Home > Work > The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children
1 " Listening to the debates about public schools on the Christian Right, one hears plenty of opposing opinions and a great deal of confusion. Some want to change the schools, others want to leave them. But the smart money seems to know what it is doing. It provides support for programs like the Good News Club, which slowly erode the support for public education in the country at large and in their own constituency in particular. And then it lays the groundwork for dismantling public education in favor of a private system of religious education funded by the state. "
― , The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children
2 " The judicial strategists of the Christian Right claim that all they want is “equal access” and “toleration.” But that isn’t in fact all they want. They don’t want equality; they want control. They don’t want toleration; they want the opportunity to practice their intolerance. They don’t want their religion to be included in the schools; they want the schools to be absorbed within their religion. "
3 " What does it mean that the conservative church that’s growing in America is an end-times church? What does it mean that we are raising a generation of children to believe that they are the last generation? What is going to happen if we keep on telling them, ‘Don’t care about the environment, and bring on the war, because we’re going to be lifted out of here, and you can forget about loving your neighbors, because they’re just going to get blown away’? "
4 " This is a Christian country, and if you don’t like it, get out,” she remembers one teacher telling her. "
5 " We are so used to the idea that the First Amendment is for liberals, and that it is our bulwark against fascist movements, that we fail to notice when it has been turned around and used as a wedge instead. "
6 " We don’t notice when it shows up across the street or quietly takes up residence in our classrooms. And we just don’t take its proponents at their word. Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and any number of other leaders of the Christian Right have told us that they abhor our public schools, and that they pray for the day when such schools cease to exist. "
7 " Their father told the kids that there is no hell! And my daughter says she wants to move away from our ‘fundamentalism.’ So I guess it’s up to me.” Her voice is almost ragged with exasperation. "
8 " Pray for our CEF worker who has been accused of inappropriate behavior with the children,” she finally says in an agitated voice. “If these accusations are allowed to continue, Lord, it could devastate the man, and his family, and the ministry. "
