The absurdity of the left continues. Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence. Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian. "It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson. "Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence." Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity. Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."
I think this is a case where many school administrators are so scared of blurring the church/state line that they have gone WAY overboard. This isn't teaching Creation in a science class. These are historical documents. This is pretty absurd.
As I'm sure you'd all expect, the viewpoint of the plaintiff's lawyer is not 100% accurate. http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_seetheforest_archive.html#110134337110716232 Ian, if you're going to shovel a pile of bullsh**, can you at least make it semi quasi vaguely plausible? On 2nd thought, don't. You're consistently amusing, and I wouldn't want to lose that. Anyway, the whole thing is preplanned rightwing bullsh**.
Dammit! I saw the Reuters link, and sank my teeth into it. Drudge, Newsmax, etc. I would have called shenanigans. Shame on me.
The scary part is that the same slant on the story was used by Reuters that was used by Drudge, Newsmax and Rush. Ah, that damned liberal media's at it again...
The blog is inferring that the "teacher was forcing his students to listen to and read "Christian Nation" propaganda", they don't offer any proof to back up their claim because that's all it is, a claim. The blog's story is as suspect, if not more, as the Reuters story.
He was not busted for giving out items that happened to mention God. He had a particular, pro-Religion message that he was trying to send to the students and using these documents to carry it out. He is flat out wrong for doing do.
Dante, read the links within the blog too. That's what they're there for. The irony of the whole thing is that the concept of natural rights and general political philosophy of the Founding Fathers was in REACTION to the dominant theology of the time. It's like when Republicans try to claim FDR or JFK as conservatives.
Yeah, that article seemed a little suspicious when I read he was suing for discrimination because of his Christianity.
Meanwhile, in Maryland public schools teachers aren't allowed to teach about Thanksgiving's religious origins...
I read the heading and thought. "Well it's being banned at government level, schools have to be next!" See what happens when you only get a selected part of the whole. You get Ian.
The first problem with this douche bag's argument is that he's saying our founding fathers were religious, let alone Christian.
Unfortunately that is the story that is out there because the school and school district did not respond to the allegations.
Go read some Madison, or Washington, or Hancock. But especially study Madison. You couldn't be farther from the truth. Just check the Happy Thanksgiving thread for the Washington Thanksgiving message and come back and say he wasn't Christian, or even religious. This is revisionist history at it's worst.
Again you marginalize. Without Washington's support, much of what was originally proposed would not have seen the light of day. He DID have a significant influence, just more behind the scenes than others.
What is truly amusing is that your "blog" failed to address or rebut any of the charges in the lawsuit, and you fail to understand that trivial point.
This is the same arrogance and lack of understanding that allows you to denigrate GW Bush and Ronald Reagan. I'm fascinated that your shallowness extends back to your evaluations of George Washington as well.
You have to have arrogance and lack of understanding to denigrate Dubya and The Gipper? I thought you just had to look at their records.