THE indented paragraph which follows is for background, which most of you can skip because you’ve seen it before:
Don McLeroy is the creationist dentist whom Texas Governor Rick Perry had appointed as chairman of the Texas Board of Education (BOE), but the Texas senate recently voted to reject that nomination. The disgrace of rejection was largely because McLeroy — a young-earth creationist — had presided over the Texas Science Chainsaw Massacre.
When Governor Rick Perry appointed Gail Lowe to be chairman of the Texas Board of Education (BOE), as we reported here: Lowe Named Chairman of BOE, there was a moment of relief. It could have been even worse, considering the field the Governor had to choose from. But now we’re starting to wonder.
In the Houston Chronicle we read Lowe to guide education board through hot issues. Here are some excerpts, with bold added by us:
As Gail Lowe takes the helm of the State Board of Education, the turmoil-laden panel that has long been a battleground in the fight between social conservatives and liberal watchdogs, the incoming chairwoman is decidedly unapologetic about her conservative Christian views.
[…]
“This country was founded on Judeo Christian principles and to say otherwise is to deny what is very unique about our country,” Lowe said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “The principle of church and state would say the government cannot mandate anyone can or cannot belong to any particular church.”
This is worse than we feared. Much worse. The woman seems totally unhinged. Let’s read on:
Mild mannered and matronly, Lowe is seen by some as a calming influence, who will be better equipped to guide the board through passionate debates, including the upcoming adoption of science textbooks and social studies curriculum updates.
“Seen by some,” perhaps, but not by your Curmudgeon. We continue:
Still, critics say Texas students will be getting more of the same with Lowe, who believes students should be taught biblical motives of the country’s founding fathers.
Let’s think about this: (1) rebelling against the king; (2) establishing a federal republic; (3) dis-establishing the church in Virginia; (4) prohibiting all religious qualifications for holding office; (5) allowing secular oaths; (6) providing that a man-made Constitution was the supreme law of the land — those actions were based on biblical motives? Maybe Lowe has a special Texas bible, but we can’t find those ideas in any bible we’ve ever seen. Hey, why weren’t those “biblical motives” mentioned by Madison and Hamilton in the Federalist Papers? Perhaps Lowe is channeling sources that are unavailable to us.
Here’s more from the Houston Chronicle:
Since she was elected to the board in 2002, Lowe has consistently voted with the panel’s conservative faction, from her opposition to including contraception information in health textbooks to criticizing textbooks that she believed did not adequately challenge the theory of evolution.
There’s more to the article. Click over to the Houston Chronicle if you want to read it all. From our perspective, the situation in Texas is unchanged — the BOE continues to be in fanatical hands.
Copyright © 2009. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Oh good Lord.
A significant fraction of the Founding Fathers were deists. George Washington stopped attending his wife’s church because his minister told him he was setting a poor example by not becoming a member of the Congregation.
These guys were motivated more by Enlightenment principles than Biblical ones.
Though there is a bit of political philosophy, found in the Bible, which I heartily endorse, 1 Samuel chapter 8:
10: And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.
11: And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12: And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13: And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14: And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15: And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16: And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17: He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
18: And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
True dat.
If only it WERE still a tenth…
Gabriel Hanna says: “George Washington stopped attending his wife’s church because his minister told him he was setting a poor example by not becoming a member of the Congregation.”
I read a different account. George was always one of those who left early, before communion, although Martha stayed. That’s what the minister complained about. So George just stopped going.
George was always one of those who left early, before communion, although Martha stayed.
He left early because he wasn’t a member of the congregation.
There they go again, screwing with public education.
(Thanks LRA. I like that line.)
🙂 Retiredsciguy, you make me smile! And for the record, I am a Texan! I love Texas! I really, really do. Not all of us are half-wits who want to create a theocracy in this great state…