A ruling for Wilberforce Academy could let religious schools seek public charter funding despite state rules requiring charter schools to be nonreligious.
Oh, neat... so future generations of children will get the "wonderful" experience I did of being taught lies about science, history, and civics and finding out when they're adults that they weren't educated at all. Bonus points, they'll also learn to Other women along with other misogyny, if they're boys and be taught that they're lesser creatures only fit to serve men if they're girls, and both will be dealt a heavy load of body shaming.
Even in the Volunteer State, I fully expect an outcry from the local community about this, whereupon the FFRF will step in AGAIN to call them on their BS.
What genuinely galls me is: How many times have we seen crap like this happen? I can't keep count!
As a retired electrical engineer, I am INCENSED about this load of horse hockey. It disregards so many great discoverers, from Ben Franklin and Michael Faraday to the modern-day innovators of solid-state physics.
I remember the Cosmos episode where Michael Faraday was featured, and the phenomenal contribution to the understanding of electricity and electromagnetism he gave humanity. That whole series has more raw science in it than some classes I've been in, and it was produced brilliantly.
And yet I'd bet that there are a lot of the Religious Reich who never saw it nor heard of Neil deGrasse Tyson or Carl Sagan.
What are you talking about?! Dinosaurs bodies floating around after the flood made the Grand Canyon while Noah’s incestual daughters started repopulating the Earth a few thousand years ago is some of the most useful information I know, and I wouldn’t have learned that without my Christian school education.
Yer damned skippy, it's needless! And it deserves to be STOPPED. When religious practice leads to what amounts to mass death, it is no better than what happened at Jonestown. If the adults want to off themselves, that's one thing, but to involve the kids is beyond the pale.
That is the most pro-abortion-law state ever. Forget about abortion up to 9 months, they are going to 10 months or more.
Oh wait, Idaho is so anti-abortion that they want to check for pregnant women at the border. This shows how pro-life is not about the kids it's about controlling women.
It's interesting where we think the "lines of extremity" will be drawn, because with people it almost ALWAYS ends up even further toward madness than we had ever imagined.....
But going beyond checking for pregnancies at a state border (or even having such laws on state books) will be hard for even fascists to beat.
I would find it perfectly acceptable for Wilberforce Academy to open as a charter school if they do not discriminate on basis of religion in their hiring and student acceptance as well as not forcing students to follow religious rules.
I would bet that they would expel a student for being gay. They would expel a student for converting to Judaism. They would expel a student for not being the roght kind of Christian. They would expel a student for questioning Christianity. We know this from this bit of christianese:
The appeal should quickly shut down their nonsense. But I suspect they want to push it to SCOTUS in order to allow public schools to proselytize again.
If Wilberforce Academy is so convinced that Jesus is SO IMPORTANT to everyday life, one would think that private funding for its operation would be a no-brainer. Yet apparently not, and the WA fathers think that they can borrow from the public trough.
They need to be disabused of that notion ... and once again, we are reminded of what Ben Franklin had to say about religions and their funding.
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
Lovely. Yet another charter religious school looking for a handout of public monies, because reasons. Judge Atchley apparently thinks that because Tennessee was wrong ONCE with private religious schools, that they get to be wrong AGAIN with a charter school. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has already been all over this mess, and clearly, they won't stop.
Expect the usual waste of taxpayer money and court time to litigate something that should have been resolved ages ago.
Indeed. The Johnson Amendment needs to be reinforced and its office in the IRS fully funded. Enforcement of State / Church separation by law needs to be implemented on the federal, state, and local levels. Those who wish to violate that provision or play scofflaw need to see the inside of a courtroom, then the inside of a jail cell.
It is well past time the secular nature of our government was taken far more seriously than it has been to date.
And again, people who don't contribute to the tax base want to take the taxes. These charter schools don't exist because they want to contribute to society, they exist to make money. Dining at the public trough makes it even more profitable.
Oh, I guess I wasn't clear. I meant ALL charter schools exists to make money. But yes, the religious ones also want to indoctrinate children so they can make more money.
With all the MAGA meltdowns about one Muslim senator, claiming he will institute Sharia law (over the objections of 86 Christians, 10 Jews, and 3 others), the same people pushing for this Christian charter school woild be on our side if it were an Islamic school that wanted to open up.
