Ethics Daily quotes a leader of the movement to get Southern Baptists to leave public schools as saying,

"This year has actually been a breakthrough year."

His resolution to devise an "exit strategy" from public schools was replaced by a resolution for Baptists to, in effect, takeover the boards of education at public schools.

Reconstructionist thought has a special attraction for rural Americans.  A glance at R. J. Rushdoony's explanation of the biblical tithe in his Institutes for Biblical Religion reveals why.

Rural America subsists mostly on farming and ranching.  Every decade, for more than a generation, greater challenges have threatened the economic survival of those that live in these communities.  Every year the population of small towns decline as the elderly die, the young move to the cities to find work, and the rest live from one day to the next.  Foreclosures by banks for unpaid mortgages and by local governments for unpaid taxes have been commonplace.  Bad weather, bad luck and bad policies by civil bureaucrats have caused thousands of small farmers and ranchers to lose homesteads that have been in their families for generations.  Resentment is strong, conspiracy theories are rampant, and every possible scapegoat is actively pursued.

Ethics Daily has posted a free 20 page resource guide for advocacy and action in support of public schools.

This is a very good way to begin moving from Talk to Action on this issue of vital importance to democracy.

Below the fold is a section that I prepared for the guide on "Rights and Responsibilities" in regard to religion in the public schools.

The Baptist Center for Ethics has issued a Pastoral Letter Affirming Public Schools. It has been signed by scores of Baptist pastors and moderate Baptist denominational leaders.

Here's a quote from an article about the letter in today's Ethics Daily:

Years ago I was asked to participate in a panel discussion of Charles Haynes and Oliver Thomas' Finding Common Ground:  A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Education.  The book examines the controversies that are making public schools the frontline in America's culture wars and seeks to find some common ground on which to restore confidence in our schools.  Below are some of the remarks I made at that panel discussion.

In "The Manufactured Crisis: "Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools" Dr. David Berliner and Bruce Biddle argued that ongoing criticism of America's public schools is baseless and partisan.  [read review of book in Christian Ethics Today]. A new study released January 2006, funded by the US Department of Education, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Champagne Urbana rebuts  claims on the alleged low performance of public schools [ click here for PDF of full report ]. Meanwhile, the ongoing assault on America's public schools comes from many quarters   [ see full story ]

Thomas Jefferson was convinced that democracy depended on a well-educated citizenry and he was right.  Our nation's founders rejected the rule of divinely ordained aristocratic elites.  We were to be governed by the common consent of the people.  That meant every citizen would need an education.

All of us need to be able to comprehend the issues and weigh the opinions necessary to render an informed decision whenever we are called upon to fulfill our civic duties.  The duties of free citizens are not responsibilities that anyone should take lightly.  They range from voting in elections, to holding public office, to serving on juries that make decisions over matters of life and death.

Evolution and religion:  Do they conflict?  

Not necessarily.  

Whether evolution conflicts with religion depends upon the context in which the theory of evolution is presented.  When evolution is discussed within the context of scientific inquiry and experimentation, there is no conflict.  When evolution is discussed within the context of philosophical and religious inquiry, conflicts may arise -- but such conflict is neither necessary nor inevitable.

Pat Robertson doesn't bother to take his foot out of his mouth before he puts the other one in.

Now he's calling professors "termites" and "killers."

Public Schools are the frontlines in the culture war that conservative Christians are waging in this country.   They have been since the day that they were integrated.

Ethics Daily has published a couple insightful articles regarding the latest developments in the battle to destroy America's public school system.  Bob Allen has written an essay about a new "Christian book" that "says Public Schools Subvert Parental Rights."  He goes on to describe recent challenges to public schools coming from every quarter of the political and religious right.   Ed Hogan has written about his "Concerns about the 'Exodus' Movement."  The "Exodus" movement is an organized effort to get Christians to remove their children from public schools.

While most mainline Protestant denominations and evangelical churches have jettisoned some of the core tenets of Calvinism, ideas about punishment and retribution brought to our shores by early Calvinist settlers are so rooted in the American cultural experience and social traditions that many people ranging from religious to secular view them as simply "common sense." What Lakoff calls the "Strict Father" model gains it power among conservatives because it dovetails with their ideas of what is a common sense approach to morality, public policy, and crime.

Focus on the Family Vice President Tom Minnery wasn't very happy about my piece on James Dobson and the Christian right's ties to Jack Abramoff, "Abramoff's Evangelical Soldiers." Of course, he can't -- and doesn't -- dispute one single fact in the article. The Nation received this today:

It is good to see that The Evangelical Climate Initiative has received a great deal of media attention.
The interesting story here is that a group of relatively conservative Christians have come together to not only shake up the Republican status quo on environmental issues, but to directly challenge the loyal pro-Bush faction of the Christian Right.

One of my friends on Live Journal had an interesting post in her blog yesterday. In it, she talked about a chilling conversation she had with some Christian friends of hers, and their perception of 'persecution' and what it means for the rest of us.

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The infamous anti-Mohammed cartoons from Denmark have been published online by the Christian Communications Network (CCN), a Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm run by Christian right activist and anti-abortion crusader Gary McCullough. McCullough distributed press releases calling for even wider publication of the inflammatory cartoons, including one caricature of Muhammad with a fuse-lit bomb tucked in his turban, and another of the prophet on a cloud in paradise, telling newly arrived suicide bombers, "Stop, Stop! We have run out of virgins!"

Islamic tradition forbids any depiction of the religion's holiest figure; such stereotypical, bigoted cartoons have sparked protests across the Muslim world.

McCullough stated in interviews that no one paid him to post the cartoons, and that he is not "speaking on behalf of the Christian faith." McCullough claims to be making a brave stance against terrorist violence and intimidation by Islamic fundamentalists. However, he has a history of condoning intimidation and violence -- including killing -- in the name of Christ.