Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 Could Result in Public School ...

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Thu Aug 09, 2012

Rachel Tabachnick

Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2, advertised by supporters as the Right to Pray Amendment, will allow students to refuse to "participate in academic assignments or educational presentations that violate his or her religious beliefs." Obviously, this could impact science instruction that includes evolution or any reference to the age of the earth, but the "biblical worldview" embraced by growing numbers of Americans also requires significant alterations in the teaching of history, economics, and even mathematics. As stated in a New York Times op-ed, this amendment "would almost certainly lead to litigation about who controls curriculum in public schools."

Over 80% of voters in Missouri supported Amendment 2 in the state primary election on August 7. Rep. Michael McGhee (R), sponsor of the amendment, is quoted as saying that he does not anticipate any instances where a student might claim "it?s against my religion to do algebra." However, a similar scenario is entirely likely, as is demonstrated in my research on A Beka Books and Bob Jones University Press and the public funding of religious extremism.

A Beka and BJU are two of the largest producers of curricula for home schooling and nondenominational Protestant schools in the nation. Their textbooks are used by many schools subsidized through "private school choice" programs, including those that receive school vouchers or funding through corporate tax credit programs. These textbooks provide a window into a widespread and growing worldview in the U.S. in which all educational material, regardless of subject area, is divided into falling into a "secular humanist" or "biblical worldview."

The educational topics that fall on the wrong side of the dividing line (and therefore are incompatible with this biblical worldview) are not limited to the creationism/evolution debate or even to science. For instance, the A Beka mathematics curriculum is advertised as follows.

Unlike the "modern math" theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute. Man?s task is to search out and make use of the laws of the universe, both scientific and mathematical.

A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory.

The A Beka and BJU textbooks are valuable tools in understanding the alternate universe in which many Americans, including many prominent politicians, live today. It is one in which secular education is not neutral but is considered to be a competing religion and a threat to Christianity. This dualistic framework is used to teach, among other things, that only one type of economic system is biblical (unfettered free markets), that labor unions are trying to destroy that system, and that only limited types of taxes are biblical.

It?s not just science classes that may be disrupted by Amendment 2.

The Assault on All Subject Areas of Secular Education and Religious Pluralism

A Mother Jones article published this week, featured 14 "facts" from textbooks used by private schools in Louisiana?s new school voucher program, which will use public education funds to send students to private schools. The vast majority of schools approved to receive voucher students are religious.

The Mother Jones article featured several examples from textbooks included in my research on the A Beka and BJU curricula. (See here and here.) Of the 14 examples, only two were drawn from science texts. Their textbooks consistently deny evolution and global warming with mocking headlines and cartoons, but this is not the only subject area that is controversial for those embracing their biblical worldview teaching.

Examples not included in the Mother Jones article included the numerous attacks on non-Christian religions and other Christians found in these textbooks. It would take more than a few quotes to fully comprehend the religious bias that is woven throughout every subject. For instance, history texts are filled with negative references to Catholicism. Much of the voucher money in Louisiana will go to Catholic schools, but much of it will also go to schools with overtly anti-Catholic history lessons. Apparently these will be the new "separate but equal" schools in an America in which the public pays for religious education.

Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, warned that Louisiana?s new school voucher program will be "bad for religious freedom" in an open letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal, published in full the Washington Post. Gaddy stated,

You are hurting the state, the education of our children, and broadsiding an affront to the values of religious freedom that most of us hold dear.

I would also argue that Missouri?s Amendment 2 will ultimately be bad for religious freedom and certainly damaging to religious pluralism. But the amendment?s promoters appear to be interested in returning to some mythical time and place in which they can have control over what is acceptable American religious orthodoxy.

Whose Religious Freedom?

There were already protections for the citizens of Missouri to practice their faith and to pray. The Missouri Constitution states,

"All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no human authority can control or interfere with the rights of conscience."
[Note correction to original, which said indefensible instead of indefeasible.]

Legislators supporting the bill claimed that Christians in the state (80% of the population) are under attack. The amendment was initially sponsored in 2010 by Rep. Michael McGhee, whose pastor stated,

"For first 150 years in this country Christianity enjoyed home-field advantage. That?s changed and now there?s a hostility toward Christians."

Apparently this amendment is supposed to help reclaim that home-field advantage. Leading the charge for the passage of Amendment 2 was the Missouri Family Policy Council, an affiliate of Focus on Family.

Americans United and the Anti-Defamation League are among organizations that opposed the amendment. From AU:

"This is going to be a nightmare for school districts, which will end up getting sued by individuals on both sides of church-state debate," said Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. "This is the most far-out constitutional amendment we?ve seen in the church-state area."

and

"It opens the door for coercive prayer and proselytizing in public schools, allows students to skip homework if it offends their religious beliefs and infringes on the religious liberty rights of prisoners. The biggest problem with Amendment 2, however, is that it?s so open-ended nobody really knows exactly what it will do."

From ADL:

"This was misleading in its presentation and possibly unconstitutional in its application, so now we?re headed for the courts," said Karen Aroesty of the Anti-Defamation League of Missouri and Southern Illinois. "We?ll let the next branch of the democratic process do its part, and I suspect a case will be on file pretty soon."

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty?s Executive Director Rev. J. Brent Walker stated,

?Amendment 2 purports to grant or secure several rights that are already constitutionally protected. A number of the measure?s provisions are redundant and misleading because they falsely suggest to voters that certain rights are under siege and must be secured by constitutional amendment.?

The amendment was promoted as expanding religious liberty but could actually strip protections for prisoners of their state constitutional rights to religious expression, according to the ACLU. The ACLU also argued that the wording on the ballot was misleading. It did not include the provision allowing students to opt out of class participation and assignments or the wording about prisoners.

Missouri overwhelmingly supported Amendment 2 while but two other initiatives failed to receive enough signatures to be placed on the November ballot ? one raising the minimum wage and one limiting interest rates on payday loans to 36% and capping fees. Missouri is a "payday lending haven"with over 2.4 million loans made in 2011 (in a state with less than six million people) and with an average APR on those loans of 444%.

Apparently protecting Missouri citizens from predatory lenders is not compatible with the biblical worldview of the state?s Christian Right leaders. And, of course, according to this brand of biblical worldview, Jesus was opposed to the minimum wage.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2012 at 8:57 am and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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