Separation of Church and State, my ass

If you've been missing a good reason to get riled up these days, here's the best we've had for a long time. Starting this fall, all schools in Texas will be obligated to push their students through Bible studies classes.

Isn't this – um – ILLEGAL?

Books are a common sight in classrooms around the nation, but the Bible is one book that is not. Come this fall, a Texas law says all public schools must offer information relating to the Bible in their curriculum.

"By the end of the year, what they begin to realize is that it is pervasive. You can't get away from it. The kids came back and were like 'It's everywhere,'" said John Keeling, the social studies chair at Whitehouse High School. Whitehouse already offers a Bible elective. "The purpose of a course like this isn't even really to get kids to believe it per say. It is just to appreciate the profound impact that it has had on our history and on our government," said Keeling.

Oh, bullshit. The purpose, as is blindingly obvious to anyone with half a brainstem, is to further try and bestow that "God is great, Christianity is what holds America together" hogwash upon young impressionable minds that are too inexperienced to realize what they're being told and taught is a load of demagoguery-infested tripe.

Notice how they're presenting the obligatory course as merely "offering information", or even being an "elective" course. Typical dishonest weasel-words. There is no "offering" when the kids are being submitted into it, when they don't have the choice to opt out of these courses. That's the sort of phrasing you'd expect from the likes of Faux News or WorldNutDaily.

I would hope that whatever teachers in Texan schools who still possess a moral compass telling them that forcing religion into public schools is wrong, will stand against this travesty of a law. But then we'd probably be seeing massive firings before the year is out. Such is the state of justice in the South, especially in the Lone Braincell State. (Cheap shot, I know. But damned if this isn't a situation deserving of one.)

See the full text of the bill here.

(via Pharyngula)