Tracking the Religious Wrong


Excerpted from an American Civil Liberties Union report entitled The Religious Right in Washington, by Daniel Junas and Kathleen Taylor.

In the 1994 elections, over 40 candidates endorsed by religious right organizations were elected to the Washington state legislature, including Linda Smith, a longtime opponent of abortion and gay rights, and Randy Tate, a Pat Robertson delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1988.

Pat Robertson has advocated that Christians take control of society's key institutions:
"Expect confrontations that will be not only unpleasant but at times physically bloody... Institutions will be plunged into wrenching change... When it is over, I am convinced that God's people will emerge victorious."
Although Robertson's prophecies have not come true yet, Washington citizens may be surprised to learn of the following:

Creationism- In Mount Baker School District near Bellingham in 1992, a dozen students dropped out of a freshman Biology class because the teacher declined to include creationism (called "intelligent design theory" by its proponents) when he taught about evolution. The district allowed the students to take an alternative biology class taught at a church.

"Immoral" books- Washington state ranked in the top 10 states in requests for removal of books and curricula from the public schools during the past decade, according to a survey by People for the American Way.

Satan in the Schools- In Walla Walla in 1991, Citizens for Active Responsibility in Education challenged the school district's use of the elementary reading series Impressions, claiming that it included stories promoting witchcraft and that accompanying class exercises resemble the rituals of witchcraft. Lawyers for the Rutherford Institute, a national religious right legal foundation, threatened to sue the school district for promoting the religion of witchcraft.

The complete ACLU report, containing many more such instances and information on Religious Right groups, is available for $5. Call (206) 624-2184 for more info.

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Contents on this page were published in the December/January, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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