In another step towards turning our public schools into Christian schools, House Speaker Brian Bosma and his fellow GOP lawmakers intend to introduce legislation which will require the theory of “intelligent design” to be taught alongside other science-based theories of the earth’s origin according to a report by the Indianapolis Star today. In a disturbing revelation, the Star reports that Bosma and his colleagues met privately with Christian broadcasting giant, Trinity Broadcasting Network, formerly run by Jim and Tammie Faye Bakker, and the host of its show, Creationism in the 21st Century, to discuss mandating the teaching of intelligent design in Indiana classrooms. According to the report, the show’s host, Carl Baugh, said Bosma and other GOP lawmakers consulted him on how to create the legislation.
The strikingly similar comparison to the period of the 1920s during which the Indiana General Assembly and the Indiana Republican Party were under the control of the Ku Klux Klax and its Grand Dragon D.C Stephenson is indeed frightening for all liberty loving Hoosiers. Instead of the KKK and Stephenson calling the shots, we now have Advance American and Eric Miller. Like the KKK and Stephenson, they are pursuing a legislative agenda to write into state law fundamentalist Christian beliefs. In the 1920s, an anti-Catholic legislative agenda was actively pursued to discourage Catholic immigrants from Europe from moving to Indiana, which even included an attempt to outlaw parochial schools.
Today, the agenda is to require the recitation of the “Pledge of Allegiance” with the words “Under God”, mandated moments of silent prayer and now the Christian teaching on creationism as a legitimate scientific theory. Each is a step closer to turning our public schools into Christian schools. If Indiana were to adopt the intelligent design legislation, it would become the first state in the country to do so. Last week, Advance Indiana reported on the negative reaction in Illinois to GOP gubernatorial candidates support for intelligent design and the embarrassment it was causing the Illinois Republican Party.
Rep. Bruce Borders (R-Jasonville) assured the Star that he would introduce the legislation if no other lawmakers did. As is typically the case, Democrat support for the idea exists as well. Rep. Jerry Denbo (D-French Lick) told the Star, “I really think that should be taught-that there is a master. We didn’t just come about by accident.” The report said that the more moderate Senate President Pro Tempore Bob Garton (R-Columbus) was “lukewarm” to the idea, but with the increasing domination of his caucus by the extremist conservatives like Senator Pat Miller, he may have no other choice than to go along with the idea.
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