Firstly, a bit of backgrounder for those who aren't familiar with what is one of the latest tempests in a teapot in the dominionist community. What started this is University of California's school system passing a change to their minimum requirements for pre-collegiate education requiring that something had to be taught regarding the theory of evolution. Per this article, two specific curriculum packages listed as unacceptable were from A Beka Books and Bob Jones University. (I'll get into this more in detail in a bit, but both school curricula packages are very hardline dominionist.) Needless to say, this sent dominionist groups on the warpath. First in line was Calvary Chapel School and ACSI, who promptly sued the University of California school system for "religious discrimination". (A bit more on these two groups. Calvary Chapel is known for some very interesting hijinks in and of itself. The leader of Calvary Chapel, Chuck Smith, has fairly scary and blatant links to dominionist groups, including armageddonist "premillenial dispensationalist" dominionists. Right now, Calvary Chapel is probably most infamous for the attempted hijacking of WAVM-FM (a low-power high school station near Boston, Massachusetts) via a subsidiary group called Living Proof, Inc. (evidence of the links at this link); Calvary Chapel also has a documented history of spiritual abuse via shepherding or "prayer cells" (again, above link has multiple links to this). As a minor aside, FCC license policy has been notably lax towards "Godcasting" networks in general--possibly due to the links between the FCC's head of broadcast policy and the National Religious Broadcasters (which is the broadcast wing of the National Association of Evangelicals, now controlled by Ted Haggard of the hardline dominionist New Life Church in Colorado Springs). (ACSI is an accreditation group for "Christian"--largely fundamentalist--schools and homeschool programs across the US. Their "accreditation" procedure quite literally consists of sending in a form along with a membership fee, a statement of faith, and (in the case of groups not multiply "accredited") a list of curriculum used. In other words, it's a flat out accreditation mill that is willing to give accreditation to any school following its "statement of faith" and willing to shell out the cash. Notably, ACSI is based out of Colorado Springs, home of many other dominionist groups.) Shortly after ACSI and Calvary Chapel started screaming foul, so did practically every other major dominionist group in the US (and quite a number of minor ones, too). The thing is, University of California does have a legitimate reason for rejecting those curriculum programs. In a Rethinking Schools report on the voucher movement (which is also heavily supported by dominionist groups as a "stalking horse"), there are two articles of specific note because they are one of the first real exposures of the actual content in schoolbooks like A Beka's curriculum, Bob Jones University et al. I've written an initial article referencing the Rethinking Schools articles on Dark Christianity, a likeminded community to this (if far more informal!). (My writing is largely in reference to the issue of dominionist-run homeschooling programs, of which there is a major push in dominionist churches, but is applicable to private schools in dominionist churches as well.) Regarding the A Beka curriculum in particular--I am familiar with that in part as a walkaway from a coercive Assemblies of God church (that is also highly involved in the dominionist movement; one of its deacons, Frank Simon, is the head of the Kentucky state branch of the American Family Association) that has promoted its use in its private school curriculum. Because of this, and because A Beka is actually considered the most "liberal" of these, I have done a very informal evaluation (as a maths/sciences/history geek for the most part; if someone ever wants to run with this for more research, be my guest!) of the general content of A Beka's curriculum. The first and second parts are available to give you a hint as to how in practically every area of education A Beka is not only factually inaccurate and wildly underprepares students for college, but is more often than not more interested in indoctrinating students for being "future God Warriors" than actual preparation for college or work. (If someone wants me to post the whole essay up as a one-parter, let me know--it's huge, and even for Livejournal posting I had to eventually split it to a two-part essay.) One of the things I cover in the A Beka Essay is how--in addition to literally demonising the teaching of evolution, and those who promote it. (Ironically, one of the people they likely condemn is pentecostal minister and paleontologist Robert Bakker (yes, the Dinosaur Heresies guy), who does believe in evolution but also sees paleontology as his way of getting closer to God and maybe even showing other people the face of God--he doesn't see religion and paleontology as incompatible.) A Beka even goes into not only demonising evolution but also promotes a blatantly Christian Reconstructionist view of history (both US and world history), promotes blatantly fundamentalist views of the Bible in its "Bible course", and apparently even thinks set theory and other modern maths (aka practically all modern mathematics) is somehow a Satanic plot and drops them out of their courses (which, needless to say, is going to leave students wildly unprepared for college-level maths courses). Even the methods of English teaching are more geared towards indoctrination than education. And this is with the most liberal of the curriculum packages--from all accounts that I've seen, Bob Jones University is even worse as far as being a Christian Reconstructionist manual disguised as an education curriculum.
University of California and its misadventures with dominionists | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
University of California and its misadventures with dominionists | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series
on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game have been viewed by up to 1/2 million people. See our site section featuring Over 35 original articles covering the controversial "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that has provoked a boycott by a coalition of religious groups and a letter writing campaign urging Walmart to stop selling the game. Media inquiries click here(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)
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