The only Muslims to be concerned about are the fundamentalist extremists. The same as the Christians I am concerned about. And there are one hell of a lot more of the latter than the former here in these United States.
Here's the thing, too: there are mosques all over the US, yet not ONE to my knowledge has attempted to force Islam or Sharia on ANYONE, and were they to try, the reaction would be swift and possibly violent in some cases.
These people SHOULD stop watching Faux Noise and maybe give NPR a try, not that they will. 🤷♂️
No tax dollars for religious education. I had a religious education for 11 years. I didn’t realize how stunted it was until I wrote a book report on Les Miserables, it wasn’t accepted because it didn’t have the popes imprimatur. I’d never heard that before. The Catholic Church had a prescribed list of books. That’s not education.
Oh, neat... so future generations of children will get the "wonderful" experience I did of being taught lies about science, history, and civics and finding out when they're adults that they weren't educated at all. Bonus points, they'll also learn to Other women along with other misogyny, if they're boys and be taught that they're lesser creatures only fit to serve men if they're girls, and both will be dealt a heavy load of body shaming.
So... so... rage inducing...
Even in the Volunteer State, I fully expect an outcry from the local community about this, whereupon the FFRF will step in AGAIN to call them on their BS.
What genuinely galls me is: How many times have we seen crap like this happen? I can't keep count!
Speaking of lies about science:
https://ibb.co/ksyK0Z0n
As a retired electrical engineer, I am INCENSED about this load of horse hockey. It disregards so many great discoverers, from Ben Franklin and Michael Faraday to the modern-day innovators of solid-state physics.
This kind of crap positively disgusts me.
I bet the average fourth grade student could correct this ignoramus.
I remember the Cosmos episode where Michael Faraday was featured, and the phenomenal contribution to the understanding of electricity and electromagnetism he gave humanity. That whole series has more raw science in it than some classes I've been in, and it was produced brilliantly.
And yet I'd bet that there are a lot of the Religious Reich who never saw it nor heard of Neil deGrasse Tyson or Carl Sagan.
What are you talking about?! Dinosaurs bodies floating around after the flood made the Grand Canyon while Noah’s incestual daughters started repopulating the Earth a few thousand years ago is some of the most useful information I know, and I wouldn’t have learned that without my Christian school education.
Religion picking the pockets of taxpayers yet again. What happened to praying to get what's needed?
In far too great seriousness, this Propublica about infant (and youth) deaths, perfectly LEGAL in Idaho.
There's a trigger warning. I wish I''d observed it. (I didn't get far...)
"Children in a Faith-Healing Sect Keep Dying. The State Lets It Happen."
https://www.propublica.org/article/faith-healing-idaho-deaths-followers-of-christ?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Brutal people, and a difficult article.
"This is needless."
Yer damned skippy, it's needless! And it deserves to be STOPPED. When religious practice leads to what amounts to mass death, it is no better than what happened at Jonestown. If the adults want to off themselves, that's one thing, but to involve the kids is beyond the pale.
That is the most pro-abortion-law state ever. Forget about abortion up to 9 months, they are going to 10 months or more.
Oh wait, Idaho is so anti-abortion that they want to check for pregnant women at the border. This shows how pro-life is not about the kids it's about controlling women.
Hi Tinker,
It's interesting where we think the "lines of extremity" will be drawn, because with people it almost ALWAYS ends up even further toward madness than we had ever imagined.....
But going beyond checking for pregnancies at a state border (or even having such laws on state books) will be hard for even fascists to beat.
𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝐴𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑠, 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝐷𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑠.
I would find it perfectly acceptable for Wilberforce Academy to open as a charter school if they do not discriminate on basis of religion in their hiring and student acceptance as well as not forcing students to follow religious rules.
I would bet that they would expel a student for being gay. They would expel a student for converting to Judaism. They would expel a student for not being the roght kind of Christian. They would expel a student for questioning Christianity. We know this from this bit of christianese:
𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑠 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡, 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐻𝑖𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝐻𝑖𝑚 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚.
The appeal should quickly shut down their nonsense. But I suspect they want to push it to SCOTUS in order to allow public schools to proselytize again.
