At first, I thought there would not be very much to this story, it's just another ranting fundamentalist claiming the public schools (or gay marriage, or birth control, or recycling, or bike lanes) are exactly like the Holocaust, except for Christians instead of those whingey Jews.
But it turns out there is a long back story (not involving the teacher) which involves murder, child abuse, and insanity. So you may want to pour yourself a stiff drink. Screw it, just get liquored up now, you'll thank me later. Because this is more than just a loud mouthed dingbat, this is the stuff of nightmares.
Wake Co. Teacher Compares Public School to Concentration Camp
Biology teacher Ray Fournier wrote an article entitled "Behind Enemy Lines" which appeared in the October issue of No Greater Joy magazine, a non-profit Christian ministry.
The article urges Christian parents to take their children out of public schools, comparing it to a spiritual gas chamber.
In the beginning of the article, Fournier writes:
"Walking through the gates of the public high-school where I teach feels as if I were walking into a concentration camp dedicated to the spiritual death of those imprisoned behind these walls."
The usual
non-apology follows....
Some people might not understand the seriousness of the spiritual destruction of our children and as a result, might come to the conclusion that I am being disrespectful to those families who directly suffered in the holocaust.
Got that? The obnoxious blithering idiot is sort of sorry if he offended any Jews, and he limits that to those who have "directly suffered." Wow, just wow. This guy just oozes a toxic stream of self-righteous entitlement.
He gives no thought to offending the children and parents and coworkers who he holds in such obvious contempt (not to mention his boss!) Or that he's probably been undermining the education of those students all these years?
And for all his obnoxious smarmy piety, why is this guy taking a paycheck in a place he compares to a concentration camp? I thought Christian conservatism had purged "moral relativism" and that's one of movement conservatism's big selling points.
Or is he giving a lesson in who were the "good Germans" who went along with the Holocaust? And just for his information, those concentration camps were staffed by Christians, rural Christians. The city folks needed years of indoctrination to turn a blind eye to the persecution of Jews, but for rural Christians killing their neighbors was a family holiday. Honestly, this kind of mindless world view reminds me of the Christian-identity Holocaust deniers.
And that's in addition to his view of the world so paranoid that it demands a cult-like isolation of true believers ..... but this "No Greater Joy" site the teacher posted on seems pretty cheerful and harmless... or is it?
They publish a book called "To Train Up A Child," which many people cricize as encouraging child abuse.
And on the No Greater Joy site there is this extremely disturbing story about some pious homeschoolers who became big fans of this book before killing their adopted child:
Larry and Carri Williams Found Guilty
By Michael Pearl
Hana Williams’ parents were given the maximum prison sentences (for murdering their adopted child). Articles are appearing in blogs and newspapers across the country that are full of fabrications, lies and misstatements about To Train Up a Child. It should not be taken as fact just because it is written somewhere.
What the Williams did is diametrically opposed to the philosophy of No Greater Joy Ministries (NGJ) and the content of the book. The motivation of NGJ is to provide materials that help parents raise healthy and happy children.
Just to connect the dots - the science teacher is endorsing this "No Greater Joy" homeschooling Christian ministry whose beliefs have been cited by several people who have been convicted of killing their adopted children.
This seems to be part of Michelle Bachmann's subculture - people that hoard adopted children the way some people hoard cats. And they homeschool them, and they beat the living daylights out of them. The folks at "No Greater Joy" say it's not their fault, because they don't recommend that people actually murder their kids. They just recommend frequent beatings and they quote stories of people who use hunger and cold and PVC tubing to discipline their children. But for some reason, their fundamentalist readers are in the habit of latching onto cherry picked phrases and then going way overboard to the point of madness. Hmmm...... where would someone pick up a nasty habit like that? Church maybe?
Author Michael Pearl says it's not his fault that his book is being "misinterpreted" by what seem (to me anyway) to be bloodthirsty illiterate child-killing religious psychotics. But this murder was only one of several murders across the country in which homeschooled adopted children were murdered by Pearl's fans. And Pearl does not seem to be the least bit curious about why his work is so appealing to bloodthirsty illiterate child-killing religious psychos.
I have not read the book, but thousands of Amazon reviews describe the book as recommending utterly ruthless beatings of toddlers (and younger children). It sounds like their child rearing philosophy is to create a state of PTSD starting in infancy. And maybe the authors leave themselves deniability, but readers certainly interpret it this way.
Well I guess the science teacher can't be expected to know about the infamous background of No Greater Joy, could he? Oh wait, there was a heavily publicized child murder case very close to where he teaches, and these were militant homeschoolers who had the No Greater Joy book.
http://hsinvisiblechildren.org/...
(Four year old) Sean Paddock died of suffocation after his adoptive mother, Lynn Paddock, bound him tightly in blankets to keep him from getting out of his bed. Sean’s siblings, five of whom were also adopted, testified that they were frequently beaten with plastic rods and wooden spoons. Lynn Paddock was convicted of first degree murder and it was found that her husband Johnny Paddock had “aided and abetted” the crime. The family homeschooled and lived in North Carolina (pretty close to the science teacher).
This murder and the subsequent criminal trial and civil suits were big news, so there is no way the teacher was not aware of it. Here's a
compilation of the local coverage.
And there are other cases. These cases are so strange and similar that this really sounds like an episode of "The X-Files." Note that although the Pearls are criticized for encouraging child abuse in general, all the murdered children were adopted. How many identical cases does it take for the CDC to look into it?
Did Hana's parents 'train' her to death?
By Jeff Hodson
Seattle Times staff reporter
Sean Paddock suffocated when he was wrapped too tightly in blankets.
Lydia Schatz died after being spanked for several hours.
And Hana Grace-Rose Williams, of Sedro-Woolley, was left out in the cold, where she died naked, face down in the mud. .... Lydia, 7, was adopted from Liberia. Her transgression? Mispronouncing the word "pulled" from a children's book. She said "pull-ed," according to Ramsey, and the hitting began.....
The deaths of the three children occurred in different parts of the country — North Carolina, California and Washington — but each allegedly happened at the hands of their parents, all of whom were charged with murder.
The parents had several things in common: They adopted children, home-schooled them and lashed them with quarter-inch-diameter plastic tubes. They also used the child-rearing teachings of a Tennessee evangelist, Michael Pearl, and his wife, Debi.
The Pearls wrote "To Train Up a Child," first published in 1994, and which teaches parents how to use a "switch" to make their children obey. Michael Pearl says it has sold more than 670,000 copies, been translated into a dozen languages and is popular with some Christians who home-school their children.
The authors say raising a child is as simple as training a dog, and they cite biblical verses supporting use of the "rod." Their website includes comments from many followers who say they have successfully raised happy, obedient children using the Pearls' principles.
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I just wanted to add a little note regards dumb fucks who invoke the Holocaust, especially to slam public schools. This is "Beck's Law," which states that any time a conservative invokes the Holocaust they must then do a 180 degree turn and take a position that lovingly quotes Adolph Hitler:
What was Adolph saying on the eve of the Enabling Acts and the start of his violent reign of terror? He was pandering for parliamentary votes from religious Center Party.
The national Government sees in both Christian denominations the most important factor for the maintenance of our society.....The national Government will allow and confirm to the Christian denominations the enjoyment of their due influence in schools and education........And it will be concerned for the sincere cooperation between Church and State.
-Adolph Hitler, March 23. 1933
The pandering continued to reassure the Christians that it would just be the Socialists, trade unions, and Jews that would feel the Nazis wrath.
Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith ...we need believing people.
- Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933