republicans Sam Brownback, now Governor of Kansas, Larry Craig of Idaho, who had an airport bathroom scandal involving lewd behavior, Mike DeWine, now Attorney General of Ohio, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, retired, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Richard Lugar of Indiana.

To be fair, since Barack Obama was inaugurated President of the United States, Senator Hatch has done an about face on his own legislation.  One can speculate as to why.  The answer from Senator Hatch's spokeswoman, Antonia Ferrier, is not convincing:  “He believes that we have to get tough on border security because the American people will have no faith in any immigration legislation until we do that,” she said in an email.

Back to Lamar Smith's opinion article.  He complains that many students will be older, which is true.  He then continues

DREAM Act proposals are also a magnet for fraud. Many illegal immigrants will fraudulently claim they came here as children or that they are under 30. And the federal government has no way to check whether their claims are true or not.

Such massive fraud occurred after the 1986 amnesty for illegal immigrants who claimed they were agricultural workers. Studies found two-thirds of all applications for the 1986 amnesty were fraudulent.

This is not the first time that Mr. Smith has made this allegation of studies finding massive amounts of fraud in 1986.  He made the same claim a decade ago, although links from the article at the Center for Immigration Studies to the studies he cites are broken.  More importantly, a study last year at American University refutes the allegation of fraud.

The rest of Mr. Smith's article is a complaint that President Obama is soft on illegal immigration.  According to the Pew Research Center, illegal immigration peaked in 2007 under President George W. Bush and has declined since ... a reversal of an annual increase for almost a decade.  This is likely due to the Great Recession followed by increasing border security under President Obama.

Since President Obama was elected, Republicans have done everything in their power to undermine his efficacy.  This includes working against their own ideas.  One can argue that we should simply deport all who are here illegally.  One can argue that those who have the greatest potential to help the United States should be allowed a path to legal residency and perhaps citizenship.  But arguing against one's own ideas only makes sense when the motive is no longer what is best for the country but what is best for the political party.

Is the visible animosity to President Obama purely partisan?  My guess is that there is a racial element.  While institutional racism has been illegal in the United States for half a century, it takes longer for old prejudices to be entirely eradicated.  The evidence for racism are the claims that Barack Obama is not a United States citizen or not a Christian, easily belied by his long form birth certificate and the controversies over Jeremiah Wright.

Repudiation: Opposition to Day of Silence

Mission America, created and headed by Linda Harvey, has been spreading Christianity and denouncing homosexuality since 1995.  She has just written a piece titled Why Parents Should Keep Their Children Home from School on the Day of Silence.

On Friday April, 20, 2012, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) is once again exploiting public schools to promote homosexuality and gender confusion as moral and normative through the political protest called the Day of Silence.

The idea of promoting homosexuality or "gender confusion" as if these were somehow contagious is absurd.  Ms. Harvey clearly wants no understanding of the medical and counseling communities views on these matters.  Every major medical and psychological and counseling organization understands that homosexuality and transgender persons are on the spectrum of normal and does not treat either as immoral.

GLSEN has just launched a new Day of Silence website.  In their words, "Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression."

A coalition of pro-family groups is urging parents to keep their children home from school on the “Day of Silence,” if your school is allowing students to refuse to speak in class.

Every public school where I have taught has allowed students to make this decision for themselves.  No student is ever coerced into participating.  I have had students tell me that they don't agree with the Day of Silence and will be participating vocally in class.  That is the right of those students.  Rather than stand up respectfully in disagreement, as a few of my students have done, Ms. Harvey is encouraging hiding and closing the minds of students from other ways of thinking.  She is encouraging cowardice.  She wants to make sure that bigoted students aren't contaminated by others who are nice to each other in silence.

GLSEN’s Day of Silence, which began on college campuses and has now infiltrated even middle schools, exploits anti-bullying sentiment to undermine the belief that homosexual acts are immoral.

Whether or not one believes that "homosexual acts are immoral", that does not give one the right to bully those who one thinks are homosexual.  The word "infiltrated" implies some kind of subterfuge.  No, this is not a secret.  It is quite open and apparent.

GLSEN shamelessly exploits teen suicide in order to create a climate of hysteria which they then use to falsely impute culpability for teen suicide to conservative moral beliefs.

The "climate of hysteria" is that which is created by bullies and encouraged by beliefs like those of Mission America.  When one establishes an environment where some children are designated as being in a lower caste, that makes bullying acceptable.  That is the basis for saying that Mission America and hate organizations have culpability in the rash of teen suicides that we have seen.

GLSEN’s end game is the eradication of conservative moral beliefs and the creation of a social and political climate in which it is impossible to express them. Their cultural vehicle of choice for this radical social experiment is public education. What a strategic coup for homosexualists: use our money to capture the hearts and minds of our children.

No.  The end game of GLSEN is the creation of an environment where those with conservative moral beliefs and everyone else can coexist without a caste system, without bullying, and without belittlement of any groups within our schools.  The only expressions that are not welcome in this ideal are those that put down others.  To the best of my knowledge, the Day of Silence is not funded by school or tax dollars.  Materials are paid for by GLSEN, donations to which are tax-deductible under the same IRS code as Mission America.

