Mike Pence is reknowned for nothing if not his medieval legislation, such as burial laws for fetal tissue, and his followers know it. So when Mike Pence was celebrating Christmas some concerned members of his flock decided to deliver a petition to Pence, dictating what Donald Trump's first executive order in January should be. PoliticusUSA reports:
“The religious right has panted themselves into fits of dyspnea awaiting a savior-preacher to take control of America and lead the population by theocratic edict, and their dreams came true when Americans elected the extremist Christian zealots' Trojan Horse as the next president….Mike Pence has been directing Don’s cabinet selection behind closed doors; choices that comport perfectly with establishment Republicans, the Koch brothers, and Mike Pence. Since the religious right are aware that Pence is dictating domestic policies, they appealed to him to begin America’s transformation from a feeble and crumbling democracy into a full-blown theocracy that will drive the Mullah’s on Iran’s Supreme Council into fits of jealousy.
The evangelical fundamentalists, all 13.2 percent of them, are appealing to preacher Pence by petition and demanding that he, as head of domestic policy, inform dilatory Donald that it is crucial to immediately issue an executive order “indefinitely banning” the teaching of evolution as science. The evangelical malcontents claim that evolutionary science is nothing but an anti-Christian nasty religion and has no place in the public schools’ science curriculum. Instead, they demand that all science classes at all levels teach the first 26 verses of the Christian bible as science; a proposal that has vice-president elect Mike Pence’s loyal and steadfast support. The Christian extremists' petition to Pence said in pertinent part:
“We the undersigned note that you spoke out on the subject of science education and presenting students with all available information. We object to the teaching of the very controversial theory of evolution as part of the K-12 science curriculum which we regard to be unnecessary.
It is obvious to us that Evolutionism-Darwinism is an anti-Christian atheistic dogma masquerading as science. There is no doubt that evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion—a full-fledged alternative to Christianity.
We therefore urge you to persuade President Trump to issue an executive order imposing a nationwide indefinite moratorium on the teaching of evolution in public schools.”
This is not some isolated or extreme case. This is grist for the mill. The essence of Pence's theocracy is exactly what is written here -- "evolution is...a secular religion...alternative to Christianity." First of all "secular religion" is an oxymoron. But semantic differences to the side, the philosophy of the theocrats is that science is religion and religion is science. They have discarded simple definitions of science as the study of empirical evidence and religion as faith in an unseen superior being. Just like in Alice in Wonderland the words "mean what you want them to mean," to theocrats and so science can in fact be a religion to these people -- and is-- and religion, more dangerously, is viewed as equivalent to science, and therein lies insanity. The theocrats who are proselytizing this madness are arguably the most dangerous lunatic fringe of 21st century politics, more dangerous even than the Nazis and the KKK.
Basically, the theocrats plan to take over the country, starting with indoctrinating the nation's youth via substituting their religious dogma cum propaganda for education. The theocrats have been planning the takeover of both the nation's schools and the schools' curricula for quite some time.. Education is one of the "Seven Mountains" of Dominionist dogma. In essence the Seven Mountains are the seven major institutions which control and define our culture, to wit: (1) Business; (2) Government; (3) Media; (4) Arts and Entertainment; (5) Education; (6) Family; and (7) Religion, Theocrats seek to control all of these institutions for the purpose of using them as tools to implement their notions of biblical morality and spread their version of the Gospel, with the ultimate goal being government by God's chosen ruling class, the theocrats.
Televangelist, "educator." and Mike Pence disciple David Barton of Ecclesia College believes in theocratic indoctrination, starting in schools, but concurrently being infused into government, preferably at the highest level. David Barton is the single handed author of the fable of Donald Trump as born again Christian. Barton invented the "epiphany" which Trump supposedly experienced pre-Republican convention, but never actually did outside the fevered imaginations of herds of evangelical sheep who were instructed by the televangelists on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and the Christian Broadcasting Network to bee-leave that Donald Trump was now one of them; and moreover that he was "risen up by God," and in Barton's words, "God's Guy," and as such was deserving of their vote. And they bought it. For the record, here's how Right Wing Watch said it began:
Barton ran a pro-Ted Cruz super PAC during the Republican primary, but quickly shifted his support to Trump once it was clear that he would be the GOP nominee, even going so far as to declare that Trump is obviously “God’s guy” in this election. As such, it came as no surprise to hear Barton tell caller after caller last night that Christians must vote for Trump and will have to answer to God if they don’t.
Barton said that Christians who refuse to support Trump are just looking for “excuses” and would probably have refused to vote for biblical leaders like King David because he was a murderer and adulterer or Noah because “he had trouble with drunkenness” or Lot, who slept with his own daughter.
