Google WWW Talk To Action


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



 'Left Behind' video game imageThe 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. 'Left Behind' video game image




The DOD's Revisionist History In National JROTC Curriculum
By Bruce WilsonWed May 16, 2007 at 01:43:38 PM EST
topic: Education and Public Schools section:Dominionism in the military printable version print this story
"Because the portrayal of history so affects current policy, some groups have found it advantageous to their political agenda to distort historical facts intentionally. Those particularly adept at this are termed "revisionists." " - David Barton

Last Saturday, I uncovered revisionist US History within the Unit 6 core curriculum for the national Junior ROTC program ; about 1/2 million American high school students each year are unrolled in the JROTC. I was astounded ; a passage paraphrased from the writing of David Barton, the leading historical revisionist claiming that the United States was founded as a "Christian Nation", has been embedded within a national educational curriculum produced by the Department of Defense and taught, across the nation, to American public high schools students enrolled in Junior ROTC.

How did that happen ? I'm looking into it, but let me say this - those responsible for adding this falsified history to the JROTC curriculum were either complicit, that is to say they did it intentionally, or they were wildly incompetent and did not know the basics of American history. Beyond that, though, I have to wonder ; does no one bother to read what gets taught to hundreds of thousands of American teenagers ? I'm no historian, but I know enough to spot some types of dubious history, and I was apparently the first person to actually notice that the JROTC curriculum contained material from David Barton. If the curriculum had claimed the Sun and the entire heavens rotated around the Earth, repudiating Copernicus, would anyone have noticed that ? I have to wonder.

So, why should you care ?

Well, first of all, one might have expected such government-sponsored lies from a totalitarian regime such as the former Soviet Union. But the United States government claims to foster the teaching of accurate history. Are we sliding towards totalitarian government ?

As a practical point though, you should care because church state separation has become badly eroded and breached over the past two decades. Consider - religious organizations that get federal funds to provide social services can now practice religious discrimination in their hiring practices;  a new federal program launching this summer will literally install courts in churches; several billion dollars in federal domestic and international aid dollars have gone to promote failed "abstinence-only" sex ed programs advocated by the religious right. I could go on. The list is long.

And, what has been behind growing support for such violations of church/state separation is the fact that millions of Americans, probably tens of millions, believe that the church/state separation principle is a fraud, a pernicious myth, and that the United States was founded, and intended, as a Christian nation.

A substantial percent of Americans now believe that America was founded as a Christian nation, and they believe that in part because the flood of revisionist history, based on historical lies, fabrications and distortions, and misquotes and false quotes incorrectly attributed to America's founders, that has been written over the past several decades.

Many of America's leaders, in fact, have come to believe in the "Christian Nation" myth and the precepts that myth has been built on have become, to a worrying extent, taught to American teenagers; through Bible class curriculum taught in hundreds of America's public schools, through homeschooling curricula and, through the JROTC program, to America's future military leaders. A 2006 US Army War College study analyzed possible adverse consequences inherent in the rightward lurch, since the Vietnam War, in the political and religious beliefs of America's military, and that's worth considering in light of   National Review Online Thomas Sowell's recent, apparent exhortations towards a military coup. Now, Sowell's just one columnist, just one voice, but what's more significant, I'd say, is that there hasn't been more public condemnation of Sowell's rabidly anti-democratic NRO diatribe.

So, history matters....

To quote my colleague Chris Rodda, author of Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History: "history should not be a partisan affair, but it has been made into one."  As the late Daniel Moynihan quipped :  "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts."

Many Americans have become aware of the spread of "Creationist" beliefs, in their native form or, by way of a proxy idea, via "Intelligent Design". But, comparatively few of those Americans are also aware that fake history, manufactured to advance the ideology of the Christian right, has spread just as extensively.

You'd be suprised - we were. Fake history seems to be  everywhere

When Chris Rodda started uncovering and rebutting the historical lies spread by David Barton and others, she tells me, she had no idea just how extensive those lies were. Likewise, when I started working to publicize Chris' work and uncover instances of the extent to which those lies could be found in America's schools and political culture, I had no idea of how extensive the problem of fake history really is.

In fact, from the students in the nearly 400 public high schools across the US who are taking Bible classes taught from a fake-history larded curriculum created by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, to the 1/2 million public school students being taught fake history in the Junior ROTC curriculum, on to the hundreds of thousands and possibly even millions of children being taught falsified American history embedded in Christian homeschooling curricula, a sizable portion of an entire generation of Americans is being raised to believe in the falsified "Christian nation" myth.

