Talk To Action | Reclaiming Citizenship, History, and Faith

Create an account:
it's free Forgotten name
or password ?

Fake History, and the myth that the United States was founded originally as a "Christian Nation", is now being taught in hundreds of schools across America. Please click here to help Talk To Action Fight Fake History

Talk To Action Speakers Bureau

Religious Right Organizations

Site Sections

The War on Reproductive Rights

Attacking Public Education

Shadow War: the battle for mainstream faith
the covert campaign against liberal chuches and the social justice tradition

War on Judicial Independence

[above: click on image for YouTube video trailer]"Renewal or Ruin": New Video Documentary By Steve D. Martin Spotlights Secretive Rightwing Effort To Destroy Mainstream Protestant Churches

Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, by Frederick Clarkson

Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort
by Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons
sample chapter

God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade For Values Voters
By Sarah Posner

Liars for Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History
By Chris Rodda

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism
: by Michelle Goldberg

With God on Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush's White House.
by Esther Kaplan

Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement
Tanya Erzen

Special Features

Attack on The United Churches of Christ

Attack on The United Methodist Church

"The Christian Right, Dominionism, and Theocracy", by Chip Berlet

Parts One Two Three Four Five

"Taking Over The Republican Party", a four part series by Joan Bokaer

The Woman in A Mink Coat While We Were sleeping Angels On a Pinhead Under Cover of Night

The Indian River Incident : What You Can Do

link > The "Stop the ACLU Coalition" Shaming Project
How you can help stop "Stop The ACLU" just by sending a few emails

The Shaming Project

does the violence of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" bother you ? If so, what can you do ? Well, to begin with you can email Jonathan Hutson's stories to people you know. That will help to bring more public scrutiny of the game. Public shaming really works ! Just click on the "email" icon and link at the top or bottom of the story and you'll be taken to a form that will allow you email the first story, The Purpose Driven Life Takers or the latest installment without leaving this site. Thanks.

Donate to or support
Talk to Action

More Lessons from Dover

By Ed Brayton	Mon Jan 29, 2007 at 04:40:06 PM EST
topic: Attack on Science section:Front Page	print this story

The ruling in Kitzmiller v Dover Area School District was a pretty cut-and-dried text, as must judicial rulings are. So it was a bit surprising when, near the end of the opinion, Judge Jones bluntly referred to the "breathtaking inanity" of the Dover school board's adoption of the ID policy. But as bracing as such a bold statement was to see in a judicial ruling, the trial record shows that it was entirely justified. The behavior of the ID advocates on the school board ranged from negligent to ignorant to outright lying on the witness stand.

I've already documented the lies of board members Bill Buckingham and Alan Bonsell, whose dishonesty regarding who had donated the money to buy the 60 copies of Of Pandas and People. I've also documented the ignorance displayed by Buckingham and Bonsell in regard to what they knew about intelligent design; while aggressively pushing a policy to put ID into Dover science classrooms, their testimony clearly showed that they didn't understand even the most basic things about the idea they wanted in (and they knew even less about evolutionary biology).

Today I'd like to focus on board member Heather Geesey. Geesey is the only one of the pro-ID board members who remains on the school board today; all the rest were voted out in November 2005, but Geesey's seat was not up for reelection so she remains on the board. But as her testimony makes clear, she knew next to nothing about intelligent design, yet she voted to put it in to science classrooms in Dover. Here's part of her testimony:

Q Now, you said you voted for the October 18 curriculum change because you liked it.
A Yes.
Q You supported the change.
A Yes.
Q It -- because it gave a balanced view of evolution.
A Yes, I mean . . .
Q It presented an alternative theory?
A Yes.
Q And the policy talks about gaps and problems with evolution?
A Yes.
Q Yes. You don't know what those gaps and problems refer to, do you?
A No.
Q But it's good to teach about those gaps and problems?
A That -- yes, that's our mission statement, yes.
Q But you have no idea what they are?
A It's not my job, no.
Q Is it fair to say that you didn't know much about intelligent design in October of 2004?
A Yes.
Q And you didn't know much about the book Of Pandas and People either, did you?
A Correct.
Q So you had never participated in any discussions of the book?
A No.
Q And you made no effort independently to find out about the book?
A No.
Q And the administration had made copies of the book available to board members.
A Yes.
Q But you never read the book.
A No.
Q And no one ever explained to you what intelligent design was about.
A No.
Q And you never got any instructional materials or tapes about intelligent design.
A No.
Q And you never viewed any or read any books about intelligent design.
A No.
Q And you didn't study it independently.
A No.
Q You didn't go on the Internet and look it up.
A No.
Q So you didn't really think too much about intelligent design.
A No.
Q You just knew it was something else that the kids were going to learn?
A Yes.

