Friday, June 17, 2005

Public Schools are Genocidal

Thanks to Steve McCoy for turning me on to this (I usually try to ignore what the Southern Baptist Convention is doing at convention time- it is usually embarrassing).

This year's "Sure to Make the Evening News and NYT" agenda item is a resolution being crafted to encourage Baptists to give up on the public school system. This is sure to be more controversial that many of its embarrassing agenda items. And, I must say, it could be an item worthy of discussion (as my kids grow I am becoming less and less enamored with public schools- but for different reasons than most people- I do not like my kids in an environment which forces them to conform and discourages individuality and creativity- along with other things off the topic).

The outrageous thing about this is Al Mohler's commentary regarding the issue. He begins conciliatory before amping up the rhetoric to the point at which he calls many of the agenda items of the gay-friendly public schools "atrocities." That is right, Al Mohler compares the things Christian kids face in today's public schools to what Sudanese Christians are experiencing in Darfur, what Shiites and Kurds faced under Saddam and what happened to the Jews.

Here are his words...
"Every week, new reports of atrocities in the public schools appear. Radical sex
education programs, offensive curricula and class materials, school-based health
clinics, and ideologies hostile to Christian truth and parental authority
abound. These reports are no longer isolated and anecdotal. Forces opposed to
what Southern Baptist churches and families believe dominate the public school
arena--especially at the national level where policies are made and the future
is shaped."

Hey Al, if you want to make a point that people will take seriously, maybe you should think about your "over the top" rhetoric. At least he didn't compare some school administrators to Hitler, the new metaphor for everything.

See my posting from a few weeks ago, Hyperbole, Slander and Dehumanization.

Also, see Jon Stewart from last night as he notes the recent comparisons of anyone a politician or talk show host does not agree with to Hitler (recently Santorum, Rusmfield, Byrd, Buchanon and others).
link or click here and go to a A relatively closer look at Hitler references.

3 comments:

g13 said...

i think this same motion was heard from the floor last year, but got relatively little support. hopefully cooler heads will prevail this year as well.

Mike Murrow said...

i was just re-reading "a return to modesty" (a very sharp book from a young woman - not an evangelical protestant Christian so you will never hear about it inside the gheto). in her chapter on male honor she is equally desturbed by the use of "Nazi" in reference to anyone who is not a feminist.

I think it is the age we live in that we are required to use sound bites and that in turn leads to hyperbole. there is a place for hyperboe, but i think it is over done in our made for tv world.

when those who are part of the faith do it it just makes us all look stupid

Unknown said...

I would hate to live in as much fear as Albert Mohler does of gays and other things that go bump in the night. There is such a lack of faith in the remptive potential of being part of such communities. I feel angry at the statements but feel sorry for such a sad and hopeless worldview.