If Wilberforce Academy is so convinced that Jesus is SO IMPORTANT to everyday life, one would think that private funding for its operation would be a no-brainer. Yet apparently not, and the WA fathers think that they can borrow from the public trough.
They need to be disabused of that notion ... and once again, we are reminded of what Ben Franklin had to say about religions and their funding.
Time for this one (again):
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
Benjamin Franklin
Thanks. Feeling a bit lazy today, otherwise I would have posted it.
Me too. It was actually my first thought when I read the article.
I figured everyone knows it by now and can recite it in their sleep. :)
Lovely. Yet another charter religious school looking for a handout of public monies, because reasons. Judge Atchley apparently thinks that because Tennessee was wrong ONCE with private religious schools, that they get to be wrong AGAIN with a charter school. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has already been all over this mess, and clearly, they won't stop.
Expect the usual waste of taxpayer money and court time to litigate something that should have been resolved ages ago.
It should have been resolved December 15, 1791 when the Bill of Rights was ratified.
But-but-but ... muh beliefs!
Civics would be nice....
But if even Christianity seemingly can't convince people that other people matter just as much to them as each of us do to ourselves, what good is it?
That's the lesson humanity needs to learn...somehow.
Humankind has a LOT to learn. Sadly, there is a significant contingent of Homo sapiens that thinks they don't NEED to learn.
That, all by itself, is a disturbing thought.
I got nothing this morning. If the new Congress does not do something, then the last election will simply be performative anti-piety.
We must have a separation of church and state that is meaningful, one that cannot be contravened.
Indeed. The Johnson Amendment needs to be reinforced and its office in the IRS fully funded. Enforcement of State / Church separation by law needs to be implemented on the federal, state, and local levels. Those who wish to violate that provision or play scofflaw need to see the inside of a courtroom, then the inside of a jail cell.
It is well past time the secular nature of our government was taken far more seriously than it has been to date.
And again, people who don't contribute to the tax base want to take the taxes. These charter schools don't exist because they want to contribute to society, they exist to make money. Dining at the public trough makes it even more profitable.
They exist to make money AND INDOCTRINATE KIDS! And the kids deserve BETTER than that.
Oh, I guess I wasn't clear. I meant ALL charter schools exists to make money. But yes, the religious ones also want to indoctrinate children so they can make more money.
Indoctrinating the kids makes it easier to continue the grift. The 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆 deserves better.
With all the MAGA meltdowns about one Muslim senator, claiming he will institute Sharia law (over the objections of 86 Christians, 10 Jews, and 3 others), the same people pushing for this Christian charter school woild be on our side if it were an Islamic school that wanted to open up.
What a bunch of scared little grown-up children! [TS shakes his head and groans.]
The only Muslims to be concerned about are the fundamentalist extremists. The same as the Christians I am concerned about. And there are one hell of a lot more of the latter than the former here in these United States.
Here's the thing, too: there are mosques all over the US, yet not ONE to my knowledge has attempted to force Islam or Sharia on ANYONE, and were they to try, the reaction would be swift and possibly violent in some cases.
These people SHOULD stop watching Faux Noise and maybe give NPR a try, not that they will. 🤷♂️
If you'd spent your entire life investing in IBM....
Would you be willing to just suddenly throw it all away?
Same with Christians and Christian-motivated hate.
Fox News viewers are less informed than people who don't get the news.
They are also losing a lot of viewers.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/02/media/fox-news-ratings-drop-murdoch-trump-midterms
No tax dollars for religious education. I had a religious education for 11 years. I didn’t realize how stunted it was until I wrote a book report on Les Miserables, it wasn’t accepted because it didn’t have the popes imprimatur. I’d never heard that before. The Catholic Church had a prescribed list of books. That’s not education.
Tax all religious institutions. Wanna play? Then you pay. No more free rides.
Let's find even more ways to dumb down our population. Great idea!
Didn't "Wilberforce" marry some duchess on Downton Abbey?
Weed copters out in full force already this morning. (As the first freezing day approaches.)
Hard to sleep.
Guess I need to smoke more.....
(Actually, low grade hemp is perfectly legal in SC, and they can do some great stuff with it!)
Early OT
Saluting all my fellow veterans today wherever you served, whenever you served and however you served.