Warms the heart, doesn't it? School board members voting things in that they made no effort to learn anything about. This isn't just the blind leading the blind, it's the willfully ignorant leading the kids we are educating for the purpose of overcoming ignorance. Worse yet, she admitted that she just accepted Buckingham's opinion, while ignoring the informed opinions of all of the Dover science teachers:

Q But you chose to listen to Mr. Buckingham and Mr. Bonsell?
A Correct.
Q Now, I know you said you don't have any background in science, correct?
A Correct.
Q And do you know whether Mr. Buckingham has a background in science?
A No, I do not.
Q Do you know that in fact he doesn't have a background in science?
A I don't know. He's law enforcement, so I would assume he had to take something along the way.
Q Did he ever tell you he knew something about biology?
A No.
Q How about Mr. Bonsell, do you know what his background is?
A No.
Q Do you know what he does for a living?
A He's a business owner, I believe.
Q He's not a scientist, to your knowledge?
A Not to my knowledge, no.
Q He's not a science teacher?
A No.
Q Now, there are people employed by the school district who do know a little something about science, correct?
A Correct.
Q And that would be the teachers.
A Yes.
Q And you know Ms. Bertha Spahr?
A Yes.
Q And she's been with the school district a long time.
A Yes.
Q And she's head of the science department.
A Yes.
Q And you know Ms. Miller.
A Yes.
Q And you know Mr. Eshbach.
A Yes.
Q And you know Mr. Lanker?
A I don't -- I wouldn't be able to place him, but I know the name, I know he's a teacher.
Q And he's a science teacher?
A Yes.
Q And you knew that the science teachers were all opposed to introducing intelligent design?
A Correct.

This is absolute negligence. If you have control over a school's science curriculum, you need to know something about science. And you need to put in the effort to educate yourself on the issues you vote about. To vote to put a concept into the curriculum that you don't understand and refuse to take the time to understand is unprofessional, willfully ignorant and dangerous to the entire purpose for which you are on a school board.

Of course, this is the same woman who made this absolutely bizarre statement during a school board meeting after the policy was passed:

"We are not doing to be sued. It's not going to be a problem. I have confidence in the district's lawyers."

Except that the district's lawyers had urged the board not to adopt the policy and told them that they were going to be sued if they did so. The pro-ID school board members were willfully ignorant to the point of being delusional.

To discuss this story, sign up for a free account

More Lessons from Dover | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

Two important FACTS you missed (none / 0)

One- It was the ACLU that brought the suit, the scholl board was merely defending their right to say the Evolution was not a proven fact. They were NOT attempting to teach intellegent design.

Two- The case was decided by a JUDGE (as opposed to a jury), whom I doubt had any college level education in science beyond "rocks for jocks".

by Kris W on Tue Jan 30, 2007 at 10:52:41 AM EST

: Kris W... (none / 0)

wrote:

One- It was the ACLU that brought the suit, the scholl board was merely defending their right to say the Evolution was not a proven fact. They were NOT attempting to teach intellegent design.
As the teachers rightly testified, everything they say in a classroom is teaching. By telling the students that they should read a creationist textbook and consider "intelligent design theory", they were, in fact, teaching intelligent design. And since there is no "intelligent design theory", only a long list of already discredited creationist arguments wrapped up in a new label, there is no doubt that such teaching is unconstitutional.

Two- The case was decided by a JUDGE (as opposed to a jury), whom I doubt had any college level education in science beyond "rocks for jocks".
And therefore...what? Judges have to decide on cases involving complex scientific issues all the time, especially in liability cases. That's why you have expert witnesses. In this case, the expert witnesses for the defense crumbled on the witness stand and did more damage to their case than they did help.

by Ed Brayton on Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 02:56:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

More than just willful ignorance... (none / 0)

In the military we would call this dereliction of duty which is a court martial offense and can send people to prison. I would like to offer a sort of analogy that might put this into perspective and I will use the military as an example.

