Don McLeroy’s Swan Song

Donna Garner, the serial e-mailer ideologically aligned with the Texas State Board of Education‘s faction of religious extremists, is distributing to her e-mail list an extended excerpt from what she reports is a speech by state board member Don McLeroy. McLeroy apparently made the speech on October 23 at a Bastrop County Tea Party event. (Editorial note: If TFN Insider receives any information indicating that her e-mail is inaccurate, we will certainly note that here.)

The speech reads as a pretty thorough summary of the philosophy of the state board’s extremist faction — a philosophy that is  historically and scientifically illiterate, self-contradictory and coldly arrogant. McLeroy praises the disestablishment of religion in America, yet in the same speech he declares that our society is (and should be) based on biblical authority. He once again derides expertise. And he criticizes the “left” for substituting “insults and personal attacks” for sound arguments, yet he portrays those he sees as on the left — anyone, apparently, who might disagree with him — as “godless.” It’s hard to imagine anything more insulting to people of faith who simply don’t share his political views.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that McLeroy, his colleagues among the board’s extremist faction or their supporters like Garner have questioned or even openly attacked the faith of people (including other Republican state board members) who disagree with them. Yet they often claim that they are persecuted for their religious beliefs. Their arrogance is as astounding as it is blind.

Here’s an excerpt from McLeroy’s speech (according to the transcript in Garner’s e-mail). The full text of the speech follows afterward.

(L)eftist thinking and reasoning calls for a radical transformation of our country.  Their godless, left-wing culture has taken over the mainstream media and the university.  Thousands of professors have converted our universities into left-wing secular seminaries.  And, for the last two years, with the help of their young converts, these so-called experts have taken over our national government!

. . . The left, in its attempts to remove God and religion from our society have twisted the clear meaning of the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty.  It’s time to clear up the confusion about where we find the phrase ‘separation of church and state.’  The answer is simple; it is in our new history standards; it is in there so that our children will know that it is not in the Constitution.  Ironically, the very language in our Constitution to guarantee us religious liberty has been used to deny us that freedom.  The Constitution codified for us what Christianity, through the “Great Awakening”, had already given to our country—the disestablishment of religion.

Yet later McLeroy contradicts himself, portraying science as a threat to the authority of God and the Bible in America:

We need to understand ‘science’ as the left sees it. They see it as a substitute authority to replace God’s authority in our culture. . . . Tragically, the leftist version of science has occasionally ‘won the day.’  August 4, 2010, U. S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, citing scientific studies and rejecting thousands of years of human experience and wisdom, single-handedly and arbitrarily overturned California’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage—all in the name of science.  This is a clear example of the way the left uses science to undermine and do away with biblical authority and wisdom and the ability to think. This is why our great victory in the science standard’s debate that restored scientific integrity is so important.  It will help our children understand what real science is and its proper role in society; it will help prevent its abuse in undermining God’s authority.

Fortunately, Republican voters rejected McLeroy’s arrogance and intolerance in the March GOP primary this year. As a result, in January he will no longer be able to use the public education system in Texas to promote his own personal and political agendas.

Here is the full excerpt from McLeroy’s speech (again, according to Garner’s e-mail):

Last week, President Obama said that in today’s politics: (1) facts, (2) science, and (3) argument do not “win the day” anymore, and that we cannot think clearly because we are scared.

But, we are not scared– we’re in love!  We are in love with our country!  We are in love with liberty! We are in love with God!

Besides, the President is wrong; facts, science and argument do “win the day”. The conservatives on the State Board of Education: (1) have won the day: with facts—sound historical facts about the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the founding of our country, (2) have won the day  in science—by restoring scientific integrity and keeping dogma out of science class—our children now will actually be taught evolution and explore some of evolution’s most glaring weaknesses instead of  being sold evolution like it was frosted flakes, and (3) have won the day with sound arguments and reasoning.

This is important because leftist thinking and reasoning calls for a radical transformation of our country.  Their godless, left-wing culture has taken over the mainstream media and the university.  Thousands of professors have converted our universities into left-wing secular seminaries.  And, for the last two years, with the help of their young converts, these so-called experts have taken over our national government!

Sadly, instead of teaching our children historical facts, many professors indoctrinate them in the social history of race, class, and gender.  And, if they teach the Constitution, the Declaration, and the arguments of the Federalist Papers at all, they teach they are obsolete.

But, for a free society, history is everything.  Thus, it is imperative that we teach our children what it means to be an American.  Our children must learn how our free society rose to greatness and how it could fall.  Thankfully, there are some distinguished professors.  William B. Allen of Michigan State stated:

“The founding era and the founding fathers are not just a topic of instruction for us; it is most important first to understand, that they are the meat we feed upon.  Understanding it means that we cannot accept, in any instance, the argument that they are inaccessible to us, anymore than we can accept the argument that we can live without our hearts.  Therefore, our task is not to ask whether we should regard the founders with tender care and understanding; our task is to find the means to do so.”

