Poor Things
May 24th, 2005 at 8:23 am by Susie
This sounds so reasonable but it’s such horseshit:
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania school district violated the free-speech rights of a parent who was prevented from reading the Bible to her son’s kindergarten class, an attorney for the woman said on Monday.The parent, Donna Busch, has filed a lawsuit against the Marple Newtown School District near Philadelphia, claiming her constitutional rights were breached when a school principal stopped her reading from the Bible in a class last October.
Busch, of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, attended her son Wesley’s class as part of “Me Week,” which gave parents an opportunity to read aloud from their child’s favorite book.
The group that filed the lawsuit for her is the Rutherford Institute, better known as the group that represented Paula Jones against Bill Clinton.
Plus, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this was filed in the Marple-Newtown district, one of the few in the county with a sizeable Jewish population.
And finally, this is her kindergarten-aged son’s “favorite book”? Yeah, right. The psalm she attempted to read? It’s a victory procession over God’s enemies.
I have a kindergardner. As far as the bible being her child’s favorite book; one of two things (or perhaps both) is happening here.
1. It’s bullshit
2. The child is being manipulated
My kindergartner’s favorite book is “How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight”
this has got to be worth a few million in donations to the GOP via the extreme right. this will become the posterboy for liberal excess. postergirl, that is.
The school district needs to settle immediately for as little as possible.
Any mother who says that the Bible is her 5-year-old’s “favorite book” is guilty of child abuse.
If the murder, slavery, hatred of women, and utter meanness that populate the Bible — from its beginning to end — isn’t enough to creep you out, you should consider the content of Psalm 118. It advocates religious war.
The phrase “in the name of the LORD will I destroy them” occurs no less than three times, in a psalm that celebrates blind obedience to authority.
I am overcome by the creepy feeling I had when I first saw “Cabaret”, and watched the cleanly scrubbed, brown-shirted youth sing “The Future Belongs to Me.”
This woman, Donna Busch, is raising the next generation of Jihadists, only these ones will be singing “Onward Christian Soldier. “
Regardless of her partisan leanings, I think it’s unspeakable the way she’s using her kid this way. I felt the same way about the guy on the left who sued to get the words “under God” out of the pledge on behalf of this daughter. These are kids, not political pawns.
I’m glad the school board stood up to her, btw.
I think the school should have disallowed the reading on the grounds that it promoted violence and left the bible part out of it. All the other parents should have been asked to write letters requesting that their child be excused from listening on that day. Isolation adn humiliation are the ticket to opposing the reign of these theocratic nutcases. Alternatively, as a jewish mother, I’d have liked to be invited to sit in on that reading.
aimai
This one really stinks of manipulation. Psalm 118 is the giveaway. Who on earth would want to read that to kindergarten kids? What kindergarten kids could enjoy it or even understand what it means? It’s a violent war psalm, a crusading psalm.
Dona Busch would no doubt scream her head off if another parent wanted to read a text as violent that did not come from the bible.
My almost 5 year old’s favorite book is “Today I feel Silly”, except when it is “Where the Wild Things Are”. Her favorite bible story David and Giant, but then she already roots for the little guy.
My daughter is still remembered for an episode in church from when she was about 6 years old. At the children’s message the pastor was talking about reading the bible and she piped up “I have a book of bible stories at home!!” “Oh, good, that’s very nice.” Then after a pause timed perfectly for comedic effect, she replied, “yeah, but we never read it.”