This school has its roots in the Homeschool Legal Defence Association (HSLDA), which was started to help homeschoolers fight off legal challenges to their right to home school. The HSLDA publishes a newsletter, and it’s amazing how WHITE everything in the ads and pictures are. There’s one ad for some homeschooling thing that’s filled with little snapshots of happy homeschoolers. Every single one is white. The cover of the newsletter that trumpets the Joshua Generation shows a young, blond-haired Aryan looking off into the distance like any good propaganda poster. They try to avoid openly being racist, but I don’t know that there are ANY black students at PHC. The pictures, again, are even whiter than Bob Jones.

White and blinkered. Powerful and well-organized. It’s a heady mix that shouldn’t be fed on any open-minded society.

And all the people that say “if you don’t teach our kids the truth about science or evolution they will suffer in the world market.” I wish that were true, but it’s not, the market puts no premium on truth. And who’s controlling the rewards right now- people that are dogmatic, inflexible, partisan hosebeasts. I know a not small number of folks that have PhDs in molecular biology from prestigious universities that probably don’t believe in evolution, even though evolution informs everything that they work on, it just doesn’t matter to their daily life or success.

The atmostphere given off by this group is a gentried Victorian England with Ayn Randian heroes advancing the cause of Christ.

… to stop disparaging the school over its statement of faith affirming that salvation is by faith in Christ alone. […] he began promoting the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation.

Faith alone? Baptism? WTF? It’s deeds on earth, people … DEEDS. ON. EARTH.

… the school uses a standard science textbook, but the professor, […] tells students that the earth was created in a week.

“Students, please open your science texts to Chapter 12, ‘Darwinian Evolutionary Theory’. Tear it out! That’s right! TEAR IT OUT! Ok, on to the truth. Please turn to Genesis, page 1.”

“Students, please open your science texts to Chapter 12, ‘Darwinian Evolutionary Theory’. Tear it out! That’s right! TEAR IT OUT! Ok, on to the truth. Please turn to Genesis, page 1.”

O captain my captain!

O captain my captain!

I tried to google the exact quote, but I am one lazy sunovabumpass and gave up really quickly.

Well, it’s Walt Whitman, but in this context, it’s an allusion to Dead Poets’ Society.

Well, that explains it .. I had “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” in my search criteria.

I heard a report on NPR about Patrick Henry College a week or so ago. It was scary. These kids get a rigorous education in being right and staying that way, and they are well rewarded with jobs in positions of power from the now-entrenched conservative elites (to coin a phrase).How can you answer people who say that opening their minds to “relativism” or alternative views on any level will challenge their message, and that that’s a bad thing? Sure, hardly any one of us likes to be disagreed with; I think there are a few truly open-minded people who like to find out they’re wrong, but most of us enjoy the comfort of having our beliefs reinforced. But not to the extent that we feel personally threatened and refuse to entertain any other viewpoints. This claustrophobic, self-perpetuating cycle of insularity is not good for young minds.The most frightening part is that it’s true, they have nothing to lose in this increasingly fundamentalist world by sticking to these principles of “I’m OK, you’re going to Hell, and I’m gonna make it so there’s no place for you in this world.” Did you see (on one of your linked pages) the picture of the happy “Joshua Generation” kids who helped elect a Missouri senator (Talent)? They’re not old enough to vote, but they turned out in force to get the guy elected. (Yes, I have a problem with underage kids working on campaigns, though I’ve never admitted it before.) Anyway, it’s frightening to me to see this cradle-to-grave conservative-generating factory in action. Woe betide us all–seriously.

Faith alone? Baptism? WTF? It’s deeds on earth, people … DEEDS. ON. EARTH.
August, what do you mean? Fundies don’t believe in good works leading to salvation. Or were you being sarcastic, or maybe “eluding” (har) to something I’m not familiar with?

Oops, name was not August–that was the date, no name attached to that post.

Students read Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Locke, Shakespeare, Milton, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Beckett.

I wonder if that’s degenerate modernist playwright Samuel Beckett or degenerate homosexual papist St. Thomas a Beckett? Either seems unlikely for the Patrick Henry crowd (although St. Thomas a Beckett did advocate the authority of the church over the civil sphere).

I wonder if that’s degenerate modernist playwright Samuel Beckett or degenerate homosexual papist St. Thomas a Beckett?

I doesn’t matter that they read Beckett, it only matters that they read it with the express purpose of being taught that it’s categorically wrong.

