Religious Right Declares War on Condoms and Wizards in Ontario
If we’re going to have religious fundamentalists trying to rabble-rouse left, right, and centre, in this country, the conservative media is going to have to figure out how to cover them responsibly. Believe me, I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is. We live at a time when the Globe & Mail willingly prints columns claiming that God personally intervenes to bring criminals to justice, when the Science Minister of this country — the Science Minister, for Christ’s sake — is an evolution-denying dunce, and when the Agriculture Minister of our largest ally seriously advises prayer as a solution to drought. Welcome to the post-Enlightenment.
Which brings us to Ontario. I wrote about it last week, but this week the ante was upped. Religious fundamentalist parents across the province apparently are writing in demanding that their children be removed from class before evil, sensitive, atheist-sounding, left-wing-ish anti-Christish topics come up. And it’s not just the usual bugbears, like gay marriage and abortion, as you can see from this form letter prepared for concerned parents by PEACE Hamilton, which lists as topics that parents object to having taught in their children’s schools:
- The occult — The form letter complains about the teaching of “witchcraft, black magic, spirit guides, Satanism, wizardry, new age, channelling… [and] psychic powers”
- Contraception — Schools should not “provide a false sense of security with regard to the effectiveness of condoms.” This bizarre caveat hardly matters, because later in the package it declares that the teaching of anything related to either condoms or STDs “cannot effectively be achieved for our child without interfering with his/her spiritual understandings of the value of abstinence.”
- The environment — Kids should not be exposed to any environmentalism presented “from a humanistic (for the benefit of man to live as long as possible) or naturalistic (deifying the Earth) worldview.” Also out is “environmental worship,” defined as “placing environmental issues/concerns above the value of Judeo-Christian principles.”
- Anything to do with “moral relativism,” “secular humanism,” or “naturalism” — Also out. Obviously.
Do Ontario’s schools really teach Satanism, black magic, “wizardry” spirit guides, and psychic powers? Speaking as a non-Ontarian, I feel like I’ve missed out on a really fun education.
The conservative media doesn’t seem to know quite what to make of these people. The Ottawa Citizen isn’t sure we should have students “trooping in and out” of the classroom, “buffet” style. One National Post columnist thinks we should just get rid of universal public education altogether so that kooks can freely dispense kookery in special voucher-funded kook schools. The Toronto Star thinks the whole thing is ridiculous, and doesn’t mind saying so.
PEACE Hamilton’s form letter explains that it is being sent because the family believes in “a set of values based on traditional Biblical-Christian principles.” I’m really happy they mentioned the Bible. My last post in this series also covered some important Biblical teachings that it presumably would be okay to teach in school, given that these kids were raised on “Biblical” principles. I have many, many more, but those were some of the best.
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Fred
I pine for the good old days when batshit craziness was confined to the margins.
jrkrideau
Do Ontario’s schools really teach Satanism, black magic, “wizardry” spirit guides, and psychic powers?
Well not in my day but most of my time was in Catholic schools. It’s been a long time but I think they taught horrible things like evolution, math history etc. Nothing interesting or useful. Couldn’t trust those nuns a bit. Heck, if I’d tried to claim a ‘spirit guide’, Sister St. Helen would have hit me over the head with a metre stick.
Louisiana has brought in a remarkably stupid law on education authorizing voucher schools (read : Fundamentalist Christian Indoctrination Centres, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/louisiana_n_1593995.html)
The funniest part about it was that the first school applying for funding under the law was a Muslim madrassa in New Orleans. Law makers were horrified–that was not what they had intended.
I’m still laughing but it looks like it has the potential to just about destroy an already not-too-strong educational system. Once you graduate from one of those voucher funded schools you are not
Let’s hope we have a bit more luck here.
Sixth Estate
From link: “The New Living Word School was granted permission to take 315 school vouchers — the largest number for any school — even though it has no library, and students reportedly spend most of their day watching Biblically-themed DVDs.”
Good God…
spaceman
The question is why is this happening? How are common sense folks who, if you sat down and explained any of this too, would most likely laugh it right off the table. Yet it happens. Are people just that tuned out?
Sixth Estate
You’re asking a political blogger whether most people are too tuned out?
e.a.foster
these people are what I would refer to as religions & ignorant zealots. If children are taught or not taught specific things their parents believe or don’t believe in, we are not going to have a well adjusted, well educated population.
