Yet another separation of church and state battle
22 January 2008 by StardustRoy Moore, Alabama’s infamous “Ten Commandments judge,” has a penchant for misconstruing church-state law, and now he’s giving bad advice to school officials in Tuscaloosa.
and here is the trailer of the disputed film, “Facing the Giants“:
Officials at Paul W. Bryant High School have indicated that they will stop showing the film “until the merits of the complaint could be addressed.”
Moore wants school officials to reconsider. In a Jan. 18 letter, he claims that “the simple fact” is that school promotion of the “Giants” film does not violate the separation of church and state. The missive applauds the school for “showing their students an inspiring, family-friendly movie such as Facing the Giants” and again promotes Moore’s cramped understanding of the First Amendment. (He tags Americans United as a group bent on muzzling Christianity in the public schools.)
If school officials are serious about upholding constitutional principles, they will not take Moore’s legal ramblings seriously. The courts have long held that it is not within the purview of the public schools to evangelize students. Teaching about religion in an objective and academically sound manner is permissible, but showing students a film meant to convert them to a specific religion is not.
As Americans United Communications Director Joe Conn told The Tuscaloosa News, Moore’s “legal advice is certainly on the fringe. The school board should look to objective legal advice, not to Judge Moore.”
22 January 2008, on 10:39 pm
Tuscaloosa? Does the separation of church and state really stand a chance of winning out there?
23 January 2008, on 12:23 am
I think I threw up a little watching that trailer.
What possible educational reason would this movie serve; i.e. how would a teacher justify showing it to his/her class? I can’t think of any NC standards that it would fulfill. Although I know teachers who have used Remember the Titans and listed it as team-building criteria.
23 January 2008, on 1:07 am
Soooo…
what else is new, Stardust?
It’s really quite amazing how seriously delusional idiots like Roy Moore actually rise to the seats of power; chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, no less. Of course, it takes a whole lot of other delusional…enabler type…fuckheads, in cooperation, to achieve such an outrageously stupid situation.
The video is just another example of how batshit religious, purely emotionally based, brainwashed motivations threaten to trump any rational thinking about separation of Church & State issues.
Thank…erm…’Goodness’(?) for the AU’s vigilance in these matters.
“…and now for something…(NOT) completely…different?
A very recent News item…like today…RE an old Bush-shit “Crooks & Liars” story…
“WOW…I’m so shocked?”…
“Study: False Statements Preceded War”
http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/general/2008/01/23/Misinformation.Study/
23 January 2008, on 3:20 am
I can think of no reason to show this crap in school…or anywhere for that matter.
23 January 2008, on 8:04 am
I think we should show the documentary on Marjoe Gortner in the schools. You can find extracts on youtube.
I also discovered this guy on youtube who explains the bible using chapter and verse. “Skeptic Bible Study”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F2gFpwnCME
23 January 2008, on 1:46 pm
Yeah, thanks Bernarda…
He’s got a very interesting Site. Well worth exploring, I think.
One linked page that caught my attention, down on his Main page, gets into…very nicely…the Founding Fathers’ Deism etc.
My over-arching question to him would be something like:
“Why still cling to the notion that the Universe IS “God”…or is even created by some “transcendent ‘god’”.
In other words he’s a welcome ‘notch’ beyond the usual religionists; but, apparently, STILL a Thomas Paine inspired creationist.
[Also interesting...Abe Lincoln was a Deist? I did not know that!]
That said; he’s got an interesting anti-scripture Site…for future reference. (?)
It occurs to me that the NEXT step (a schlepp at a time?) beyond Deism, given our ever ‘evolving’ scientific knowledge, would be…
“Letting Go, COMPLETELY, of the any notion of a god”.
Here’s his main page link, for any curious GifSters.
[Check 'About the Author' for his Bio info.]
“God vs. the Bible” by John Armstrong:
http://www.godvsthebible.com/
23 January 2008, on 2:41 pm
Thanks for that link, bernarda.
Though John Armstrong still clings to the belief in some sort of deity, I love the way he pulled out Babble passages from both the old and new testaments to prove his point. Xians are always pulling Babble passages out of their asses to make their points, but overlook the other passages which contradict their “evidence”.
ChuckA, maybe Armstrong is headed toward atheism. I went from xianity to deism to agnosticism to atheism in my “awakening” process.
23 January 2008, on 4:18 pm
^ That was sort of my “path” too, Star – except I took a detour along paganism and psychic/paranormal/supernatural woo-woo-ism somewhere between xianity and deism…
24 January 2008, on 12:00 am
Star;
This is also the path I took. I think a great many people who are raised xtain (or perhaps any other religion) and eventually become atheists follow a similar evolution in their belief (and eventual lack thereof.)
Even my mother, who has stopped short of outright disowning her xtianity went from virtual fundamentalist to very liberal, universalist xtain (i.e. “God made gays that way, and that’s OK.”)
Yeah, I see Armstrong likely becoming a heathen before too long.
24 January 2008, on 12:14 am
Hmmm…
/finally sobered-up skeptic, by May, 1986/awakening (rather bold & obnoxious?) sober atheist in the 1990s/…
You guys got me thinking (stinking?)…
My new Total Skeptic’s (hysterical):
“Lifetime Resume”?…(a VERY rough draft, of course?):
“Brain washed (scared), baptized child/(scared) 1940s Catlick Church member/(scared) late grammar school “altar boy”/scared 1950s High School student/scared (1957)early college student/not so scared…self medicating (like, “who gives a fuck”) late college agnostic/somewhat numbed out of gourd musician throughout the 1960s (still a wee bit scared, though)/drowning a lot in “WOO-WOO” in the 1970s/ waiting (hoping?) to be abducted by (Galactic) aliens in the 1980s
Still Crazy after all those years…from 2000 & beyond….and…finally?…
Wondering if we’re all existing in some kind of goofy Matrix???”
(Yeah…cue the Outer Limits theme!)
24 January 2008, on 10:31 am
With all the crap going on in the world, their god seems to be more interested in winning football games and getting some bimbo preggers.
I guess the children starving in this world are just not that important.
I really hate movies like this.
24 January 2008, on 7:21 pm
Karl E. Taylor: I guess the children starving in this world are just not that important.
I know; I guess when christ/god said, “Suffer the little children,” he meant it literally /snark.
25 January 2008, on 2:50 am
Karl: “With all the crap going on in the world, their god seems to be more interested in winning football games and getting some bimbo preggers.”
Ah, yes, God as the almighty armchair quarterback. Since football is as close as most people get to warfare these days, it makes sense that someone would pray for their Gawd to be on their army’s side, as in days of yore. How far we’ve come from the barbaric ways of the Old Testament.
This is merely one more illustration of how egocentric the Xtian religion can really be. And one more reason, like you Karl, these kinds of movies, after causing a rapid spike in my blood sugar, tend to make me throw up in my mouth, just a little.
30 January 2008, on 8:26 am
Where to begin…
I think I’ll just do one for today…
“If we win, we praise gawd, and if we lose, we praise gawd.”
So, wait, your reaction will be the same regardless of the outcome of your contest? I see this as a metaphor for ID. “If the evidence shows that we’re right, gawd did it. If not, gawd still did it.”
Just trying to get the kids prepared for teaching theology in science class, apparently.
And now to go see my doctor, and get me some of science’s wonderful blood pressure controlling medication.