I'm astounded that Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Louis Gohmert and all the rest of the mouth breathing pond scum Dominionist True Blue Christians(tm) who want to turn the US into the Christian Iran haven't upped sticks and moved to Pennsylvania. Cos if there is a state that seems to ram Jeebus and Krystyhunity down its citizens throats as much as the state government of Pennsylvania do out there in La La Land USA, I aint seeing it. The GOP Birchbaggers of the state house in good ol Penn make even the bible bashing crazies in Kentucky and the rest of the Dark Ages States blush.
Not content with turning 2012 into "Year Of The Bible" and October of that year into "Prayer Month" (NB: Krystyhun prayurs only y'hear! Nun of that thur Mooslim yabba dabba!), on top of course of the Day Of Prayer in May, these god bothering skin deep theocratic loons have just declared May 6th to 12th "American Religious History Week"... and as you can see from the document at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/... when Bubba says Religion, Bubba means Christianity.
OK, fine Bubba. Here is Dave The Sandman's proposed educational units for the week which he proposes ALL students should be made to lurn n stuff
1) The Mountain Meadows Massacre - Students will be expected to learn how batshit crazy Mormons massacred innocent men women and children in the name of their false prophet and his space alien god. Domestic Religious Genocide 101
2) JonesTown - Students will learn how a batshit crazy evangelical control freak convinced some of his flock to commit mass suicide, and his core followers to murder the rest in the name of his own twisted brand of millenial end times Christianity - Religious Genocide 102
3) Cults and mass suicides - expanding on the unit at (2) we take a deeper look at mass religious suicides by examining the parallels between JonesTown and the Waco/Branch Davidians, Heavens Gate and historical examples of End Times prophecies causing US citizens to kill themselves - there are plenty in the 1800s. Extra credit will be gained by explaining how end times philosophy in part explained the terrible events at Ruby Ridge.
4) Kill or Convert - The forced conversion by evangelical missionaries of First Nations peoples to Christianity after they had been isolated into gulags/reservations and subsequent long term policies of cultural genocide of their native faiths and beliefs. Extra credit will be gained by framing the Ghost Dance phenomenon into this process.
5) Born Again: - The Rise of Neo-Faiths - the propensity of US citizens to follow oddball off the shelf cargo cult religions - examples to include Mormons, Scientologists, Raelians, Adventists, etc. In workshop classroom exercises students will be asked to model their own new religion and detail plans for attracting converts.
6) Biblical Literalism and the Age Of Unreason - Students will study how the increasingly untenable belief that the Bible is inerrant leads to the direct erosion of educational standards and mass cognitive dissonance in the US population. Extra credit will be awarded for in depth analysis of the parallels between Creationism and its promotion and the dissemination and facilitation of climate change skepticism fallacies based on Flood mythology.
7) Theocracy and its dangers - taking in the Puritans and their attempts to set up a theocratic state in pre-Revolution USA, the Danbury Baptists and Jefferson, etc. students will study how early American leaders in both secular and faith fields warned against the intermingling of church and state.
8) Witch-hunting through the Ages - students will be asked to compare and contrast the Puritan witch-hunts fueled by extremist Protestantism and the experiences of modern day Atheists and Freethinkers such as those in King (NC), (covered by the documentary "In God We Trust"), Damon Fowler, Jessica Ahlquhist, Will Phillips, etc. Extra credit will be awarded to students who carry out compare and contrast exercises between the religious aspects of McCarthyite purging in the 1950s (including changes to the Pledge, national motto and money) and current Islamophobia as exemplified by representatives Bachmann, Gohmert et al.
9) Manifest Destiny - students will be asked to draw parallels between the cultural genocide carried out by the Conquistadors in the name of the Roman Catholic faith, and those carried out by US Christians under the Manifest Destiny policies of 1800s USA. Extra credit will be awarded to students who can explain why carving big white man faces on a First Nations Peoples holy mountain may have caused upset and insult.
10) The Song Remains The Same - Students will study how religion was used to promote the perpetuation of systems now considered socially unacceptable such as slavery, segregation, restricted women's rights, restricted voting rights and bans on inter-racial marriage. It is expected that students will be able to draw parallels between these historical examples and current events such as religious protests against equal rights for LGBT citizens.
11) A Christian Nation? - Students will compare the quasi-historical quackery of "Christian Nation" claims such as those disseminated by David Barton et al with actual historical facts such as The Treaty Of Tripoli; thoughts of the Framers such as Mason, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin; the blossoming of American Freethought at the end of the 1800s; etc.
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So.....any more suggestions that we could send to the good burghers of Pennsylvania as suggestions for book lurnin they can get their stoodents to look at n stuff?