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How Intelligent Design Advocates Helped Shape the Christian Right’s Texas Curriculum Standards

By Lauri Lebo

…regarding the long-term goals for our education system, playing out now in Texas. As board member Cynthia Dunbar, who opposes public education, has said, “the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will become the philosophy of the government in the next.” But what I found most fascinating about the piece is the explanation behind the religious right’s recent interest in the Declaration of Independence. Christian activists like David Barton…

Texas Board of Education to Review Intelligent Design-Promoting Materials for Science Classes

By Lauri Lebo

…you!) at this bit of news to come out of Texas yesterday. Apparently, the Texas Board of Education will be reviewing instructional materials for the state’s biology classes that tout creationism. The reason why I’m so shocked, of course, is because board members have assured us that they had no intention of trying to sneak creationism into science class. In 2009, when the board approved its revamped science curriculum standards that critics feare…

Pastors for Perry?

By Sarah Posner

…a report [pdf] prepared by the church-state separation advocacy group the Texas Freedom Network in 2006, Perry “clearly wants the thousands of pastors associated with the Texas Restoration Project to help him communicate with evangelical Christians and other conservatives . . . . Even his speeches at pastors’ briefings now sound much like sermons.” The report quotes Perry: “This I know,” the governor-cum-evangelist preached to approving pastors a…

Wendy Davis in Texas: Just Like a Prayer

By Christine Wicker

…g to stop passage of a law that would have closed most abortion clinics in Texas. Her voice was so soft that I kept thinking, “That voice cannot last for 13 hours.” But it did. She seemed so alone standing there. Talking. Talking. Talking. Always holding aloft in her small hands that bulbous microphone that must have became so much heavier with each passing hour. Perhaps I felt so strongly because she had to speak for so long. Or maybe it was beca…

Vaginal Ultrasound Required for Abortion in Texas

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…l problems with a pregnancy in the presence of certain symptoms. Except in Texas, where it’s also used to treat the malady of not being as opposed to abortion as some people wish you would be. Which is different from the way things typically work. Ordinarily, in this country, adults have the right to refuse a medical procedure without it thereby cutting off their access to other, basically unrelated, legal medical procedures. If you think that it…

Put Your Money Where Your Mind Is: A For-Profit Meditation Studio Opens in New York

By Michael Schulson

…age. His 2012 book, The Buddha Walks into a Bar, has sold widely. Over the phone, I asked Rinzler why he and Burrows had chosen to establish the studio as a for-profit company. “We really wanted to make sure we had all the resources we need for supporting people who are trying meditation for the first time,” Rinzler explained. Because they’re a business, there’s more professionalism. The teachers they’ve hired show up on time, and, as Rinzler put…

‘Dog-Cat’ Incumbent Reelected to Texas Board of Education

By Lauri Lebo

…should have seen a dog-cat, was elected to serve another four years on the Texas Board of Education last week. Mercer, a San Antonio Republican, remains one of at least five far-right conservatives who will be reviewing new material over the next two years. Nonetheless, the election results spell cautiously good news. The far-right Christian voting bloc on the 15-member board has dwindled. Voters have rejected several of them, including Don McLero…

Texas Congressional Candidate Clayton Trotter and the Principles in His “Hispanic Heart”

By Julie Ingersoll

…f Hispanics than his opponent, Charlie Gonzalez). He is also endorsed by a number of right-to-life groups, Eagle Forum PAC, the Texas Home School Coalition PAC, and the Independence Caucus, whose other endorsements include Joe Miller and Reconstructionist Star Parker. And given that his entire agenda is aligned, point-by-point, with the far right, the Constitution Party, and Christian Reconstructionists, one has to wonder what else is in that “His…

Kenneth Starr in the “Athens of Texas”

By Randall Balmer

…d of years, combined with an orchestrated scheme to tap into the wealth of Texas Baptists, would allow Baylor to embark on an ambitious building program and the recruitment of top-tier faculty from around the world. (Sloan’s point man for faculty recruitment and development at the time even initiated conversations about the possibility of luring my wife and me to Baylor as distinguished university professors.) Sloan overreached, however, and event…

Tinkering with Creation: Intelligent Design 2.0

By Lauri Lebo

…phrase buried in the curriculum’s general standards. Steve Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science said that the existing wording “strengths and weaknesses,” which were inserted into the standards during the late ’80s to appease creationists, may be exploited in order to insert educational requirements that present evolution as a controversial subject. Coincidentally, 160 miles north of the Austin conference room where the board will be debatin…