Focus on the Family’s Texas affiliate, Free Market Foundation, just sent out an end-of-year fundraising e-mail. (“Giving Liberals a lump of coal and Texas a future!” Groan.) Once again, the pi0us folks at Free Market show they apparently have a problem remembering that lying is a sin. (Maybe there’s some special dispensation if political fundraising is involved?) In a list of FMF accomplishments this year:
We won the Odessa Bible curriculum case, defeating the national ACLU attempt to create national precedent outlawing Bible courses across the country in public schools.
Well, no. As we pointed out in June, the ACLU of Texas and a group of Odessa parents weren’t trying to outlaw Bible courses in public schools. They were trying to force the school district to stop using a particular Bible curriculum that illegally promoted a far-right Christian fundamentalist perspective of the Bible over all other points of view. In fact, a TFN Education Fund report had already exposed the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools — which provided the classroom materials to the Odessa schools — as a far-right group seeking to turn our public schools into Sunday schools.
Contary to Free Market’s claims, the ACLU won when the school district agreed in mediation to stop using the National Council’s curriculum. But we don’t expect Free Market to retract its false claim. Raising money seems more important to them than telling the truth.