The good news is that in Texas we are finding “the means to do so”.  We adopted explicit requirements that our children be taught our founding documents, American Exceptionalism, and our national mottos of “In God We Trust”, and “E Pluribus Unum.”

One of our most significant new standards strikes a major blow for religious liberty by bringing some much needed clarity to the commonly misunderstood phrase “separation of church and state.”

The left, in its attempts to remove God and religion from our society have twisted the clear meaning of the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty.  It’s time to clear up the confusion about where we find the phrase “separation of church and state.”  The answer is simple; it is in our new history standards; it is in there so that our children will know that it is not in the Constitution.  Ironically, the very language in our Constitution to guarantee us religious liberty has been used to deny us that freedom.  The Constitution codified for us what Christianity, through the “Great Awakening”, had already given to our country—the disestablishment of religion.

Ironically again, the left’s attempts to purge religion from our society would purge the moral high ground from where they preach. The source for the moral power on which the foundation of our country is based is the radical Judeo-Christian idea that all men are created in the image of God.  Our whole idea of liberty, of the Declaration’s “all men are created equal”, and of the importance of the individual is grounded in this great truth.  The left, who rejects this biblical principle but stand on its foundation, pat themselves on the back and claim to stand for compassion and caring.  But, how compassionate and caring is it to take a young child, a self-governing creature of God, and tell him he is the product of blind purposeless processes and just a helpless victim—totally dependent upon the state?

In other standards, we restored the teaching of the role of religion in the foundations of our representative government, and we credited the role of the free enterprise system in giving us liberty.  The free enterprise system is also built upon the idea that the individual is created in the image of God; this has led to limited government—the bigger the individual, the smaller the government—and to the development of personal responsibility.  The free enterprise system makes better people.  The free enterprise system rewards hard work, diligence and competence; it punishes laziness, cheating and freeloading.  And, it is free enterprise that is the dominant theme of our new history standards. Our new history standards teach the benefits of free enterprise; they highlight the failures of planned economies.

Contrast this with what the left has taught our children in our universities.  Think of what they taught Goodwin Liu, President Obama’s nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a young 39-year-old lawyer.  Mr. Liu, commenting on the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts, stated that “free enterprise, private ownership of property and limited government” are “code words” for a hostile ideological agenda. I wonder what he thinks of a Tea Party?  What kind of mind marginalizes, trivializes, and ignores these great ideas that have made America exceptional?  It is the leftist mind.  It is a mind that struggles to marshal a true argument and discredits their opponents with insults and personal attacks.

The State Board has also shined the light of truth on world history; we recently passed a resolution for fairness and accuracy in regard to the coverage of world religions.  For example, one world history book, as presented for adoption, was filled with bias about our Judeo-Christian heritage.  Two of the greatest turning points in world history are the Jewish revelation of an omnipotent God that cares about right and wrong—monotheism—and the Christian Christmas story of the Incarnation. So, how biased is a world history book that does not mention Judaism or Christianity in its Table of Contents, while Islam is cited 25 times?  And, how can the origin of Christianity not even be mentioned in the introductory comments of relevant divisions and chapters of the book?

To complete the analysis of the President’ comments, we still need to deal with what the President meant when he said “science” has not “won the day”. We need to understand “science” as the left sees it. They see it as a substitute authority to replace God’s authority in our culture. Think of evolution and global warming. With evolution, they replace God, the creator, so that when a modern leftist man wakes up and looks at a beautiful sunrise, he doesn’t see the creation of a loving God, he sees Nothing—blind purposeless chance. With global warming, they use dogmatic science as an opportunity to impose their socialist schemes on our economy.

Tragically, the leftist version of science has occasionally “won the day”.  August 4, 2010, U. S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, citing scientific studies and rejecting thousands of years of human experience and wisdom, single-handedly and arbitrarily overturned California’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage—all in the name of science.  This is a clear example of the way the left uses science to undermine and do away with biblical authority and wisdom and the ability to think.

This is why our great victory in the science standard’s debate that restored scientific integrity is so important.  It will help our children understand what real science is and its proper role in society; it will help prevent its abuse in undermining God’s authority.

Finally, besides the government takeover of healthcare, of banking, and of industry, President Obama has initiated a federal takeover of education.  With the power of the printing press, the President has created federal funds in a “Race to the Top” competition that is basically coercing the states into adopting national curriculum standards.  All the gains that have been made in Texas education standards could be undone if Texas capitulates.  But, the Texas State Board of Education, the Commissioner of Education Robert Scott and Governor Perry have all rejected Texas’ participation in the “Race to the Top”.  Your votes in November and your political activism over the next several years are crucial so that Texas remains firm.

We need to remember to keep our elected representatives accountable—especially new State Board members. Because, in the final analysis, it is YOU who are the last best hope of earth; it is your activism that is the last best hope for keeping Texas’ new curriculum standards, which are the last best hope for American education, which is the last best hope for America, which, as Abraham Lincoln said, is the last best hope of earth.