Texas Board of Ed: Textbooks Are Anti-Christian
This undated photo provided by the Hartford County Sheriff's Office shows Alexander Kinyua. Kinyua, a 21-year-old Kenyan college student accused of killing a housemate told police he ate the victim's heart and part of his brain after he died. / AP Photo/Hartford County Sheriff's Office
Texas' State Board of Education - following a long history of throwing itself into "culture war" issues - is set to vote Friday on a resolution calling on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books.
The resolution cites world history books no longer used in Texas schools that it says devoted more lines of text to Islamic beliefs and practices than Christian beliefs and practices.
"Diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts," reads a draft of the resolution, which would not be binding on future boards that will choose the state's next generation of social studies texts.
The measure was first suggested to the board this summer by Odessa businessman Randy Rives, who lost his Republican primary bid for a seat on the panel earlier this year.
The conservative-leaning and heavily evangelical Christian board pushed the item to a vote.
Board member Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, suggested the issue may be moot because none of the books cited by Rives still are being used in Texas, having been replaced in 2003, and said Rives "might want to go back and get newer copies of the books."
Don McLeroy, who is serving the final months of his term after also losing in the GOP primary, said he believes even current textbooks still reflect an anti-Christian bias.
"The biggest problem I saw was their overreach not to be 'ethnocentric,"' McLeroy said of an Advanced Placement world history book approved in 2003 and still in use. "It's a very, very, very, very biased book. Christianity didn't even make it in the table of contents."
McLeroy is one of the most outspoken of a group of board members who have pushed several conservative requirements for social study textbooks used in Texas, including that teachers cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers.
"It's that great idea. That radical idea of Judeo-Christianity, that man is created in the image of God. So if you have world history books that downplay Christianity - Judeo-Christianity - and it doesn't even make it in the table of contents, I think there's a great concern," McLeroy said.
Some educators fear the debate might lead to a revision of history. "I was a social studies teacher, and, I'm sorry. History is what it is. It happened," Gayle Fallon of the Houston Federation of Teachers told CBS affiliate KHOU.
"I've talked to the history teachers. They say there's nothing there," Fallon said. "A textbook should not proselytize for any side. It should present fact. And, from what we've seen of the text, they present fact."
In the board's official resolution, members cite textbook passages that call Christian Crusaders "invaders" and "violent attackers," while claiming Muslims were "empire builders."
Kathy Miller, spokeswoman for the Texas Freedom Network, a religious freedom group, called the resolution "another example of board members putting politics ahead of just educating our kids."
"Once again, without consulting any real experts, the board's politicians are manufacturing a bogus controversy," Miller said. No textbooks cited in the resolution are still being used in Texas schools, she told The Dallas Morning news for a Wednesday story.
The resolution concludes by warning publishers the "State Board of Education will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others."
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The resolution cites world history books no longer used in Texas schools that it says devoted more lines of text to Islamic beliefs and practices than Christian beliefs and practices.
"Diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts," reads a draft of the resolution, which would not be binding on future boards that will choose the state's next generation of social studies texts.
The measure was first suggested to the board this summer by Odessa businessman Randy Rives, who lost his Republican primary bid for a seat on the panel earlier this year.
The conservative-leaning and heavily evangelical Christian board pushed the item to a vote.
Board member Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, suggested the issue may be moot because none of the books cited by Rives still are being used in Texas, having been replaced in 2003, and said Rives "might want to go back and get newer copies of the books."
Don McLeroy, who is serving the final months of his term after also losing in the GOP primary, said he believes even current textbooks still reflect an anti-Christian bias.
"The biggest problem I saw was their overreach not to be 'ethnocentric,"' McLeroy said of an Advanced Placement world history book approved in 2003 and still in use. "It's a very, very, very, very biased book. Christianity didn't even make it in the table of contents."
McLeroy is one of the most outspoken of a group of board members who have pushed several conservative requirements for social study textbooks used in Texas, including that teachers cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers.
"It's that great idea. That radical idea of Judeo-Christianity, that man is created in the image of God. So if you have world history books that downplay Christianity - Judeo-Christianity - and it doesn't even make it in the table of contents, I think there's a great concern," McLeroy said.
Some educators fear the debate might lead to a revision of history. "I was a social studies teacher, and, I'm sorry. History is what it is. It happened," Gayle Fallon of the Houston Federation of Teachers told CBS affiliate KHOU.
"I've talked to the history teachers. They say there's nothing there," Fallon said. "A textbook should not proselytize for any side. It should present fact. And, from what we've seen of the text, they present fact."
In the board's official resolution, members cite textbook passages that call Christian Crusaders "invaders" and "violent attackers," while claiming Muslims were "empire builders."
Kathy Miller, spokeswoman for the Texas Freedom Network, a religious freedom group, called the resolution "another example of board members putting politics ahead of just educating our kids."
"Once again, without consulting any real experts, the board's politicians are manufacturing a bogus controversy," Miller said. No textbooks cited in the resolution are still being used in Texas schools, she told The Dallas Morning news for a Wednesday story.
The resolution concludes by warning publishers the "State Board of Education will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others."
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Don?t forget, Christ was born in a barn, and not in a mansion or palace..
G?nite..
finis
Many create gods and Christ?s in their own image and even quote from the scriptures merely so they can continue with their personal and political agenda?Nothing whatsoever to do with CHRIST, SERMON ON THE MOUNT ANYONE? but everything to do with the MALE EGO. I?m reminded of the time when george (born again Christian?) bush constantly said that he spoke to god when it was obviously the EGOTISTICAL GOD he created in his own image.
g'nitezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
"crescent": '<OF,to increase, come forth, grow>'(4.)" [Turkish or Muslim power]" /2.) "shaped like the moon[s] 1st or last quarter"....[Websters Dict.] Note that ...The "Crusades" were "Military expeditions by European Christians against Muslim powers, [1095 to 1291], aimed at gaining control of Jerusalem". [In response to a plea of help from Byzantines and Eastern Christians living under Muslim rule]". "The 1st Crusade", [helped the Byzantines repel the Seljug Turks, and regain Syria and Jerusalem]". {Websters Desk Encyl}.
... "Christians undertook", (the Crusades), "To recover the Holy Land from the Muslims". {Websters Dict}
Your idea of Muslims being allowed to override the constitution to me is as laughable as it is dangerous. In France, a country as guilty as any of being antisemitic, has recently enacted laws forbidding the bur ca from being worn in public as a matter of identification. We must be able to see the face of a person to determine the basic information needed to proceed with daily life. People cannot be allowed to run around in disguise during an era of worldwide terrorism even under the claim of religious freedom.
Texas has overreacted to the threat of Muslims because Texas is a state taken under dubious circumstances, 1819-America renounces any claim to Texas in return for Florida, 1845-Texas becomes a slave state of the union with over 30% of the population as slaves by the civil war....a paranoia exists in that "manifest destiny" armed camp of a state...It's history isn't even being told to its' people honestly. With extremists in power, conservative, fascist, and still slaving people, Texas has a history of lashing out at latin america, and nations much further away. Iran for example was conquered in the 1950's by the CIA run by Texan oil men who installed the Shah of Iran as a king after bringing down a democratic government on the verge of redistributing the oil revenues to the people.
Texas can fry for all I care, except forone thing. Most of our military bases around the country were closed and the bases in Texas grew in size. I want the miltary back in the states they originally were stationed as Texas has become an untrustworthy place to station our armed forces, the rebels.