As vociferously as Barton was laying down the law on air to callers to his show, "Foundations For Freedom," Barton was getting far too much resistance from them for his taste. He needed to find a way to streamline Trump's acceptance by evangelicals so that he could lock down their 13.2% of the vote, unequivocally. Happily, this was a no-brainer and Barton swiftly selected the go to panacea for any Christian quandry -- the person in question must be "saved," or "born again." Under that doctrine if Lady MacBeth was busy wiping the blood off her hands, if she simply declared herself after the fact to have accepted Jesus, right there in her head, no objective evidence necessary, that declaration would supersede any earlier transgressions and nullify murder, even. Very handy device.
Not only is being saved the perfect catch-all, it is so eminently doable. Barton's fellow evangelical broadcaster James Dobson, founder of anti-gay "Focus On The Family," (and idol of Mike Pence, who declared that being on Dobson's show in October, 2016 was the greatest honor of Pence's life) took his cue from Barton and decided to publicize Trump's being born again. Publication of that news happened during the evangelical leadership conference held that year in New York City, specifically at Trump Tower. This is what Christianity Today reported:
Dobson explained what happened following the June gathering of 1,000 evangelical leaders at Trump Tower in New York:
“I talked that day to what seemed like 500 people in a 15-hour period ending at 11:30 p.m. One of those well-wishers was carrying a recording device, and he suddenly appeared before me and held a microphone in my face. He asked for my impressions from the day.
I spoke candidly for about 20 seconds, as I recall. I told him that Trump “did accept a relationship with Christ” and “really made a commitment, but he’s a baby Christian.”
Baby Christian Trump has been known to toddle about and embarrassingly refer to Jesus Christ as “somebody I can revere in terms of bravery” and to the sacrament of communion as “my little wine … and my little cracker” and finally Baby Christian Trump has declared his devotion to the church by saying that it's a place that he goes “when I can.” Be that as it may, Barton and Dobson were not stymied by these comments on Trump’s part and a decision was made to publicize Trump's stature as a spiritual giant in the mainstream media.
From June 26, 2016, "Meet The Press"
CHUCK TODD:
Very quickly, Dr. James Dobson, a long-time evangelical leader has said that very recently, Donald Trump accepted a relationship with Christ and that he is now a "baby Christian", that within the last few weeks, he became a born-again Christian. What can you tell me about that? And is that a fair way to describe him? Is he now an evangelical Christian? Is that the way to describe Donald Trump's faith?
PAUL MANAFORT:
I'm not going to speak to Donald Trump and his embrace of religion. You talk to him about that. I will say, however, that the evangelical leaders that have been a part of the Christian movement in the United States came together last week and showed overwhelming support for Mr. Trump. And frankly, in my 40 years in politics, I've never seen such a broad-based or base of support within that community for one candidate.
PAUL MANAFORT:
It's never been this united.
David Barton now had his primary headache taken care of, thanks to Paul Manafort. Barton was now free to concentrate on other details of the election, meanwhile keeping his hand solidly into education, especially his ouevre de vie, the David Barton School of Political Science at Ecclesia College in Arkansas, where enrollment was happily steady. Barton was not the only theocrat who was busy like a little bee post primary and pre-convention, working on re-inventing Donald Trump to fit the theocratic agenda. The other theocrats were also busy figuring out who would be the man who would be vice-president.
Chris Christie was the favored odds-on candidate pre-convention, having granted a tax break of $25Million to Donald Trump after his casino failed in New Jersey, but that kind of thinking was small potatoes to the real power brokers of the Republican party, namely the Kochs and the Mercers and the Princes and the DeVos' The powers that be in the Republican party decided that they needed a dominionist to secure cabinet posts. Eric Trump had already said that the vice president, whomever he would be, would be in charge of foreign and domestic affairs while Dad concentrated on making America great again. Eric Trump attempted to walk back this statement a few months after he made it but it stuck in the collective consciousness nevertheless. Eventually the party power brokers informed Reince Priebus that he should eliminate Christie as a contender and convince Trump that Mike Pence was the logical choice -- and that Priebus should explain this to Trump in such a way that Trump thought that it was his idea, because, per Kellyanne Conway, that was the best way to deal with Trump. So with a little help from his friends, particularly the Koch brothers, and Pence's mentor and Blackwater mercenary, Erik Prince and his beloved sister, Besy DeVos, Mike Pence was elevated to "a heartbeat from the Presidency," with plans that he would be instrumental in filling the cabinet, and that that cabinet would be filled by people who shared a common vision of America as theocracy.