Oops, name was not August–that was the date, no name attached to that post.

Lucy – I space out my name about half the time, I think. Sometimes I try to convince myself that I do it in case I hit “POST” before I mean to, so that no one knows I’m an idiot. However, given the content of my previous signed comments, that ship done sailed already. I don’t really like the “deeds on earth” argument, because it works against the “life of sin, deathbed repentance” philosophy that I subscribe to.

Awesome. I wish for you, then–if you have to go anyway–an expected death, so that you have a chance to put that into action. 🙂 And have fun in the meantime.

This whole exercise is about unwavering loyalty, not facts or conclusions based upon facts.

None of these nimrods gives a flying fig about evolution vs. creationism or baptism vs. confession or whatever. It’s about fealty. Will you go along without question? Yes, you’re in. No, you’re out.

Its a test, repeated over and over at multiple levels about facts that ultimately can be safely ignored without repercussion. We actually DID evolve? So what. You can live your whole life believing in the tooth fairy and it won’t matter a whit. Challenge gravity and you end up a red stain on the sidewalk, 100% of the time. And these wingnuts aren’t jumping out of buildings now, are they?

They puff and yammer about what they “believe”. They don’t actually believe any of this, not a word of it.

I found the newsletter cover I was talking about, with the nice blond youth looking off into the distance and the words “MOVING INTO THE LAND” beneath him.

McSweeney get’s it about right on a day in the life of a PHC student.

hehe, yeah, that’s the fly in the ointment – that pesky bus collision. I’m hedging my bets by trying to keep the sinning to stuff that doesn’t hurt anyone (that golden rule works great, as long as you’re not a sado-masochist), like not going to church on Sunday, and masturbation. In all truthfulness, I’m hoping that if there’s a jeebus waiting for me, I’ve lived the kind of life that’ll keep me out of those dang firepits. If he’s all that and a can of spam, he’ll know what’s in my heart, and won’t care about my avowed atheism, right? Ummm, I mean agnosticism, Big Guy .. err, latent Catholocism … oh, whatever it takes. On the other hand, I’m sure there are better pool players downstairs.

And all the people that say “if you don’t teach our kids the truth about science or evolution they will suffer in the world market.” I wish that were true, but it’s not, the market puts no premium on truth

I’d say the world market cares about bunk science and a lack of medical advances. First-world and up-and-coming nations will move on without us if the anti-science, anti-actual-medicine view takes hold. It’s just so idiotic that the proponents don’t see that.

These guys will never be anti-medicine. Big Pharma will always be looking for new drugs. What I am saying is that these people can be successful in practice, even not believing in evolution. They just operate on two levels, they have split personalities, everything they do at work is in one pile, and what they believe and teach their kids in another. The fact that the two things are in complete contradiction doesn’t matter- there are many things that are ligical contradictions, it won’t stop them from functioning. I wish it would, but it won’t. This is real life experience as a Ph.D. in a field that is completely based on evolution. You can get around a lab just fine.

I wonder if that’s degenerate modernist playwright Samuel Beckett or degenerate homosexual papist St. Thomas a Beckett?

It’s Sam Beckett. Not the playwright, but the lead character from TV’s Quantum Leap. Moving through time and space to restore the rightful order to the universe? Come on, that’s got Intelligent Design written all over it.

It’s Sam Beckett. Not the playwright, but the lead character from TV’s Quantum Leap. Moving through time and space to restore the rightful order to the universe? Come on, that’s got Intelligent Design written all over it.

LOL.

Graduates have gone on to plum jobs on Capitol Hill and in the White House.

but once they get to our nation’s capitol, then they’ll be exposed to lots of different ideas!
oh wait….

These guys will never be anti-medicine.

There’s only so far a country can go in medicine — actual science-based medicine — with a multitude of schoolchildren who are taught one type of faith as science.

But I know what you mean about Big Pharma. Ironically, I think concern about Big Pharma’s profits is the one thing keeping this country from making birth control illegal. Call me paranoid, or whatever, but it’s clear to me that profits are more important than health benefits. Guess we might luck out with that one.

I think concern about Big Pharma’s profits is the one thing keeping this country from making birth control illegal.

I hadn’t really thought of that. Orrin Hatch must be fighting internal battles that none of us can imagine. I guess that’s assuming his faith and belief in the mormon religion is as strong as he portrays, and that he’s not a hypocrite in any way … so nevermind.

