Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
The always-thoughtful and compassionate spokesperson of the American Family Association, Bryan Fischer, blaming the Connecticut school shootings on there being no government-forced prayer in public schools.
In 1962 we kicked prayer out of the schools. In 1963 we kicked God’s word out of ours schools. In 1980 we kicked the Ten Commandments out of our schools. We’ve kicked God out of our public school system. And I think God would say to us, ‘Hey, I’ll be glad to protect your children, but you’ve got to invite me back into your world first. I’m not going to go where I’m not wanted. I am a gentleman.’
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David Barton, arguing that gun-control talk in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting runs counter to “the biblical right of self defense” in which citizens are free to arm themselves with the same weapons their government does.
In the case of the American Revolution, if the Founding Fathers had not been able to take on that illegal British government coming … so for them, it is not a matter of you have too many bullets in your magazine, it’s not whatever the government’s got, we have got to have the same thing. Because if they have an AK-47 and we only have a bb gun on the inside, then that is not a deterrent. The whole purpose of the Second Amendment is to make sure that you have equal power with whatever comes against you illegally. So at that point that’s gotta control the gun control debate.
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U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s contention that teachers with concealed gun permits should be allowed to carry weapons in schools.
So the notion that more Americans . . .in the words of Gov. Perry, ‘packing heat,’ will make us safer is not founded in reality, facts, or history; it is founded in the fantasy of testosterone-laden individuals who have blood on their hands for articulating that idea.
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Steven Hernandez, father of a San Antonio-area high school student who refused to wear the radio frequency identification tags inserted in student badges at the school, claiming it is a sign of submission to the Antichrist as described in the Bible’s Book of Revelation.
In this case, Northside is the Antichrist.
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Columnist Emily Timbol, addressing arguments that prayer in school would have prevented the Connecticut massacre.
There was prayer in school during segregation. There was prayer in school during miscegenation. There was prayer in schools just a year before the assassination of JFK. Prayer in school is not a cure-all, easy answer to evil.
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Lindsay Gustafson of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association on a new private school voucher scheme proposed by state Sen. Dan Patrick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. The plan would allow private schools receiving taxpayer money to skip the school accountability measures public schools must meet.
You don’t even know that this is a better ‘opportunity’ for these students that you’re picking out. Why aren’t we fixing the schools as a whole for all children.
“There was prayer in school during segregation. There was prayer in school during miscegenation. There was prayer in schools just a year before the assassination of JFK. Prayer in school is not a cure-all, easy answer to evil.”
Texas Fundie: Naw. Weez ones knows that. Weeuns is jist a tryin’ so hard to save our fundamentalist churches. We gotta recruit keeyuds early on like so theyuns can grows up with whut weez a tawt’em in skule so theyuns’ll be a comin’ to our churches lader own and be a savin’em.
Chsrles: Sorry. Not on our watch. If fundamentalist churches need to be saved, you need to be out knocking on doors Wednesday night and having respectable white folks slamming them in your faces.
Texas Fundie: Yooz ones ain’t a understandin’ is ya? Weez ones is already a gitin’ nearly every dang door slammed in our faces on Wednesday nights. Emmuns air is a big part of why we needs a savin’!!!
Charles: Great crowds followed Jesus on Wednesday night. If no one follows you on Wednesday night, maybe you need to leave the schools alone and ask youself a question:
“How is it that my beliefs and behavior are so UNLIKE JESUS that people slam doors in my face?”