For that reason alone, the claim that the Christian right as a political movement should be discounted is a dubious one because an entire new generation of leaders, now coming to the fore and inculcated with Christian right ideas including a fake "Christian nation" version of history, will soon take over to devise new tactics and strategies that will advance the movement.

That historical fabrication is more of a problem than many American political progressives might think - as historian Chris Rodda and I are in the process of uncovering, the lie has become noticeably entrenched among significant parts of America's leadership class, and  the "Christian nation" myth is a problem because it asserts the principle of separation of church and state to be a lie.

You can even find this "Christian nation" myth being peddled, as Talk To Action contributor Chris Rodda has recently noted, on television. It's become for many Americans, due to the media heft the Christian right has built up over many decades, omnipresent.  Like a sort of historical analog, and equally toxic in its way, to those persistent organic pollutants that now flush from the breast tissues of American mothers into the mouths of their nursing babies, fake "Christian nation" history has quietly diffused up the informational food chain, to little notice until now, to pollute America's political culture.

The "Christian nation" historical narrative does crucial work for the American Christian right; it provides the raison d'etre of the movement: fake history put forth by David Barton and others asserts that the true character of America has been subverted and that to address an alleged social and moral collapse patriotic Americans must work to install Bible classes in public schools and gain political power to impart an overt Christian character to American institutions, with the consequence that religious and philosophical minorities would be reduced, in effect, to second class citizenship. A 2005 incident that occurred in the Indian River School District of Southern Delaware underlines the point ; a Jewish family that complained about overt displays of Christianity within the Indian River School district, to the extent of targeting its children public schools in the district, after being harassed and subjected to death threats, sold its house and fled the area.

A 2006 US Army War College study analyzed possible adverse consequences inherent in the rightward lurch, since the Vietnam War, in the political and religious beliefs of America's military ; it's worth noting that many in the military leadership caste may believe the "Christian nation" historical myth and so Dick Cheney's recent suggestion, to the cadets at West Point, that it might be necessary to repeal the 22nd Amendment that limits US presidents to 2 terms in office takes on a distinctly ominous cast, as do this recent apparent exhortation, from a writer for the National Review Online, towards a military coup.

Dark, sure. Well, what's to be done ?

Remember this : truth is powerful. The fake "Christian nation" myth flourishes only to the extent that wider American society ignores or denies its existence. The way to disarm those who feel they must fight for a "Christian nation" is to remove the ideological ground under their motivation, by shining a light on the lies from which the "Christian nation" myth has been constructed in the first place.

The Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc Communist regimes were prone to peddling fake history and authoritarian regimes lack the checks and balances of Democratic nations by which people who know better can call out abuses of the historical record. But, even as fake history has become pervasive in the United States to an extent few Americans realize, we, as American and world citizens, have the liberty to fight the rewriting of American history that David Barton and others are attempting.

Here is Chris Rodda's analysis and thought, at Talk To Action, of the US taxpayer subsidized falsified history within Unit six of the Junior ROTC core curriculum produced by the United States Department of Defense:

[excerpt, from The Department of Defense -- Bringing Historical Revisionism to a High School Near You, by historian Chris Rodda ]

This sort of historical revisionism might be expected in homeschools and at Christian high schools, such as D. James Kennedy's own Westminster Academy, and the spreading of it by these means is bad enough. But now, bit by bit, this same historical revisionism is making its way into our public schools. I've already written extensively about how this is being accomplished via the National Council On Bible Curriculum In Public Schools (NCBCPS) course. The NCBCPS, however, is not the only source of bad history in our public high schools. There is another, which, unlike the NCBCPS, is not produced by a private organization, but by the Department of Defense -- for the JROTC program....

Before even getting to the historical inaccuracy of the Barton explanation of Jefferson's letter, and disregarding the disturbing fact that anything by Barton appears in an official Department of Defense history text being used in our high schools, I think an important question needs to be asked. Why is the issue of separation between church and state in this chapter in the first place? The lessons in this chapter teach the cadets to decide on a position on an issue by majority rule, and then form a plan to promote that position. This is appropriate for the other examples that follow in the textbook, such as whether or not the voting age should be lowered to sixteen, but to foster the notion that a fundamental principle like church/state separation is subject to majority rule is incredible. To present what is described as "one perspective" on this issue when that "perspective" is based on inaccurate history is beyond incredible.

Beyond incredible, indeed.




Display:
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)

Sarah Palin's Demon Haunted Churches - The Complete Edition
Contained in this story : --The 10 minute video documentary "Sarah Palin's Churches and The New Wave" (currently also titled as "Sarah Palin's Demon......
By Bruce Wilson (0 comments)
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 (7 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 (1 comment)
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 (8 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 (1 comment)
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)
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...