It has become increasingly obvious that there are two kinds of Christian–the ones who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, and the ones who use the label in their quest for political hegemony. I identify the latter group by placing quotation marks around the word Christian.
And that latter group is on the march, both locally and nationally.
In Indiana, where we have long had a legislature dismissive of the First Amendment’s Separation of Church and State, we currently have a Lieutenant Governor who is an out and proud “Christian” nationalist. And in Zionsville, a bedroom community north of Indianapolis, a newly formed organization called “Zionsville Men of Truth” wants the local library to stop endorsing “LGBTQ+ ideology,” by removing books and limiting accessibility to “GLBT inclusive” events like Pride.
According to the Indianapolis Star, the group wants to protect children and teens from “content that blurs moral boundaries or exposes children to adult themes.” And of course, they’ll decide where those “moral boundaries” lie.
As the article notes, a number of Republican-led states have experienced book banning and other restrictions of access, thanks to lawmakers’ passage of legislation making it easier to do so. “Men of Truth” is described as a group of local religious men who “want to see that truth be proclaimed in our communities and to restore those biblical values that our nation was founded upon.”
It’s their “truth” that must be proclaimed of course. And permit me to observe that Madison and Jefferson, among others, would be surprised to find that they’d crafted the Constitution using “biblical values”…
It isn’t just Indiana. Other Red states are experiencing equally “Christian” episodes.
There’s Oklahoma, for example, a state that ranks 50th out of 51 in education. A recent report from the New York Times set this former academic’s hair on fire.
At the University of Oklahoma, a student claimed to be the victim of religious discrimination because her psychology instructor gave her a zero on an essay in which she cited the Bible and called “the lie that there are multiple genders” “demonic.” The instructor explained that she had deducted points because the essay “does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.”
Those certainly sound to me like permissible reasons to deduct points, but–hey! Onward “Christian” warriors–the University has suspended the instructor. Not only that, they’ve assured the student that her poor mark on the essay won’t affect her grade. She is identified as a psychology major and pre-med student who intends to go to medical school. (The prospect of a doctor who elevates “biblical truth” over science is rather chilling…)
The student’s cause was taken up by Turning Point USA, which has posted about it on X (of course!) and drawn 40 million views and thousands of online comments. (Granted, many of those views were probably bots, but still…) Oklahoma’s “Christian” governor weighed in, mischaracterizing the university’s reaction as protection of the First Amendment’s Free Speech provisions, calling the situation at the university “deeply concerning,” and demanding a review by the university’s regents to “ensure other students aren’t unfairly penalized for their beliefs,”
This ridiculous framing of the issue evidently forbids instructors from penalizing answers that are non-responsive to the questions, at least if the student invokes “Christianity.” As even a conservative political scientist observed, evidently “You have to pass students who only cite religious faith for their opinions now or they’re victims of discrimination.”
In this case, the class had been assigned a scholarly article on “gender typicality, peer relations, and mental health,” and told to write a “thoughtful discussion” of some aspect of it. The student wrote that “The article discussed peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms. I do not necessarily see this as a problem. God made male and female and made us differently from each other on purpose and for a purpose.”
When her instructor failed to accept a response that relied on “biblical truth” rather than psychological research, the student contacted Ryan Walters, currently the chief executive of something called “the Teacher Freedom Alliance.” Walters called the student “an American hero,” and said that any university employees who were involved in giving her a bad grade should be fired.
It may explain Oklahoma’s education ranking to note that Walters recently stepped down as the Oklahoma state superintendent of schools.
I’m reminded of a comment made by an astute Professor of Philosophy and Logic when a student proclaimed, “I’m entitled to my opinion.” The Professor’s reply, “No you’re not. Not if your opinion is wrong.”
This is the absurdity of our religious right in the US and how its influence can ruin entire states. Oklahoma is not a place anyone wants to move to, and its educational outcomes and state government are the reasons. I understand why the professor gave the student a 0, but I would have given her a chance to rewrite her research paper. The professor does work for the state and should know it would cause an issue.
TPUSA is a complete scam when Charlie Kirk was running the show, and it’s even worse under his wife, Erika. I still can’t believe they used geotagging at the memorial service to collect phone numbers of all participants so they could send them fundraising texts. I would have blocked them and canceled my membership.
I don’t usually make predictions (bets on the future), but I have an eerie feeling about “Zionsville Men of Truth.” Especially if Beckwith leads it. I know some men sincerely want to make positive changes in their surrounding community, but this feels like another conservative “Christian” front for surrounding themselves with teen boys. How many times have we experienced the loudest faith protesters who sexually harass teen boys?
The pedophilia rings are full of “Christian” men who hide behind the churches or religions to give the appearance of trustworthiness, but violate that trust by taking advantage of it. The “Zionist Men” with Beckwith give off a creepy vibe.
“Zionsville Men of Truth”. Did the article tell how many of these guys there are up there in Z’ville? Or how many there are? Two? Ten? Hundreds per chance?
This is the kind of thing that easily gets blown out of proportion by a weak local news media looking to make headlines. Let’s all push the Indianapolis Star to do a follow-up and report some facts like “who” as in “who, what, where and when”.
It is issues like this and the obvious murders conducted by the Defense Department that encourage me to bypass the upcoming treatments and medications and just leave this mortal coil. My country has descended so far and so quickly into the morass of self-serving idiocy and corruption that it seems impossible to reverse.
What if elections are suspended next year? What if the outcome is not sufficient to reverse this horror? What then?
