Texas brings the Bible back to classrooms | Hour 1

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to vpekclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, rite to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. So did you hear that the Bibles making a comeback in Texas in their. K twelve Govco schools? Yeah? I mean, well, okay, not the. Whole Bible, right, I mean the We're not some sort of like authoritarian Christian nationalist country or something here. No, no, no, It's just a couple of passages that might be important for people growing up in a Western society to have a bit of a touchstone to the historical roots of why we are the way we are. And if you're studying literature, you would also understand some things that have deep roots in Biblical passages. For example, I saw somebody mention the Tower of Babel, right, Like, if you have no understanding of the Bible, never read it, never heard of it, never heard anything from it. You would have no idea what that phrase means. Right, So here's the story from Good Morning America. The Texas State Board of Education has voted to make Bible passenger passages required reading in public schools. Ah, they're all going to become Christian in Texas. The education board, which is controlled by Republicans. That's right, dastardly Republicans just trying to indoctrinate all of the children. So, just to be clear, trying to understand this, are we now saying K twelve education can indoctrinate kids into a certain way of thinking? Is that? Because that seems to be what has prompted all of the outrage I'm hearing. You know, separation of church and state, and that does not apply here. That's just a stupid argument made by people who think it's a debate winner. You know, It's like if I just say racist or I just say hitler, I could just say separation of church and state and I win debate over not really, it depends on how you are using this information. Number one. Number two, the phrase does not appear in the Constitution comes from a letter the Jefferson wrote like some it was a Baptist church, and it was talking about that Congress shall make no official religion for America. And why was that, Well, because a lot of the original colonies had their own official state religions. Okay, So they didn't want the FEDS to come in and say, your religion has now swept aside and we're going to impose upon you some other religion out of a congressional edict. Okay. So the Education Board voted to pass a new required reading list. This was done on Friday. It was a vote of nine to five to one. The list for required literature includes sections so not the entire Bible, but sections of the Book of Exodus for fifth graders and the Shepherd's Psalm for seventh. Graders and more. That's just what they leave it as and more. Authors appearing on the approved required reading list include E. B. White, Shel Silverstein, ASoP of the Fabled Fables, Kurt Vonnegut, Eli Vessel, and more. The list will impact the more than five million students enrolled in public schools across the state. One of the members of the Board of ed, a Republican named Julie Pickran, told the Texas Tribune that prior to the list's passage that the readings are intended to give students important insight into the moral and philosophical traditions that have shaped Western civilization. Ah Ah, Okay, now I see the problem. It wasn't because, like at first, I thought it was just this automatic you know, we hate well, I was gonna say religion, But the Left doesn't really hate religion per se. They're marching all over. The place with with Islam, so that's not it. So they hate this particular religion. Well that's not even it too, because they're they also seem to hate Jews a lot too recently, So there is that. Where do they stand on Hinduism? I think they're still cool with that right in as much as is it like connected somehow to yoga? Right, So I think they're okay with that with hindu is it maybe anyway? But no, I see the problem now. It's it's built as a way to give students important insight into the moral and philosophical traditions that have shaped Western civilization. See, there's the problem, okay, because you can't go about, you know, training up an entire generation of activists to tear down Western civilization if they get an understanding of the moral and philosophical traditions that shaped it, right if because once you read those moral and philosophical traditions, a lot of people are going to be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. Oh that's good, that's positive, that's better than these alternatives. And so if you are teaching kids that, then they may not be as susceptible to the commune slop that they are getting in the GUV code schools where they're totally not indoctrinating anybody. Right, by the way, like how many flags have we seen hung in class rooms during the era of peak woke? Right? How many different flags were there being draped all over the classrooms. But there's no there's. No conveying of mores of norms, right, of political positions, of morality. There's none of that happening in the schools. They do have character traits that they talk about every month. They do a character trait for example, that they all of the school kids do in in Charlotte Mecklenburgh, at least they used to. I assume they still do so. So like again. K twelve, folks like I need to I need to get some clarity from you here are you? Are you passing down the morality of our culture to the next generation? See, I would submit you are, and I would submit that that is as it's always been. That is how societies pass down to the next generation their culture, their norms, right, That's how they do that. It's through education. And when one ideology captures education and starts crafting all the curricula, all of the guidance for teachers, they start, you know, saying these are the books that you read, this is the pedagogical model that you're supposed to follow. When they control, when one ideology controls all of that, then that's what gets passed down. That's been my argument for twenty years. It's been going on a lot longer. She said. When students engage directly with original writings, speeches, sermons, and foundational texts, they can evaluate ideas and develop