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Just in case you needed more evidence that the young earth creationists of Answers in Genesis are boldfaced liars, they've published a new webpage advising students how to start "Creation Clubs" at their public schools. AiG has sworn up and down that it doesn't want to force their (appallingly incorrect) version of the history of the world into public schools, but over and over again the opposite has turned out to be true. Indeed, taking advantage of the ability of many schools being able to host religiously-oriented clubs run by students, Ham & Co. recommend doing the following to infiltrate public schools with creationism;
There are many ways you can share the truth of God's Word to those in your school. One involves starting a "Creation Club." We offer the following guidelines to those interested in hosting one:1. Contact your school officials to find out its operating guidelines concerning club organization. Follow these guidelines in setting up your club.
2. Begin to invite people to join your club--use posters, pamphlets or post cards to advertise.
3. Decide on which resource you would like to study. We suggest The New Answers Book, Evolution Exposed, Demolishing Strongholds, or the Answers ... with Ken Ham video series (there are also study guides available for many of our resources). Discuss one chapter per week, or one video per week. (Contact our customer service representatives to find out about possible bulk discounts on books.) See also our curriculum page for other ideas.
4. Consider inviting one of our many speakers to visit your school, perhaps to jump-start your club or to reinforce what you've been discussing.
5. Use the club as an outreach to unsaved friends by showing some of the various scientific videos we offer (see the DVD section of our online store or our Video on Demand page)--perhaps one per week or so.If you have further questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know.
Sincerely,
AiG Staff
Outside of spreading creationist propaganda within public schools in an attempt to circumvent head-on battles over science classrooms, what strikes me about this announcement is that it is really a shameless marketing ploy. The organizers of these clubs are being told that they should invite AiG speakers, purchase books in bulk, and load up on DVDs to make sure they have plenty of resources to combat the ever-ambiguous entity known as "the World." Indeed, it seems that AiG isn't so concerned with people "opening their hearts" as opening their wallets, and the constant shameless promotion of carbon copy, poorly-researched tracts is nothing more than an attempt to rake in profits. I have quite of few of AiG's books (all of which were used copies purchased from independent bookstores for about a penny apiece so AiG didn't see any profit from me) and they're essentially all the same, containing no new information that is not freely available on the web. Still, "new" books and editions are rolled out continuously, revealing that the group is more concerned with making money than anything else.
Humanities & Social Science
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It sounds like the god squad has adopted the income strategies of the universities ~ overpriced books, endless new editions with little/no new information, etc. In this respect, these YEC clubs actually might be teaching the kids something about the real world!
Posted by: ennui | November 8, 2007 11:51 AM
Interestingly enough other far-right orgs. have taken to using similar techniques to take over congregations in church through the use of seed groups, with the ultimate goal of turning the church into a political tool. And they have been successful (who's expecting someone sick enough to plot on churches?) This is documented online by people trying to combat this, unfortunately I don't have the link off hand. Google should get you there.
Posted by: JK | November 8, 2007 1:42 PM