Of the seven "mountains" of dominionism, education is arguably the best place to start a theocratic takeover, the rationale being that training children to embrace the state above the family, is the surest way to obtain a swift and secure takeover by said state. Hitler utilized this premise successfully with his Hitler Youth corps and of course the textbook example of this premise is to be found in George Orwell's 1984. From E Notes:
Of the comprehensive Big Brother system that monitors the thoughts and actions of Oceania's citizens, the child-spies are an important component. The children, Orwell writes in 1984, "were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The family has become in effect an extension of the Thought Police. It was a device by means of which everyone could be surrounded night and day by informers who knew him intimately." Thus they did much more than simply "keep an eye" on them. The child-parent relationship is one of intense emotional connection. The very survival of the human species, at least before the time of Oceania, depended on it. The children know their parents better than others and thus can report on even subtle differences in their behavior. Some adults were especially concerned that they might utter something in their sleep, a betrayal of their sub-conscious, and have it be overheard by the telescreen or a child.
If a generation of children were schooled, say, in a new anti-science, pro-fundamentalist religious curriculum, that would indeed have a very pernicious and powerful effect on American society. Youth is impressionable and attitudes learned in youth are generally speaking much stronger than any kind of intellectual persuasion of later education. This is the main reason that ingrained attitudes like racism and homophobia take generations to filter out of a culture. Education is not to be taken lightly as a societal force. That being said, of all of the nominees in Trump's proposed cabinet of the corrupt and the clueless, the nomination of Besy DeVos as Secretary of Education is arguably one of the most shocking.
Politico reports, DeVos is a "billionaire philanthropist" who "once compared her work in education reform to a biblical battleground where she wants to 'advance God's Kingdom.'"
Politico reporters point to numerous recordings and interviews in which DeVos and her husband Dick, a billionaire heir to the Amway fortune, promote education policies as avenues to "greater Kingdom gain ... lament that public schools have 'displaced' the Church as the center of communities," and refer to their efforts to advance private, religious schools as a "Shephelah," an area where battles, including between David and Goliath, were fought in the Old Testament.
In an op-ed for the New York Times, Katherine Stewart, an expert observer of the Christian right, writes, "Betsy DeVos stands at the intersection of two family fortunes that helped to build the Christian right."
MoveOn says that,"DeVos is a right-wing voucher and charter school activist whose numerous projects include the disastrous effort to spread charters in Detroit, which failed to increase student achievement while allowing charters to operate with little accountability or oversight. She also has an appalling record on civil rights, which indicates she will be a threat to LGBTQ children, especially transgender students, who face prejudice, harassment and bullying in schools and suffer from higher rates of depression and suicide than non-LGBTQ classmates."
What MoveOn says is not prophecy, it is prologue. All that and more has already happened at Hillsdale College, a small conservative liberal arts school in Michigan best known for declining all federal funds so that it can openly defy federal law. AlterNet goes on to say:
Hillsdale College, located in Hillsdale, Michigan (the Devos family's home state), is regarded as "the conservative Harvard," in some circles, and has been the recipient of generous donations from numerous funders of the rightwing conservative movement including the Koch brothers' family foundation. Hillsdale also sponsors the Rush Limbaugh Show.
According to an article in The Atlantic, Hillsdale is one among a number of conservative private colleges that rejects federal funds including financial aid for students. Many of these colleges, while they are rejecting federal funds, "are seeking, exemptions from the US Department of Education from provisions under Title IX of the laws governing higher education, which protects students from discrimination in housing, athletics, and access to facilities on the basis of such things as gender, sexual orientation, sex or pregnancy outside marriage, or having an abortion."
Hillsdale has a long-held reputation for discriminating on the basis of gender preference and identity, and news outlets in the LGBT community have reported incidents in which Hillsdale staff and officials openly discriminated against gay students.
Arnn [College President and DeVos' friend] also came under fire from many liberal sources for describing nonwhite students as "dark ones" during a state legislature subcommittee hearing regarding the adoption of Common Core State Standards. Hillsdale's official apology for that incident was arguably worse than Arnn's remark, a Michigan blogger notes, as the college used its apology as another opportunity to take a swipe at government enforcement of affirmative action policies.
Affirmative action, civil rights and the taking over of education via charter schools are only a few areas where the DeVos family and Hillsdale coincide perfectly with David Barton and Ecclesia College. Right Wing Watch had this to say about Barton, and the theocratic doctrine in education that both Barton and DeVos proselytize:
Barton’s growing visibility and influence with members of Congress and other Republican Party officials is troubling for many reasons: he distorts history and the Constitution for political purposes; he encourages religious divisiveness and unequal treatment for religious minorities; and he feeds a toxic political climate in which one’s political opponents are not just wrong, but evil and anti-God.