a deeper understanding of the principles that have shaped the USA and Texas now. Another board member named Evelyn Brooks was outspoken during the hearing and opposition to the list, saying it removed teacher autoconomy. There you go. Teachers should be able to teach communism if they want to why are you removing teacher autonomy. And argued that this was unconstitutional, which it's not. It's not teaching certain passages is part of a larger view of like here's civilizational writings that led to the development of our society. That is not imposing upon people a religion. It's telling you from where the civilization arose. All right. For over a year now you've heard me talking about Create a Video. Great local company in mint Hill that has helped more than two million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS, tapes, film reels and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now Creative Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling into producing group travel videos perfect for family reunions, church mission trips, group vacations, destination weddings, student trips, senior adult groups, sports teams. I mean, really. 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But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes you can. You can email Katie Katie at group travel videos dot com. Group travel videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. Let's jump over to the phones and chat with Reid. Welcome to the show. Read How are you hey, Pete? How you doing? I'm good, sir with you? Yes, sir, thanks for calling. All right, Well, I'm the one that I actually taught Bible at West Charlotte High School from nineteen eighty one to two thousand and six, Charlotte Mickelberg had a Bible elected social studies elected. You could take it if you wanted to. I've probably talked two thousand kids over my tenure there for twenty five years, and when they got out of my plants, they knew the historical plain work of the Bible, Genesis to Revelation and could make their own decisions about what they wanted to believe about it. Well, I remember, I mean I went to school in West Islip, New York, on Long Island, and one of the social studies classes that we had, I want to say, maybe eleventh grade or twelfth grade, and we did Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and hindu I think, yeah, I think there were four and so we spent you know, a couple weeks on each learning the basic tenants of each of the religions, like a little bit of their history. Now, what I've learned since then about Islam was a little different than what was taught to me in the schools. But yeah, so like this idea is not a completely foreign concept, right. I know that Chattanooga, Tennessee, is instituting a Bible program now, and a number of places are trying. To get it back into schools. It's the basis of Western civilization and the reason kids are so ignorant. They don't know that. They don't know biblical principles, they don't know family life principles, marriage principles, and that's one reason we're falling apart. Yeah, no, I would agree. It's almost as if there was an intentional decision to rob generations of this knowledge. But yes, yeah, I agree. But I certainly enjoyed my tenure. I taught Christians, non Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Satanists, and then all I had to do was to throw out a topic and have a lively discussion. Had a couple of fights in Bible class, but nothing really serious, but had a great time teaching and getting kids to think. Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be about. Read. I appreciate the call, sir, thank you, thank you, Petter. All right, take care, good hear from you. From Ian who says like it or not, believe it or not, the first line of the Declaration of Independence is straight up, flat out biblical, having everything to do with Jesus in forming humanity that we are all equal in God's eyes. This agnostic will be offended when government schools start mandating Koranic studies though, Well, then he adds in another unless it's taught as a no Ur enemy framework. Lookd I've told this story, this story before I went to When I was up in Asheville working, I ended up getting into a Twitter fight with a college professor from Warren Wilson, which is a really really left wing school, and he invited me, almost as it was almost like a challenge, I think, to come and talk to his students, and so I did. I went to his class and there was this We got into this discussion about well various things, but anyway, at one point a student tries to tell me that the Quran has influenced the founding of America and I said, how, tell me how, how is the Qoran any sort of basis for the founding principles of America? And he then said, well, you know, Thomas Jefferson, he had a Quran. Yes, he did have a Quran. You know why he had the Quran? And he did not know why. He assumed that Jefferson had it to be informed about all of the wonders of Islam. No, he had it because we went to war with the Barbary Coast Pirates our first war, because they were kidnapping our sailors because we would not pay them the jisia. And when our ambassadors asked them, well, Jefferson and Adams, they were like, hey, why are you kidnapping our sailors? Why are you taking our boats? And all of this We've done nothing to you were a brand new nation. We've got no quarrel with you. And the caliph or whatever it was the head of the Barbary Coast Pirates or whoever he was, he was like, oh, well, my religion says I can do this. You don't have to do anything. You're an infidel. I can do this. And that's when Jefferson's like, okay, let's get us together, a marine Corps and a navy, and we're going to go on over there and to the shores of Tripoli we go. And this kid did not know that had never heard any of this. All he heard probably sitting around stoned in a dorm room that dubbs Jefferson. He had a Qoran man, And so I said, okay, so is there any other example that you could provide? Having refuted your Thomas Jefferson had a Koran on evidence, So, can you give me some other way that Islam has in fact influenced the founding principles of America? And he said, well, the numbers, like they're Arabic numerals, Like really, like that's what you're that's what