We need a public school system which prepares children for the real world. If we continue to let people/parents interfer with what is taught we are not going to get anywhere.
I was educated in the public school system in the 50 & 60s. There were no problems with parents deciding what they did or didn’t want their kids to learn, you went to class & that was it. when it came to evolution the science teacher announced that some students may not agree with what he was going to teach but it was part of the ciriculam. He then conducted the class on evolution, Darwanism, etc. & opened it for discussion. There were kids who didn’t believe in evolution & there were those of us who did. We all made in through life without being impacted. Parents need to get real. School isn’t about teaching values, its about teaching the ciriculam. Parents can teach their kids at home their own values but lets not impose them on other kids.
Saskboy
Watching uncritical videos all day sounds like watching TV. How is that different from being a couch potato? Does a generation of couch potatoes seem like people able to steer the world into a more “Godly” future?
Sixth Estate
foster — Actually it’s worse than evolution (which was covered under “naturalism,” I assume, but wasn’t the main focus of the complaint: sex ed and atheism seem to be the main specific complaints. Of course, we can well imagine that having your kid walk out of all discussion of sex ed in the classroom doesn’t mean they will only learn about it at home. It just means that one of the places they learn about it won’t be the classroom.
Which I’m sure will be just great, all around… not.
saskboy — I assume these are rhetorical questions. I wonder if VeggieTales is on the curriculum. In any case, a fine example of why the basic theory behind voucher and charter schooling — that parents are the best people to determine what sort of schooling their children should get — is obviously flawed.
kootcoot
” Does a generation of couch potatoes seem like people able to steer the world into a more “Godly” future?”
No, but a generation of couch potatoes with credit cards, even if the credit cards and connected by are based on money from the guvmint, is the corporate dream………..passive consumers!
jrkrideau
As a follow-up to the Louisiana school link, apparently one of the major US Christian publishers promises good, clean, traditional mathematics as well.
http://boingboing.net/2012/08/07/what-do-christian-fundamentali.html
The rationale about avoiding set theory is a bit murky but it may hinge on fundamental, (pun not intended), differences between integers and reals, if I caught the argument correctly but IANAMathemetician.
I wonder if the Federal Gov’t should be looking into the sources of funding for these groups as it has been trying to do with enviromentalist groups? The playbook seems to be an American one.
Conspiracy theorist? Who me?
Sixth Estate
Of course I could be wrong, but I’m reasonably certain you have to get well beyond grade-school math before real mathematicians start talking about numbers being arbitrary and relative. It has of course been a long time since I’ve been in a classroom, though.
That said, actually mathematics sounds MORE, not less, arbitrary if numbers were just whizz-banged into existence by a demented Intelligent Designer.
jrkrideau
I followed the link “this form letter”, above to the Star article and from there proceeded to the Star article http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/education/article/1254611–stock-letter-asks-school-to-warn-when-sensitive-subjects-arise and then followed the link Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund. to http://www.defendingparents.com/ which looks like a completely sham site. Or else I don’t understand home schooling—I would not have expected to end up at a listing for Las Vegas real estate at one point.
For some reason I suspect that the Parental Rights in Education Defense Fund is one dentist or perhaps one dentist and a couple of supporters.
Either that or the Star has really messed up the link?
The site’s behaviour looks like it’s set up to con the unwary reader. It looks good til you try to find anything. I did not find a contact link, either which seems suspicious.
In contrast PEACE (Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity) the group out of Hamilton have a decent functioning website with links to outstanding resources such as Ezra Levant, who if he’s not being sued or inciting minor pogroms against Roma, http://bigcitylib.blogspot.ca/2012/09/criminal-hate-speech-complaint-to-be.html is certainly a good Christian link.
PEACE seems to be recommending people consider sending their children to the Catholic Boards. What did the Catholic Boards do to deserve this?
On the other hand we would have good little fundamentalist children being taught the Catholic catechism and coming home with scapula medals and rosaries and the yearly palm leaf.
Sixth Estate
I suspect it’s much like the evangelicals voting for a Mormon down south — not great, but better than the alternative.
Another Week of GW News, September 16, 2012 – A Few Things Ill Considered
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