While the rest of the country celebrated the 4th of July as the day our Declaration of Independence was signed, the Texas school board dropped the author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, from their curriculum. So why in the world would they celebrate its signing?It seems that while the members of the Texas board and their supporters stuffed their faces with barbeque on the 4th, they are also just as content to stuff the minds of Texas school children with nonsense.
The reason the author of the Declaration of Independence was dropped from their curriculum on political philosophy and American history is for only one reason -- Jefferson, as well as most of the Founders, but Jefferson in particular, had no use for Christianity, and in fact had nothing but disdain for the church. The Jefferson bible, on view at his home in Monticello is famous for Jefferson having taken a razor blade to the New Testament and torn out every page he thought was nonsense.Which left the New Testament with about half its pages.
This shared disdain for the church among the Founders was the reason they authored the establishment clause of the first amendment prohibiting the creating of an official religion for the country, but the religion they were most concerned about keeping away from government was the christian church.
Jefferson and the Founders wanted to ensure that the United States would never have anything like the Church of England in America which is why Jefferson wrote in one of his letters that the purpose of the amendment was to "build a wall" between the church and government.
The problem in Texas is that the school board has wanted to propigate the myth that the country was founded on christian values, as big a falsehood as is possible to tell. And far from having anything to do with the Declaration and the principles on which the country was really founded, the Texas school board decision has more in common with governments like Saudi Arabia and Iran who also tend to brainwash their children on religious issues, especially different religions.
The decision of the Texas school board to force right wing propaganda down the throats of its children separates Texas from the rest of the country. So it's no wonder that their governor has talked about seceeding from the union.
When you drop the author of the Declaration of Independence from what you teach your children about American history, it makes a good case for secession. So, the question becomes, with the abolishing of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence from its school books, what exactly were they celebrating in Texas on July 4th? Maybe they don't know. Maybe someone needs to explain it to them and the people charged with educating their children.
If anyone is interested, here is an interesting website that spells out Jefferson's feelings about Jesus and religion: http://tinyurl.com/ne24n
ReplyDelete(small excerpt from Jefferson's 1820 letter to William Short)
"But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no impostor Himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with Him in all His doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I require counterpoise of good works to redeem it, etc., etc. It is the innocence of His character, the purity and sublimity of His moral precepts, the eloquence of His inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in which He conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed, needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism."
I would have to say I am mighty happy my children do not go to school in Texas.
ReplyDeleteCan we ASK Texas to secede?
ReplyDelete