Efforts to exploit public education for the purpose of eradicating conservative moral beliefs are dramatically increasing every year. Homosexual activists and their allies are aggressively targeting younger and younger children through “anti-bullying” laws, policies, and curricula; through the effort to nationalize “comprehensive sex ed”; through laws mandating positive portrayals of homosexuality and gender deviance in curricula; and through events like the Day of Silence, National Coming Out Day, Ally Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance; and Spirit Week.

"Eradicating conservative moral beliefs"?  That applies to only those that involve hate (which isn't supposed to be part of Christianity according to what I remember from theology classes taught by Jesuit priests).  It is certainly true that anti-bullying policies and curricula are and should be available to all of public school classes and children.  I have written previously about the value and importance of comprehensive sex education.  I have written quite a bit about California's SB-48, the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act which is the law "mandating positive portrayals of homosexuality and gender deviance in curricula".  These and the other GLSEN programs listed are very good for our schools and society.

And conservatives do virtually nothing. Our complacence makes us complicit in the damage done to our children and our culture. 

If that were true, there would be no need for my blog.  Most of what I write is in response to hateful legislation and responses to efforts to move toward equality.  In short, Ms. Harvey is bearing false witness.

Moreover, we teach our children by example to be cowardly conformists. It’s time to resist and there’s no easier way to resist than to call your children out of school on the Day of Silence.

Keeping children and home and hiding from an opportunity for dialogue is cowardly.

Parents and Guardians: Call your children’s middle and high schools and ask if students and/or teachers will be permitted to refuse to speak during class on Friday, April 20, 2012. If your administration allows students and/or teachers to refuse to speak during class, call your child out of school. Every student absence costs school districts money.

As a teacher who firmly believes in the Day of Silence, I have never refrained from speaking on those days and neither has any other gay or straight teacher who I know.  This is entirely the students.  The nature of funding the schools varies from district to district and state to state.  Some district funding is based on every absence.  Other districts do quarterly or annual attendance checks for purposes of funding.  In many schools, Ms. Harvey's suggestion hurts the students pulled out but not the schools, other than in losing opportunities for students to learn.

When administrators refuse to listen to reason and when they allow the classroom to be exploited for political purposes, parents must take action. If they don’t, the politicization of the classroom and curricula will increase.

The Day of Silence is a symbolic gesture to raise awareness of bullying.  How is that not reasonable?  To quote from GLSEN, "GLSEN’s 2009 National School Climate Survey found that nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and more than 30% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety. Moreover, two of the top three reasons students said their peers were most often bullied at school were actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender expression, according to From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, a 2005 report by GLSEN and Harris Interactive. Thus, the Day of Silence helps bring us closer to making anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling unacceptable in America’s schools."  It is about protecting students by creating a more tolerant environment.

If your administrator tells you that they do not permit students or teachers to refuse to speak in class, ask him or her how that is communicated to faculty and students and how it is enforced.

In the schools where I have taught, students have been allowed to put up posters announcing the day in advance.  Teachers have been informed during an staff meeting when this will occur and reminding us that we can require that all students speak in our classes ... that our classroom policy is up to us as long as we remain respectful in implementing it.

The ACLU has issued this statement to students regarding silence in class:

"You DO have a right to participate in Day of Silence and other expressions of your opinion at a public school during non-instructional time: the breaks between classes, before and after the school day, lunchtime, and any other free times during your day. You do NOT have a right to remain silent during class time if a teacher asks you to speak."

Sounds reasonable to me.

The idea that homosexual acts are moral, good, or normative is not a fact. It is an unproven, non-factual, controversial moral belief. As such, no government employee or publicly subsidized institution has the ethical right to teach it to children implicitly or explicitly. It is entirely possible for schools to work toward the important goal of eradicating bullying without affirming homosexuality or gender confusion.

While Ms Harvey is wrong in her first sentence, schools are not teaching anything other than tolerance.  However, here is an important clue regarding "affirming homosexuality or gender confusion."  Homosexuals and transgender persons have been around for millenia.  We are real.  We are part of American society even as we have been part of every other society throughout history (including during biblical times ... that is why we are mentioned in the Bible).  Acceptance of this simple fact by Ms. Harvey would help.

There are a few more repetitive paragraphs.  Rather than me writing more, let's look at a few facts from GLSEN:

The day is a positive educational experience. The Day of Silence is an opportunity for students to work toward improving school climate for all students. GLSEN advises students interested in participating to discuss their intentions with their administration and teachers long before the event. The day is most successful when schools and students work together to show their commitment to ensuring safe schools for all students. Many schools allow students’ participation throughout the day. Some schools ask students to speak as they normally would during class and remain silent during breaks and at lunch. There is no single way to participate, and students are encouraged to take part in the way that is the most positive and uplifting for their school.

Thanks to Joe My God for the heads up.

18 April 2012, FollowUp 1. 

20 April 2012, FollowUp 2.