Christian Schools

Reblogged from rebeldebby:

Yesterday  I went to register for college, as I did I realized that this would be my first time going to a school that wasn't Christian. It was relieving knowing that my education wouldn't be contaminated by the "Christian Perspective."

The first school I attended used ACE. The program sucked! Literally! There was no real interaction, kids were left to teach themselves, and Christianity was constantly being thrown in your face.

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Rebeldebby is one of the newest ex-ACE, ex-fundamentalist bloggers on the scene. I think she will be worth watching.

Fun with fundy textbooks

I occasionally get an email from a homeschooling parent, saying something like, “We were going to use ACE for our children, but now we’ve seen your blog, we definitely won’t!” Emails like this are enormously gratifying. There have only been three or four, but they make the whole blog worthwhile.

But sometimes I wonder what these parents are going to use instead. Occasionally I’ve also had a smug parent using A Beka, ACE’s main rival, comment something like, this ACE stuff is ridiculous! We use A Beka. It’s much better. 

So let me say this clearly: If you’ve been reading this blog and feeling smug that you use A Beka and/or BJU materials, stop. They are at least as bad as ACE.

There are a bunch of fundamentalist textbook publishers: A Beka, Bob Jones University Press (BJU), AlphaOmega Lifepacs (which are essentially PACEs by another name, as far as I can tell). And everything I read about them is hideous. The only reasons I haven’t mentioned them before are that I don’t have firsthand experience, and their use is rare in the UK.

In 2005, some Christian schools filed a lawsuit against the University of California. UC had refused to allow certain Christian school courses as college preparation. The courses in question used textbooks by A Beka and BJU. The Christian schools lost. According to the great and noble scholarly source Wikipedia, the judge found that the books are “inconsistent with the viewpoints and knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community.” Frankly, every University should follow UC’s lead. It is unbelievable that in some US states, ACE, A Beka, and BJU schools are eligible for state funding through voucher programmes. 

The Apostasy Project

I’m involved, along with Alom Shaha (author of The Young Atheist’s Handbook) and the fine people at the Rationalist Association, in setting up a new thing called the Apostasy Project.

The Apostasy Project is for anyone who has doubts about their religion, and no one to talk to about it. It’s for people who secretly don’t believe anymore, but think their family and friends will ostracise them if they admit it. And it’s for people who have left, and are now looking for support. A lot of people have suggested something like a survivor group for former ACE students. At the moment, I don’t have time to run one of those, but the Apostasy Project could offer some of the things an ACE survivor group would do.

I’m proud to be a part of it. As Alom puts it, “The project is not about criticising religion but supporting the right to choose what you believe.”

This is the promo video, which has rather a lot of me in it:

There’s a series of apostasy stories on the Rationalist blog. We’re aiming to have former members of every religion on the team, so whatever your religious background, there’s an adviser you can relate to. Currently, there are mainly ex- Muslims and Christians (of virtually every stripe, from me to Catholics, via Jehovah’s Witnesses) offering their stories. Mine is here. If you’re a former member of a religion or denomination not currently represented, I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.

They also need to raise money to build an online community where people can ask questions and receive personal advice from the team of advisers. You can donate here.

Why I’d love to be a fundamentalist (guest post by @kirstyevidence)

Kirsty Newman blogs over at Kirsty Evidence, where she battles the forces of ignorance by advocating an evidence-based approach to international development and education. You’d think that someone with such a cozy relationship with science (and reality) would have little time for fundamentalism, and you’d be right. But in the post, Kirsty wistfully remembers the simpler times when the world was black and white, and thinking wasn’t required.

This weekend, my devout Catholic father-in-law is visiting. Before he arrived, my husband and I had our usual ‘little chat’ where he pleads with me to at least try not to antagonise his aging dad. And as usual, I set out with the best of intentions to be a respectful daughter-in-law…

I managed a good thirty minutes before, apropos the Woolwich murder, my father-in-law came out with this statement: “The problem with Islam…” (always a worrying start to a sentence) “…is that the Quran is so ambiguous that it can be interpreted in many ways and this leads people to violence”.