The funniest thing about their “anti-relativism” stance is that science – specifically in this case the theory of evolution – has a much better claim to the title “absolute truth” than any of their religious dogma.

In fact, when you listen to fundie Christians complain about the theory of evolution, they all but invariably use the language of relativism – they talk about how scientists come to the evidence “with a preconceived notion of how the world works”, and the creationist’s view of how the world works should be seen as equally as valid as the scientist’s view.

Every time I hear a creationist all but quote Foucault, I am terribly tempted to ask them if they embrace his gay BDSM lifestyle along with his insistence that no metanarrative has a privileged claim to truth.

What really got me was this: “…a Loudoun County judge ordered former Patrick Henry College (PHC) employee Jeremy Hunley to stop disparaging the school…”

A Judge. I mean, it is Virginia, but presumably they still at least pretend that the First Amendment applies to everyone. Right?

Right?

I thought it was intersting a JUDGE told the MAN THAT WAS FIRED to quit disparaging the school regarding why they fired him.

Free speech anyone?

I noticed on their (home schooler’swebsite that they don’t believe in immunization. I hope that PHC doesn’t have a measles epidemic. I guess jeebus will save ’em.

I am puzzled what an anti-intelectual institution of higher learning can teach? Major in government? Theocracy 101, Theocracy 201 etc.? Bullshitting about baseball and solving crossword puzzle 102? Extorting lobbyists 204? Running pushpolls and soliciting money with scary messages 345?

Another puzzle: if salvation is by faith alone, why “bussiness casual” dress code?

Aristotle and Virgil are burning in hell, in eternal literal torment.

It must feel weird to read them.

I like how reletivism is the argument about whether faith in Christ or babtism in his name is more important.

I wouldn’t mind if this school was sucked into another dimenion. Have Cthulhu play with it for a while.

My work censor won’t let me access that link – for once I think they’ve got a point…

How does someone who believes the earth was created in a WEEK earn a PhD?

No wonder the rest of the world thinks the majority of Americans are mad, bad and stupid

This country was founded on a bedrock of religious tolerance, in stark contrast to what the first settlers were trying to escape from in other countries.

We’ve now come full circle.

Wow.

Sorry, I just can’t think of anything snarky to say about this one.

PHC is our own little American Protestant madrassa breeding our own little fanatics. PHC’s founder, Michael Ferris, was also involved in the Schiavo mess and is convinced that the autopsy was a “cover up.”

I think everyone is missing the strangest part of all of this. The guy was fired for thinking the school’s statement of faith wasn’t enough!

The school wasn’t strict enough in it’s adherence to certain “rules” (if you will) that in addition to having faith that Christ was sent to the earth to save us from our sins, you must also be baptized. Get it? He was more fundie than this fundie school!

As a member of the church of Christ, I have to wonder what this guy was doing working at this nutty place to begin with. Essentially he’s risking giving the impression that he endorses this college’s doctrine.

It is absolutely true that the church of Christ teaches that baptism is an essential step toward salvation – every example of conversion in the book of Acts includes it, and then there’s Paul’s words in Romans 6:1-6 (just to take two examples). It’s also true that we are, in some ways, even more “fundie” than the people running PHC – but OTOH we aren’t politically active as a church because there is no centralized organization (each congregation is autonomous).

I’m a card-carrying liberal myself, a real exception in the church. I’ll say without reservation that the folks at PHC are a bunch of wackos, and sadly my church has many of its own.

…MPE Graduate, Derrek Hofrichter, received a White House Political Appointment in September to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), where he is the “Confidential Assistant” to one of the five board members.
What’s a “Confidential Assistant”?

Look, the US had their turn ruling the world and they made a mess of it, so don’t you think it’s time for them to step aside and let some other country make a mess of their own? I am very encouraged to read about the prevalence of home-schooling, Christian Fundamentalists and Intelligent design in the States. The stupider they become, the easier it would be for China or some other country to take over the lead.

um, no “sickduck”. we are at the dawn of a new dark ages. these assholes are creating it.

as I read the comments I feel a lot of you folks are really angry but I can’t get a clear fix on whom you’re angry with. Your words seem to skip right over the heads of the subject persons and fly off into the Heavens. It seems to me that the root anger is directed toward God Himself.

It seems to me that the root anger is directed toward God Himself.

That might be the single stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

“I can’t tell who you’re mad at, so it seems to me it’s God”. Well, the first part was right anyway. Or at least less wrong, as I sense more bemusement than real anger. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

watchman may be trying for a “Golly, you liberals sure are filled with rage!” thing.

