Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
You gotta love this. I've said many times that our best allies in the fight to keep the wall of separation between church and state in place are those who are trying to tear that wall down. Try as they might to pretend that they're just trying to preserve religious freedom or to teach about the Bible in an objective and scholarly manner, they simply can't keep themselves from blurting out their real motivations. After all, that's how you raise money.
The NCBCPS is now featuring a column by Chuck Norris pushing their curriculum, originally published in the Worldnutdaily, right on their front page (and yes, I have it archived; as the trial gets closer, it will almost certainly disappear). In the column Norris, who is on the advisory board of the NCBCPS, declares that this curriculum is "Your first step to get God back into your public school." In asking people to demand the curriculum in their local schools, he writes:
So, what's stopping you from being the instrument for implementing biblical education in your local school?If you doubt you can do it, just recall my favorite words from D.L. Moody: ''I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do."
This is how you get God back in the schools and God will help you do it. I mean, uh, this curriculum is purely secular, an objective and scholarly approach to the Bible as history and literature, not as a religious text believed through faith. Pay no attention to all those things I said before, your honor. I never said those things. I mean, I did say those things, but I was on oxycontin at the time. And the dog ate my homework.
Comments
Oh come on Ed, you know full well that what Chuck is saying is that God wants us to have an entirely secular biblical education class in public schools. You can see that clearly, right? Right?
Posted by: Gretchen | August 12, 2007 9:16 AM
I continue to be daily gladdened that the only Chuck Norris movie (so to speak) that I own is Return of the Dragon (the one where Bruce Lee kicks his butt all over the Coliseum)
Posted by: The Ridger | August 12, 2007 9:57 AM
You have to be pretty freaking brain-dead to give Chuck Norris' opinions on science, theology, or much of anything outside of maybe martial arts. Hell, he wasn't even a very good actor.
Funny how the right-wing extremist will deride liberals for having celebrity spokesman who disagree with them (I personally don't place any stock perforce on the opinions of Matt Damon or Barbara Streisand, either) and then turn around and give ol' Chuck a column of his own. I wonder when we'll hear Bill O'Reilly admonish Walker, Texas Ranger to keep his deviated nose out of politics, religion and education.
Posted by: Mike O'Risal | August 12, 2007 10:09 AM
Are you implying that the WorldNut Daily caught Chuckie like a deer in the headlights?
Posted by: mark | August 12, 2007 10:11 AM
Oh, it's not just Chuck Norris. It's a well-established tendency of the right wing to rail against Hollywood depravity at every opportunity, then drop and kiss the boots of any actor who'll give them the time of day. There's also Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Thompson.. and let's not forget His Holiness, Emperor Ronnie I.
Posted by: Ebonmuse | August 12, 2007 11:03 AM
Um...I can't find this quote:
in the article. Help, please?
Posted by: M | August 12, 2007 11:52 AM
If they want God back in the schools, why not just adopt a mandatory attendance policy for deities? It seems a whole lot simpler....
Posted by: kehrsam | August 12, 2007 12:34 PM
Oh, that's very interesting. They edited their front page to remove that phrase after I posted it. It was there before, and if you want proof, simply go to the original version of Norris' column at the Worldnutdaily. It's there in big bold print. That'll make a good post.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | August 12, 2007 12:40 PM
So I guess Bruce Lee kicked Chuck's ass so much because Chuck was so busy turning the other cheek?
Posted by: Jim | August 12, 2007 2:03 PM
So Chuck says "Anyone who has studied early American history knows that the Bible has always been embedded throughout our culture, from classrooms to congressional halls."
Anyone who studied history at Liberty University, I guess.
Seriously, maybe the relevant documents that show the actual battle over religious liberty should be mandated. If the kids have the opportunity to see what the founding fathers really thought, rather than the silly crap they are likely to hear from everybody else.....
Hell, they could have a productive debate over the real issues instead of getting credit for pasting magazine pictures on poster-board. (I'm not kidding. It's what I've seen my science students turn in for history assignments. No evidence of understanding at all, but they do stuff and get points, and that's how they graduate. Rant over)
Posted by: BaldApe | August 12, 2007 6:35 PM
Maybe god only wants us to try to get god back in the schools but is keeping us from achieving it so as to create a crisis and to separate believers from non-believers. With fundie reasoning on divine influence, you have to wait until the result has occurred until you invent the logic chain that supposedly led up to it.
Posted by: Ex-drone | August 13, 2007 7:14 AM
Aactually, I wouldn't send my two girls to public schools anyway.
The drugs and violence, and lack of respect for learning in the public schools (with a third of the students not even graduating and another third not even being able to read and write and a decent level) is no way to give them a good start or a chance at a good college.
Frankly, let the masses do as they will with the public schools...they have failed anyway.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. | August 13, 2007 7:59 AM
Hello Everyone,
I wonder if anyone noticed a charter Jewish school opening in Florida. Yup, it is Jewish and it is paid by tax payers, whether they are or not Jewish. Big double standard.
Seems like some Atheist organizations lead a strong campaign against Christianity and Islam, but totally avoid speaking of Judaism. The hypocrits won't say anything regarding how 96% + of the USA population is forced to pay to Rabbis close to a 3% of all the money spent as part of the cost of most groceries and many non-grocery items like sponges, Toilet bowl cleaner, aluminum foil, etc bearing a Kosher sign. they are also silent about the money spent on the Holocaust museum and on many other Jewish projects like the construction of Synagogues and memorials in Ukraine and other European countries funded by US TAX payers. Well, I looked into the people running the show at "Atheists" and lo and behold, many are Jewish who attack specifically Christianity, but won't mention anything about Judaism or their hate-filled, supremacist Talmud.
Abut the veracity of the old testament or Torah, there is a very interesting article on the "Barnes Review" ORG website May 2007 issue titled "Fables of Ancient Israel Now Being Dissected" that can be read online, for those of you still debating about religion.
Posted by: RayGun | August 13, 2007 10:17 AM
Now there's an interesting attempt at derailment -- a brazen anti-semitic rant only marginally related to the topic at hand.
I'd put some sort of witty cheapshot at RayGun here, but he's really not worth the effort.
(though I'm completely befuddled by his tacit assertion that the OT and Torah are two different things -- WTF??)
Posted by: G Barnett | August 13, 2007 11:37 AM
Anyone else wondering if RayGun is related to Michael Korn?
Posted by: MartinM | August 13, 2007 11:45 AM
Not to validate RayGun's point stupidity, but he does raise an issue that I find myself perplexed about, too, as a person who has a real problem with Israel's domestic and foreign policies and has been labeled an anti-semite for it.
Why is it so difficult to raise the issue of Israeli policies in the United States without having people automatically assume you're some sort of anti-Jewish bigot? I have no problem with the Jewish people, or even the Israeli citizenry, but I think the Isareli government's policies in regard to the Palestinian people and their penchant for spying on their "best friend" to steal nuclear and military secrets sucks and has earned them the sort of public disdain usually reserved for the French (you know - those people who supported the U.S. drive for independence two hundred years ago and whose children smelted pennies to put a colossus in New York Harbor, but I digress...).
Sadly, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, any politician who brings these points up usually either isa rabid anti-semite/holocaust-denier or gets painted as one by the U.S. media establishment (Google "European anti-semitism" and see what I mean).
Any thoughts?
Posted by: Jeff | August 13, 2007 12:08 PM