BOOM

I couldn’t stop myself. I had to respond that this was just like the Bible – after all, the Bible is riddled with contradictions and contains a fair amount of violence. “Yes”, responded my father-in-law, “but the message of what you need to do in Christianity is clear” “Really?”, I asked, “But surely you just pick and choose what bits you follow? For example, you eat pork which is banned”. “Ah but the Old Testament was overruled by the New Testament” he replies. “So what about the rules in the New Testament that you ignore?” I query “For example, I note that people in your church have braided hair – was that not also banned?” “Well yes, but that was what Paul said, not what Jesus said”. “OK”, I rejoin, “but what about when Jesus said that you need to give all your possessions to the poor?” “Well that was just a message to one person” he replies “And in general we need to follow the spirit of that suggestion rather than the rule…”.

What Do Creationists Teach? A guest post by Jonny Scaramanga

Reblogged from Jesus Without Baggage:

Today's guestpost is by Jonny Scaramanga who blogs at Leaving Fundamentalism. One of Jonny's areas of expertise is the teaching of creationists and he is perhaps the leading authority on the problems of ACE home school curriculum and learning systems, which teach creationism. On his blog, he also deals with other aspects of Fundamentalist Christianity. Be sure to visit there; it is one of my favorites.

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A handy guide I wrote for Jesus Without Baggage about what Creationism is, and why it matters to Creationists.

Relearning everything you know

Samantha Field is one of my favourite bloggers. You might remember my contribution to her blog, Defeating the Dragons, and now she is returning the favour because of her awesomeness.

For some time I’ve been concerned that this blog has focused on ACE while ignoring all the other types of fundamentalist education out there. In this post, Samantha explains her experience with ACE’s competitor A Beka, and how it has affected her since.

We were going to be driving to Michigan the day after Christmas, heading in to the last few weeks before our wedding in Ann Arbor. Standing in the middle of the Barnes & Noble, we pondered our options. We wanted an audiobook for the road, but a non-abridged Hobbit wasn’t available, and neither of us were particularly interested in Janet Evanovich, Stephen King, Nora Roberts, or Lee Child. I spotted Team of Rivals, and suggested it as an option. My fiancé shook his head, so we moved on– and eventually left the store empty handed.

A week later, during our road trip and I had been fruitlessly searching for a decent radio station for what felt like an eternity, I threw out a moderately acerbic comment about wishing we’d gotten Team of Rivals. The sound he made – well, it can only be described as a snort of derision.

“I’m not really interested in listening to a 10-hour Lincoln love fest.”

“Why not?”

“C’mon– the man suspended habeas corpus.”

My jaw dropped. “He what?” I stared at him blankly. Since he was driving and (very properly) paying attention to the road, he missed my palpable shock. I’d never heard of this. The thought of Lincoln doing something that was anything less than perfectly noble and wonderful and full of unicorns and puppy dogs and rainbows and butterflies … it was a foreign concept.

I’m on BBC1 tomorrow, and Birmingham Skeptics Wednesday

First up: I’m on The Big Questions with Nicky Campbell tomorrow (Sunday 9th) at 10:00. Funnily enough, I made my live TV debut with Nicky Campbell seven years ago, although I doubt he remembers.

There will be three debates:

1. Is now the time to arm the Syrian opposition?
2. Should porn be on the school curriculum?
3. Is rap music a way to God?

Best comment from the Facebook thread so far:

“And, is rap music a way to God?”
Unlikely, as it tends to be too manic and staccato in nature to depict holiness.

I’m not taking part in the first. I’ll probably be in the second one a bit, but number 3 is (obviously) the reason I was invited. I’ll be debating a Christian rapper called Guvna B. Doing some background research, I found a track on which he was guest rapper from 2010. It includes these lyrics:

They say we evolved from monkeys
So why do they still exist?
At least with a caterpillar you see it change to a butterfly and spread its wings
I ain’t never seen a human bein’
Evolve from a chimpanzeein’

While the programme is airing, you can take part in the debate live by tweeting with the hashtag #bbctbq.

Then on Wednesday I’m giving my talk “Inside Britain’s Creationist Schools” at Birmingham Skeptics. It’s a short walk from Birmingham New Street station, at The Victoria, starting at 7:30. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there.