As far as rank goes this school board would be approximately the same rank as a board of Lieutenant Colonels (O-5 for you military types). Imagine for a moment you have a group of these guys who are put in charge of deciding the future course of something important such as the development of a new communications infrastructure. I use this as an example simply because it is within my area of knowledge. They could just as easily be in charge of a new weapons system or a health care system. Anyway, they are tasked with coming up with the best infrastructure for the South West region of the U.S. that provides security, interoperability, expansion, flexibility, capacity and various other capabilities. There are plenty of vendors all putting in bids and making their pitches to the board but there happens to be one vendor that has absolutely no experience in communications, very little capital to work with and more importantly, they have personal relationships with the board members. As a result of this personal relationship the least capable vendor wins the contract. Instead of improving on the current infrastructure and making upgrades the new vendor has nothing to offer except poor explanations. Eventually the vendor is told to take a hike but the members of the board would all face serious charges of dereliction for their poor judgement.

My analogy is a bit crude but I think it serves to make my point. The actions of the Dover school board could be considered criminal negligence. They are elected to positions that are far more important than most people realize. Their job is to produce the highest quality product they can. In this case the high quality product is a well educated student who can reason and deal with the world as an adult. Instead, they went out of thier way to produce students who would not have the ability to pursue higher educations due to their lack of fundamental knowledge and reasoning abilities. In this case the voters (one might think of them as shareholders in a company) decided to vote out the unqualified board for one that has their better interests at heart.

This article describes the old board as willfully ignorant. This is an accurate term but I prefer to go a step further and call it aggressive ignorance. Not only do they choose to be ignorant but they work very hard at being so and they work hard at making sure those around them are ignorant too.

by Ross Raymond on Tue Jan 30, 2007 at 10:55:50 AM EST

More Lessons from Dover | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

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)

Palin: "A Natural Choice" for Catholics?
The Catholic Right, Part Sixty-eight Is Governor Sarah Palin really "a natural choice" for Catholics as Fidelis's Brian Burch suggests? The answer is obviously,......
By Frank Cocozzelli (6 comments)

Major Christian Organization Endorses the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
With all the attention being given to the radical fundamentalist brand of Christianity espoused by churches like that of Sarah Palin -- a brand......
By Chris Rodda (0 comments)

Palin's Church Promotes Gay Conversion
The Associated Press reports that the Wasilla Bible Church where Sarah Palin is a member is promoting a conference on the crackpot notion of......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)

Palin's Pastor: God "Is Gonna Strike Out His Hand Against... America
On July 20, 2008, the pastor of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's home church, Larry Kroon, delivered a sermon called "Sin Is Personal To......
By Max Blumenthal (1 comment)

Sarah Palin and the Servant Heart
<small>Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates (author info)</small>Sarah Palin's references to the Servant Heart comes from the idea that Jesus of Nazareth asked his......
By Chip Berlet (5 comments)

Short Takes: Sarah Palin Edition
Religion Dispatches: Kathryn Joyce profiles Palin -- as McCain's mad pander to the Religious Right continues to unfold. Gay City News: The accumulating evidence......
By Frederick Clarkson (3 comments)

Palin's Churches and the Third Wave
Part Two This posting documents the extensive involvement of several of Sarah Palin's churches in the Third Wave Movement, also known as the New......
By Ruth (3 comments)

Palin's Churches and the Third Wave
Part One History and Theology of the Third Wave Sarah Palin has refused to acknowledge belonging to any specific denomination or any particular religious......
By Ruth (6 comments)

What is Dominionism? Palin, the Christian Right, & Theocracy
Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates (author info)Sarah Palin is a "Dominionist" with an apocalyptic End Times theological viewpoint that sees the war in......
By Chip Berlet (4 comments)

EVENT CANCELLED Speaking in Philadelphia on September 27th
Update [2008-9-5 12:26:36 by Frederick Clarkson]: Buzzflash has announced that the event has been cancelled, but that the themes will continue to be pursued......
By Frederick Clarkson (0 comments)

Sarah Palin's Theocratic End Times - UPDATED
I have never believed that the evangelical views of George W. Bush ran deep -- at least as far as relating interpretations of the......
By Frederick Clarkson (5 comments)

Dobson and the Religious Right Rally for McCain/Palin
It was not so long ago that pundits were busy telling us that the Religious Right is dead, dying or irrelevant. The selection of......
By Frederick Clarkson (2 comments)

At Palin Church, Jews For Jesus Head Says Terrorism vs Israel Is God's Punishment
Do terrorist attacks on Israel, as recently preached in Sarah Palin's current church, amount to divine judgment on Jews for refusing to accept Jesus......
By Bruce Wilson (1 comment)

Theocrats to Pray for McCain's Death
The more theocratic elements of the Religious Right have a disturbing habit, (more like a practice) of invoking "imprecatory prayer" -- a call for......
By Frederick Clarkson (8 comments)