I wrote a ridiculously long comment that took up way too much space, so Brad edited it out. I’ll try harder in the future not to be so lame.

A’ight, Marie, that comment is much too long and is getting edited down…

Much, much better.

And the American Empire circles the drain…

Cindy Sheehan Is No Rosa Parks

Seeing how ?parroting? is part of the liberal pattern for disseminating information, let it suffice to say I am quite tired of hearing Cindy Sheehan being referred to as the ?Rosa Parks? of the anti-war movement.

What Mrs. Parks did was noble and took the textbook definition of courage. What Mrs. Sheehan is doing is prolonging her 15 minutes of fame in the name of her fallen war hero son.

?In 1955 Parks was forty-two years old, and she had taken to protesting segregation in her own quiet way ? for instance, by walking up the stairs of a building rather than riding in an elevator marked “blacks only.” She was well respected in the black community for her work with the Montgomery Voters League as well as the NAACP. The Voters League was a group that helped black citizens pass the various tests that had been set up to make it difficult for them to register as voters.?

Mrs. Sheehan was granted an interview with the President of the United States. Some foreign dignitaries have to book a meeting months in advance. I’d guess that Mrs. Sheehan was bumped to the front of any line, showing her the respect she then deserved. However, just because SHE now expects the President to drop everything just to see her shows an arrogance and selfishness that typifies liberal behavior.

Also, should she meet with the George W. Bush, will she accept a private meeting, or will she demand a public display where her originality-challenged supporters will be chanting decades old slogans tweaked so they at least rhyme, even though they may make no sense?

?As well as avoiding black-only elevators, Parks often avoided traveling by bus, preferring to walk home from work when she was not too tired to do so. The buses were a constant irritation to all black passengers. The front four rows were reserved for whites (and remained empty even when there were not enough white passengers to fill them). The back section, which was always very crowded, was for black passengers. In between were some rows that were really part of the black section, but served as an overflow area for white passengers. If the white section was full, black passengers in the middle section had to vacate their seats–a whole row had to be vacated, even if only one white passenger required a seat.?

Cindy Sheehan has suffered no inconvenience that isn’t of her own initiation. In fact, with all the supporters and sympathetic media on hand, there will be no creature comfort Cindy Sheehan will be denied.

?This is what happened on the evening of December l, 1955: Parks took the bus because she was feeling particularly tired after a long day in the department store where she worked as a seamstress. She was sitting in the middle section, glad to be off her feet at last, when a white man boarded the bus and demanded that her row be cleared because the white section was full. The others in the row obediently moved to the back of the bus, but Parks just didn’t feel like standing for the rest of the journey, and she quietly refused to move.

At this, the white bus driver threatened to call the police unless Parks gave her up her seat, but she calmly replied, “Go ahead and call them.” By the time the police arrived, the driver was very angry, and when asked whether he wanted Parks to be arrested or let off with a warning, he insisted on arrest. So this respectable, middle-aged woman was taken to the police station, where she was fingerprinted and jailed. She was allowed to make one phone call. She called an NAACP lawyer, who arranged for her to be released on bail.?

Unless she does something totally irrational, Cindy Sheehan is probably the last person in America that will be arrested. And again, if she is it’ll be because she really wants to be. Fits in with that “Look at ME!” mindset. Rosa Parks was making a political statement that was complete with physical risks. Cindy Sheehan will be afforded, should she subject herself to arrest (Mrs. Parks had no choice), the nicest private cell in the block.

Because of Mrs. Parks’ arrest, a very costly boycott of the bus company ensued and lasted for 382 days. Unless there is an infusion of capital for the usual liberal free-loaders, the Cindy Sheehan-Crawford sit-in may last another couple of weeks, tops.

?Parks was fined for failing to obey a city ordinance, but on the advice of her lawyers she refused to pay the fine so that they could challenge the segregation law in court. The following year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Montgomery segregation law illegal, and the boycott was at last called off. Yet Parks had started far more than a bus boycott.?

The Glass Ceiling

I’ve said many times how little liberals respect black people as they constantly use blacks whenever they can to legitimize their little hissyfits turned causes.

Placing Cindy Sheehan in the same league with Rosa Parks is an insult to the hundreds, if not thousands of blacks who have died before and after segregation. Mrs. Parks took an action and made a symbolic statement without the watchful and adoring eye of the media. If one wants to throw around the word ?courage?, let’s do it:

Mrs. Parks could have been killed for what she did. Cindy Sheehan has movie stars adoring her.