you're going with because we count zero through nine, Like. You're saying, that's the yeah, see what I mean? Like this kid is in college and he just assumed that there is obviously some sort of influence that our founding must have had from the religion of Islam. But no, no, not really, So where'd you learn that? And maybe you should be examining how you came to pick up this information as truth. Sarah Fields is a Republican precinct chare, a constitutionalist, self described an investigative journalist, army veteran, parent slash child advocate, and self described Foya queen, and she told her nearly half million Twitter followers that regarding the the inclusion of select passages from the Bible in K twelve public education in Texas, she says, I don't think you actually want this. If you opened the door for one religion to be taught in public schools. You also open the door for every other religion to be taught as well. Okay, so first off, she goes on here, But first of all, that is you know me, I've got a really good radar for the false choices. Okay, this is not the choice. This is not well, we're teaching Christianity, have to teach every other religion? Why is that a false choice? Because those aren't actually the options. This is simply including select passages into the curriculum. It's not the whole Bible, and it's not teaching people that this is the word of God, even though I believe it is, you believe it is, or you don't believe it is. It's not doing that. It's saying this is what our civilization was built on, these ideas. This is where it comes from, the first written book, the first mass produced book. Right. She says, leave education to the teachers, leave religion to the parents. Otherwise, don't be surprised when your child is taught from the Koran, or when a woke teacher with a completely different worldview presents their version of who God is. Better yet, homeschool your children. Okay, I agree with that last part because I don't trust any of the K twelve schools. And that's not to say that there aren't good teachers in every school in every district. There are, of course. However, to use the analogy of the poisoned m and M, if I were to give you a bowl of one hundred m and ms and told you that one of the m and ms was poison and would kill you, would you eat any of the m and ms? I would not. It's just the risk is not worth the reward. Plus I also don't really have a sweet tooth, so it's easy for me to say no regardless even if it wasn't poison. But you get the idea. So this idea, and then she's got this meme that she drew up where it's a what it's two women, one of them is the teacher. The teacher's got purple hair and no ring, gay pride t shirt, the trans whatever that arrow flag thing is whatever as a lapel pin, right, and the other woman is handing her the Holy Bible and says, hey, teach this to my child, thank you. And I think that there is a legitimate concern that she is raising, which is why they put the passage requirement in the curriculum to begin with. Is because there are already too many of these social justice activists that are working to indoctrinate and train your child as an activist, right to make them a foot soldier in the revolution. And then you're gonna say, Okay, now, I'm going to give you this passage from the Bible, teach that to my kid. I think that's a fair concern. However, if you think that they're not already doing this, I think you're kidding yourself. They're already doing it. Leave education to the teachers, leave religion to the parents. Okay, well, you know we I think we've tried that. And when given the opportunity to run all over parents, the K twelve government system has obviously decided it will do so, to the point of targeting parents with the Department of Justice. Right when parents objected to these LGBTQ plus two IA books that were basically cartoon porn being put on the shelves in school libraries, parents wanting to opt out of drag Queen's Story hours and what would they what were they met with? They were met with literal federal investigations. So I feel like we are already at this place. At least if you put the passages into the required reading, there at least would then be some discussion of it. Kids come home and tell their parents, Oh, my teacher said, here's this passage and she doesn't believe any of it or whatever whatever. At least the kid is getting exposed to it. And here's the thing too, like there is value in understanding the original works from which all of Western civilizational works then flowed. Megan Besham, a journalist New York Times bestselling author journalist over at The Daily Wire, she says, you're not leaving education to teachers if you're not including one of the most important, I would say, the most important text for understanding English literature and American history. Another author named Chris Wherman said, I've seen a lot of people make this argument. What they failed to understand is that purposely excluding foundational texts and moral principles leaves a developmental whole that is now guaranteed to be filled by something else. You either teach your culture or you lose it, and that I agree with him. I agree with Chris Warman on that because I also because I've known for a long time that this is how education is how you pass down culture to the next generation. And if you surrender that battlefield, your enemy will take it and they will teach your kids things with which you don't agree. Christian Hines, he's the co host of making the argument as his own YouTube channel as well. Aid to Nick freydis former Virginia State lawmaker. Christian says to Sarah Fields in response, you're appealing to a neutral playing field that has never existed anywhere on the face of the earth at any point in the history of human civilization. I agree with that it's not. There never has been a neutral playing field. He goes on to say, Wokeism is already taught in almost every public school in the country, and Islam is already taught across the Middle East. Has it ever occurred to woke educators, has it ever once occurred that they also need to teach conservative values just to be fair, or to the Islamic teachers in the Middle East that they might also need to teach Christianity alongside Islam because