Rest Assured New Orleans, I'm Sure Lt. Gen. Van Antwerp is Praying for You
For those who don't know who Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp is, he's the Commanding General of the Army Corps of Engineers --......
By Chris Rodda (2 comments)

The problem with Sarah Palin
In light of John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President, I feel compelled to write this letter. ......
By sirius (0 comments)

Future links to upcoming documentaries on Palin's Churches
Will live here, at this URL address. ......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)

Sarah Palin used AK tax dollars to fund dominionist churches
Over the past few days, I've done reporting on Sarah Palin's extensive dominionist connections--including the attempt to run her as a "stealth" dominionist candidate and her connections to some scary dominionist groups including not......
By dogemperor (1 comment)

Palin Steals Hockey Mom Joke from John Hagee?
Hockey mom Sarah Palin got a great reaction during her convention speech with an unscripted joke (which she also used somewhere the day before) addressed to her fellow hockey moms. Noticing the "Hockey Mom"......
By Chris Rodda (1 comment)

The Irony of Sarah Palin's "Choice"
Republican operatives and religious conservatives are ecstatic over Sarah Palin. Most of all, they are ecstatic that she is a "pro-life" mother who chose not to have an abortion after she found of she......
By tacitus (0 comments)

New revelations re "stealth dominionist" Sarah Palin
A few days ago, I wrote one of the first articles out there regarding Sarah Palin's VP nomination as a "stealth dominionist"--a "stealther" with extensive Assemblies connections (and to particularly scary segments of the......
By dogemperor (0 comments)

Sarah Palin: Dominionist Stalking Horse
The big news, obviously, in the blogosphere today is John McCain's surprise pick for the Republican veep nominee--a relative unknown by the name of Sarah Palin, whom--at least in the more conventional political circles--would......
By dogemperor (0 comments)

Richard Land Picks Republican Veep Candidate
Yesterday the media was all atwitter about Karl Rove's supposed Republican V.P. pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. However, it seems that instead SBC President Richard Land, well known among readers of Talk2Action for his......
By ulyankee (1 comment)

"Yes on 8" RSVP? Need your advice.
Schubert Flint Public Affairs has been hired to run the Yes on Prop. 8 ("Protect Marriage") initiative. If you've happened to notice the names Jennifer Kerns, Frank Schubert, or Jeff Flint in media coverage......
By Chino Blanco (2 comments)

Alabama PSC Cantidate Matt Chancey: His Views on Suffrage, Women, Marriage, etc.
Promoted from the diaries -- FC Alabama voters should be made aware that Matt Chancey opposes"one person, one vote" suffrage, apparently on religious grounds. Matt Chancey, a Republican, is running for president of the......
By CynthiaGee (2 comments)

Jews and Christians Unite against the Empire of Neo-cons and 'Christian' Zionists
Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources...Everything is justified in......
By eileen fleming (1 comment)

Patriot Follows the Money and Exposes Foreign Agents
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official."-Theodore Roosevelt ......
By eileen fleming (0 comments)

The Alleged "Church of Liberalism"
4th July, Independence Day. I was at a party in Paris. As usual, when one of the guests learned that he was speaking to an American the conversation turned to the election and Obama.......
By TMurray (0 comments)

Hope Never Dies for Extremists
The extreme political Religious Right hasn't given up hope of getting something out of this election. Their latest ploy involves petitioning the parties for a "True Christian" in the vice-presidential slot. The Christian Anti-Defamation......
By John McKay (0 comments)

Catholic religious right wing: Legion of Christ
Frank L. Cocozzelli's weekly series of posts on "The Catholic Right" (listed here) includes quite a few posts about Opus Dei. There's another, similarly ultra-orthodox Catholic religious order he might want to examine in......
By Diane Vera (3 comments)

Prosyletization in Iraq: A threat to national security
As amazing as it sounds, dominionists may in fact be fomenting terrorism--not just the domestic terrorism like bombings of women's clinics we normally associate, but the very "Islamist terror bombings" that the GOP loves......
By dogemperor (0 comments)

Proselytization in Iraq: A minor history
The recent incident where a Marine was recently found distributing "Bible coins" promoted by a fundamentalist "Bible church" is, sad to say, far from the first incident of overt prosyletisation in Iraq. The truth......
By dogemperor (1 comment)