Scholars have criticized Barton for presenting facts out of context or in misleading ways, but that hasn’t stopped him from promoting his theories through books, television, and, yes, the textbooks that will teach the next generation of Americans. He promotes conspiracy theories about elites hiding the truth from average Americans in order to undermine the nation from within. Last summer, he declared that liberal and media attacks on the Tea Party were just like attacks on Jesus. In February, Barton spoke at the Connect 2011 Pastors Conference, where he said that Christians needed to control the culture and media so that “guys that have a secular viewpoint cannot survive.” Said Barton, “If the press lacks moral discrimination, it’s because we haven’t been pushing our people to chop that kind of news off.”
Barton’s work is not just an academic exercise. It is meant to have a political impact. For Barton, “documenting” the divine origins of his interpretations of the Constitution gives him and his political allies a potent weapon. Barton promotes a false reality in which anyone who opposes any element of his political agenda stands in opposition to both the Founding Fathers and to God. He believes that everything in our society – government, the judiciary, the economy, the family – should be governed according to the Bible, and he promotes a view of the Bible and Jesus that many Christians would not recognize. Opponents, even Christians, who disagree with Barton about tax policy or the powers of Congress are not only wrong, they are un-American and anti-religious, enemies of America and of God.
Barton not only promulgates falsehoods he also participates in illegal activities. Just a few days ago Arkansas Republican House member Micah Neal pled guilty to taking $38,000 in kickbacks to Barton's school, Ecclesia College. Crooks & Liars reported:
What a damn mess in Arkansas. It seems that some Republican members of the State House and the State Senate conspired to dump a ton of money on rightwing Christian colleges in the state. For about $600,000 of taxpayer money to tiny Ecclesia College in Springdale, Arkansas, the Republican politicians got about $38,000 each in kickbacks.
On the Board of Ecclesia college is David Barton, key advisor to Donald Trump, and major contributor to Louie Gohmert. There is even a David Barton School of Political Science at the college. Bribery 101 is a required course.
The Republican House Member, Micah Neal, pled guilty today and faces 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The modus operandi of the Republican party in general and the religious right in particular is to undermine American values and erode long-settled policies with smoke and mirrors diversions of doctrines designed to appear morally superior, while in fact being morally reprehensible. And when the smokescreen is in place the right wingers are busy stealing when nobody is looking. Actual normal Christians who believe in time honored values like love and tolerance, not to mention the golden rule, do not even recognize the philosophies of Barton and DeVos. They put themselves forward as the God-ordained translators of a divine message. Simply, they are making it all up from whole cloth and using it as propaganda, while their real scheme is making more money and gaining more power. And Mike Pence is on board for all of this.
This theocratic toxin cannot be allowed to spread to the schools. On Wednesday, January 11, 2017, the nomination of Betsy DeVos will come up for confirmation. That confirmation must be denied, for the greater good of preserving the dignity of the institution of education and acknowledging its traditional place in the American dream.
Public school is a hallowed thing in America right up there with Mom, the flag and apple pie. We all grew up hearing about Honest Abe trudging miles through the snow to his one room school house. More than any other single social institution school transmits to each generation American culture and enduring values. The school years are not only our formative years, the purpose of which is to inculturate us and prepare us for life, they are the years whose experience is indelibly stamped upon our psyches, for better or for worse. In the 1955 movie, "Good Morning Miss Dove," Jennifer Jones plays a prim but revered school teacher who is carried from her classroom to the hospital where she hovers near death until one of her former students, who grew up to be a surgeon, can operate on her and save her life.
While a hospital clock ticks ominously on the wall, another one of Miss Dove's students, who grew up to be the local Sheriff, handles the crowds growing outside the hospital. A former classmate says to the Sheriff, "She doesn't have any children, does she?" The Sheriff replies, "No children...she has thousands. Just look," and he gestures to the street where generations of Miss Dove's students line the sidewalks. Most of us have at least one iconic teacher in our past, whose personal qualities transcended whatever curriculum s/he was hired to teach and what s/he actually ended up teaching us about life was so much more, and so very precious. School is a rite of passage, the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Our educational system cannot be debased or our very way of life will be in serious jeopardy of perishing. Education is the means by which the baton of information and culture is passed from generation to generation, in the classroom and on the playing field. It is nothing less than sacred.
Since Mike Pence and his followers are so fond of quoting scripture, look at Proverbs 29:02, "When the wicked govern, the people groan." In our time, with the wicked in power, the people must draw the line; the people must say, "No," and protect our children and our schools from the wicked.