once the door is open, other worldviews have to be accommodated as well. Right. This was on display, by the way during the World Cup when people were mad that like with the gay pride event during the Iran Egypt soccer match, like, you should respect the Iranian and Egyptian cultures, the Muslim cultures. You shouldn't be doing this pride event. I was like, well, wait a minute. When the World Cup was held in like Qatar or wherever it was a couple of years ago, the whole world was told you have to observe the local customs, you have to follow their ways. But they come here and it's we have to follow their ways out of respect to the visitor. So wait a minute, is there any circumstance here where they have to be tolerant of our ways, because it doesn't seem like that. I have been corrected on the pronunciation Megan besham or basham sorry basham. Also I am instructed that she is a resident of the Charlotte region, so there is that. Let me go over to Ralph on the phone line. Hello, Ralph, how are you? Hello? How are you? I'm well, what's up? I want to tell you a little story about my third grade teacher. I'm sixty four, So that tells you the time she walked out of the classroom and everyone does we cut up while she was gone but time she walked again, we sat up straight and we were in our chip DES's quiet, and the look on her face had us scared. She walked up to the board, she raced it angrily, turned around and with this vein flowing through her forehead. I never knew a vain was in the forehead to that day. She slammed her ruler down and said, as long as I'm teaching, it'll be prayer, the reading the script and the pleasure of the leaders. They're gonna drag me out of here first. And there we were, in our naivety, thinking this can't be that bad. But guess what happened that day? Arkansas took the Ten Commandments down off the wall, and she could see communism starting already. That was the day ended this work this country. So oh so we denied Christ. So that was so. Her response wasn't to you guys acting up, was to the news that she had been told that. The they called all the teachers, gotcha, they called all the teachers to the office detail them that. Yeah, no, I mean, and this has been I have heard that similar sentiment expressed for thirty years, almost since I've been doing this. And they want to push this gay agenda and the Muslim agenda. What happens for those two crash in the Muslim stone the gay people, is that not going to be a hate Well no. No, that'll be after the revolution. They'll sort that out afterwards. That's usually how the Red Green Alliance goes. The the Marxists and the Islamists team up to overthrow the Western society and then once they once they do that, then usually I mean, if history is any indication, the Muslims then slaughter all the Marxists. They don't realize that the only people win in communism are the people up top. Well yeah, I mean, well the ones that don't realize that are called useful idiots. The ones who do realize that think that they're going to be the rulers, that they're going to be in that elite strata. That's why they do it. Ralph, I appreciate the call, sir, thanks so much for calling in for listening. Christian Hins co host of making the argument. I read a part of his comments on this Texas law. He goes on to say that there is no mandate for pluralism or equal time engraved anywhere in the hearts and minds of any educator, and there's never been a value free education either. Every act of instruction carries with it a particular worldview, and that particular worldview is the basis for all theological belief systems, whether they want to call themselves a religion or not. And the fact that some on the right have decided to dispense with this fiction that you can have an education system without actually instructing people in anything. It doesn't open the door to giving other ideologies equal instruction time. You can literally just say no, we will not teach Wokeism or Islam because they are political theologies that are antithetical to our own. I know this is a shock to many conservatives, but you can in fact take your own side without ever having to grant any concessions to people who hate you. Then there is Wilfred Riley. He says, the reason to teach the Bible in school, and for that matter, the Geitas, the talmud Karan Greek mythology, et cetera, et cetera, in a popular elective class, for example, is not that you think these things are all true. You may or may not, but it is the cornerstone text of the Western canon talking about the Bible. If I say, for example, for a mess of pottage, which is literally his take on the current immigration policy, or if he refers to a farmer herder war in Africa as the legacy of Kan. Do you know what I mean? We talked with Raymond Ibrahim about this very thing. Oh, you know, are there's some you know, there's some nomads or herders, and they're attacking the farmers. And that's the way it's all framed. Except the nomads are are Muslims and the farmers quote unquote are Christians because they are they have a place, they have villages, they build churches, and they're there, and Islam is an expansionist ideology, and so they go in and they slaughter all the Christians. It's been going on for a while. So would you know what he means when he says these things like the legacy of Kan or the Tower of Babel or mess of pottage? Right, Meeting an educated Westerner, including blacks, Ukrainian immigrants, Mexican Catholics who don't know this stuff is embarrassing. It's akin to talking to a smart Chinese person who has no idea who Confucius was and then this from Beth's favorite Russ, a recent popular YouTube. Godless Agnostic listened to the entire Bible and was amazed at how much literature it opened up for him. Formerly obtuse references were made clear, symbols became enlightening rather than confusing. Almost every piece of modern Western literature he had read, even sci fi and fantasy suddenly made more sense. It was like being given a secret key. The fact he wasn't taught the Bible when he was a kid means he wasn't properly educated. If you live in the West, it's absurd to claim otherwise. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecalanarshow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.