Source of "Bible coins" distributed by USMC in Iraq discovered
In what is--sadly--yet another case of the extent of which blatant prosyletisation is tolerated in the modern US military, a recent incident where members of the US Marine Corps were handing out coins to......
By dogemperor (0 comments)

What Does the Religious Right Fear the Most?
A poll that one of the giants on the right, Coral Ridge Ministries, sent to their members gives a revealing insight into their world view. ......
By John McKay (3 comments)

UK Abortion Limit Stays at 24 Weeks Despite Washington Think Tank's Tactics
IN GOD'S NAME is a revealing documentary about how the Alliance Defense Fund is using its tactics to try to restrict abortion in Europe as well as in America. Watch this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeTfW8-dCNE ......
By TMurray (3 comments)

'Christians United For Israel' Joyfully Sing of Israel's Invasion and Destruction
An open letter, from Ray McGovern, a 27-year intelligence analyst with the CIA, to Admiral William J. Fallon, warns of an impending US attack on Iran. If such an event occurred, the resulting war......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)

The Petrification of John McCain
We are very pleased to welcome Frederick Lane as a guest front pager. He is the author of several books,most recently, The Court and the Cross: The Religious Right's Crusade to Reshape the Supreme......
By Frederick_Lane (3 comments)

More Biblical Precedent for Allowing Abortion
This is a follow up to my most recent diary entry. ......
By TMurray (3 comments)

John Hagee Says God Made AIDS and Bird Flu But Lord will Protect Him Personally
John Hagee claims 1) that he knows with absolute certainty the will of God (as he told a BBC interviewer in 2003), is 2) sure that he, John Hagee, has a place in heaven......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)

Biblical support for abortion, who knew?
It turns out that our present legal understanding of when a life is entitled to legal protection is consistent with the Old Testament Biblical understanding of when a fetus becomes a 'life' warranting legal......
By TMurray (2 comments)

2001 John Hagee Film Shows Gangsterish Rabbi, Foppish Catholic Priest In League With anti-Christ
The following somewhat satirical video is built around a brief excerpt from Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee's 2001 55-minute film "Vanished", which followed the prophetic, premillennial plot line of Tim LaHaye's and Jerry Jenkin's......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)

PBS "Carrier": A Mixed Blessing
Watching the PBS miniseries "Carrier" was a revelation, but not always a pleasant one... ......
By bughouse square (0 comments)

Will We Ever Learn?
Ever looked at something or did something which at the time seemed good and beneficial only to learn that it was not what you thought? If we could all have the opportunity to live......
By truthngrace (0 comments)

McCain-Endorser's Church Casts Out "Demon of Anal Fissures", Teaches Vomiting Evil Spirits
[NOTE: for a related story, see Mai Tai Dogs: Pics Show Bush Administration, McCain-Endorser Hagee Schmoozing at Chinese Restaurant] I have to admit, on one level it sounds more entertaining than a church full......
By Bruce Wilson (3 comments)

Bush 41 salutes Sun Myung Moon's effort to subdue the planet.
Sun Myung Moon's end time political front, the Universal Peace Federation had a summit from April 28 to May 2 in Washington DC. The participants took a tour of the Moon owned Washington Times......
By Lou (2 comments)

More Diaries...

Blogs

Bartholomew's Notes On Religion Chip Berlet Max Blumenthal The Panda's Thumb Frederick Clarkson Chuck Currie DefCon father Jake Stops The World John Gorenfeld Religion Clause Chris Mooney Religious Right Watch The Revealer Jesus Politics Majority Report Radio Blog Mainstream Baptist Orcinus Dispatches from the Culture Wars Ex-Gay Watch The Wall of Separation Blog From The Capital:a blog on religious liberty issues and the separation of church and state

CrossLeft: Organizing The Christian Left Dark Christianity The Daily Kos Booman Tribune ePluribus Media My Left Wing Political Cortex Street Prophets

Organizations

American Booksellers Foundation for Freedom of Expression ACLU Anti-Defamation League American Library Association Christian Alliance for Progress Citizens Project DefCon: Campaign to Defend The Constitution Faithful America People For the American way Institute For Democracy Studies Interfaith Alliance Jews On First: Defending the First Amendment American Fundamentalists Americans United for Separation of Church and State Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty The Clergy and laity Network Political Research Associates Theocracy Watch Media Matters for America Military Religious Freedom Foundation Montana Human Rights Network National Center For Science Education Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice The Revealer Southern Poverty Law Center Texas Freedom Network CrossLeft: Organizing the Christian Left Theocracy Watch Truth Wins Out"