The next meeting of the Husseiy-Mayfield Library boarding Zionsville is Thursday, Dec. 18, (according to the website) 3:30-8 pm. I think the article in the Indianapolis Star noted that the Zionsville Men of Truth have 239 names on a petition. I will be at the meeting to support the library board in opposing these “men.”
A personal note to Joann and Vernon: We need both of you, now more than ever. You bring unique perspectives on life and politics that are, IMHO, important for the younger generations to hear. You have experienced dark times and you have come through them successfully. You are the ambassadors of that “hopey changey thing” that we need now. Shout it from the rooftops. We can get past this time of extremism. We can come back. We’ll need every warrior we have, including the two of you..
The dominant culture of religious enterprises rarely gives much hospitality to objective and openly frank discussion about issues of sexual immorality and incidental protection of children. Pedophilia is not mentioned in The Bible. The most reliable resource for me to study research on pedophilia was the public library. This offered me substantiated evidence on the profile of persons and especially their grooming tactics to prey on unsuspecting children. How to build immunity to prevent intrusions into youth development centers without a “witch hunt” is a challenge. But targeting libraries to censor responsible literature targeting LGBTQ issues on the pretense of protecting children has dangerous and very expensive consequences. The Boy Scouts wrongfully targeted gay leaders from leadership positions paving an open runway for pedophiles to infiltrate. Scouting is facing more than a billion dollars in multiple lawsuits. The church is facing similar lawsuits. Falsely claiming Biblical Scripture as the only source of evidence to combat societal problems can have consequences adverse to original intent.
Anna Baker, thank you for the meeting information.
Libraries need our support.
Thank you, Peggy. I shout (Well, with my speaking voice not working right now, it’ll have to be the literary one.). I stomp my feet. I push back. I live in Denver which is mostly blue – 80+% – but just down the road in Douglas County, and the even more backward, El Paso County, Christian nationalism is rampant.
Someone I respect once described El Paso County as the Vatican for the religious right. At the time, over 2,000 “churches” were headquartered there. Focus on the Family is still destroying lives. Several megachurches have endured a variety of scandals – all of which Jesus himself would abhor.
So, Indiana is far from alone as the false Christian tentacles continue to infiltrate mainstream America with the lies, hate, bigotry and incredible ignorance.
Shout it out!
The right suffers from the belief that without Judeo-Christian morality, we become primitives. The left suffers from the belief that without the separation of church and state, we will become a theocracy.
My position is that the necessary morality is innate in humans, unless they are taught a culture of ‘nobody gives you anything, take what you need.’ That seemed to be the prevalent belief before this year. This year, we see people yanked off the street of their day-to-day lives, and without due process, they disappear. The underclass set in survival mode seems to me to lead to less moral living.
I read the student’s paper, and the professor’s explanation to her of her grade, using the grading metrics applied to all students papers’ point totals. The student didn’t write an appropriate paper that fulfilled the assignment. It was something a sophomore in high-school would write. How did this student get so far in her education is what I’m wondering. She didn’t cite or quote her sources, used no psychology-based evidence or sources, used bad or nonexistent logic, and seemed to avoid the concept of psychological research completely. It was a kind-bogglingly bad paper. There were sources she could have cited if she had to; she was simply too lazy to look anything up. There is such a thing as google. But unfortunately, certain branches of the evangelical Church have demonized higher education and academia, and even logic, as being somehow antithetical and detrimental to Christianity, and fostered the idea that faith and scientific evidence are somehow at odds. The rotten fruit of this is now full-ripe.
Thank you Anna and Anne and others who are supporting First Amendment Rights for the Libraries and All of us who self determine our choices there.
Egos seem to be bursting out all over.
If one starts a stream flowing it could work into a waterfall. As in water, so in cultural and social movements, both for the better as well as the lesser development of humans.
“…can’t argue with stupid.”
with Mitch’s “can’t argue with stupid,” I’d add or ‘looking for press coverage rather than seeking to learn…’
The Christian faith groups that Sheila would NOT name in quotation marks are by-and-large in complete agreement with her.
Mine is; and like her, I and my co-religionists distance ourselves from the right-wing MAGA movement’s rigid rejection of science and higher education. They embrace a spectrum of doctrinal platforms that claim to have all the answers. As for myself, I embrace spirituality and mystery, with which the Universe is filled.
It is more than possible to stand in a Christian or Jewish or Islamic or Buddhist or any other classic faith tradition, while also affirming that we can trust questions that can’t be answered far more than we trust answers that can’t be questioned.
“Soldiers” for right wing religious beliefs
The Guardian (reporter Jeremy Barr) posted a profile of lawyer, Daniel Suhr, in the context of Trump appointee, Brendan Carr, and media banning. A Daniel Suhr, wrote (available on-line) in 2008-2009, “Lessons for law school deans regarding …in political life.” It would be interesting to know if the two Daniel Suhrs are the same person.
Todd Smekens comment above, brings to mind the reports about the antics of Steve Bannon who geofenced a sect’s churches in Illinois for GOP messaging.
Another comment above referenced the term Judeo-Christian. The term’s derivation described at Wikipedia provides insight into its re-purposing through the ages.
Darn – I wish I could redo college. My answer to every question would be some utter nonsense followed by “my Christian faith. says so” (we can ignore the fact that I am Jewish) – I would be an all A student.
As for book banning, I concur. Let’s start by banning the worst of all, with harlotry, murder, rape, and incest — and that’s just in the first chapter. Ban the Bible.
After they do that, I’ll listen to these “Men of Truth”, but I still probably won’t buy a word they say.
I agree with Len – start with banning one of the worst books of all – the Bible