Cindy Sheehan is no Rosa Parks. There is no comparison.

posted by Bob Parks @ 8/12/2005 08:54:00 AM

Thursday, August 11, 2005
20k

Any time you can get 20,000 people to do anything, it’s important. Especially when it’s done without coordinated “hype” by publicists and the like.

Mike LaSalle over at Men’s News Daily suggested I do my own blog (probably because he was sick of having to re-do my constant Virgo-prompted revisions… :-D) and it’s been a blast thusfar. I have no idea how many people my columns have reached since February of ’02, but the many people who have visited this site since February of ’05 have validated this little project of bringing a different perspective to the world of politics and culture as we know it today.

A perspective given despite the ridicule of people who utilize the very hatespeech they claim to abhor; a perspective given despite their failed attempts to discredit anyone who dares disagree with them. I offer this perspective as I readily admit to relishing any opportunity to prove liberals oh-so-wrong time and time again.

To the many readers of Black & Right, I thank you.

And please forward this link on. We have many folks to reach….

Bob

posted by Bob Parks @ 8/11/2005 09:33:00 AM

Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Who Was Really Doing The Intimidating?

While Jesse Jackson, Harry Belafonte, and television Judge Greg Mathis went off on President Bush and Republicans during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 last weekend in Atlanta, it would seem these “activists” routinely talk first, while totally ignoring little things like… facts.

“It is indeed criminal to steal an election and within two years run up a federal deficit of half-a-trillion dollars, send our young people over to Iraq to die for an unjust war. What they are doing is criminal.”
Judge Greg Mathis

“In the state of Ohio, where they had fewer voting booths and long lines in minority neighborhoods and no lines and many voting booths in white neighborhoods, that the balance is not what it should have been.”

Damn, I missed the Marie comment.

Guess I didn’t miss Marie!

OK, Marie, I’ll let that one go. Thanks for keeping it relatively shorter.

Shorter? Still lame. I love that an e-mail screed which starts by inveighing against parroting ends by asking the reader to forward it to everyone they know. Classic.

Cindy Sheehan has suffered no inconvenience that isn’t of her own initiation

Well, apart from that whole dead son thing.

The name “watchman” is familiar to me. I think I remember someone by that handle sleazing around the Patriarch forums a couple of years ago.

What’s a “Confidential Assistant”?

it’s like Alotta Fagina, No. 2’s Italian Confidential Secretary.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118655/

It seems to me that the root anger is directed toward God Himself.

Root anger, toot anger, I’m filled with root-beer rage! God, if you’re up there, listen to my prayer and quell my rage.

THOR!!
Mighty god of the sky,
and the open spaces,
and the god of the particles,
and the god of the thunder and the lightning,
I call upon you to SMITE our enemies,
rend them limb from limb,
and if you have a chance, bless our food,
so that we may become hardy,
and that WE may rend our enemies limb from limb as well!

My rage is yet building. My root rage is burning. I’m uncontrollably shaking with rage.

I’m peaceful. I’m still. I have ROOT without anger. Thank you God.

You missed the best part — Patrick Henry College ISN’T EVEN ACCREDITED. You and I have as much degree-granting authority as PHC.

In other words, those students should be very thankful they have access to those internships, because their degrees aren’t worth shit otherwise . . .

Jesus H. Christ on a cracker (no offence, possums) but I was scrolling through this thread and then it turned in like the Bataan Death March of scrolling. I got dehydrated. Then I realized my sweet Marie!

Heads up, mateys! It’s a kamikaze attack! From the haunches of Marie issues forth a passel of wingnut smears, all hoping to take down a liberal on their way to a well-deserved death. Man the ack-ack guns!

It seems to me that the root anger is directed toward God Himself.

Huh. Couldn’t resist this bit o’ provocation. I submit that, as an atheist, I categorically cannot be angry with God, ‘cos I don’t believe there is any such being or beings. Anyone who would waste time being angry at nothing has much more serious mental problems that I possess. That way leads to batshitness.

What’s a “Confidential Assistant”?

That’s an Assistant that your wife doesn’t know you’re screwing on the side 😉

I’m cool with God, actually. (All of them, in fact.) As the saying goes, it’s his fan club that’s such a turnoff.
Marie, don’t you have, like, your own site to do this stuff on anymore? Or have you forgotten how to upload?

“…I was scrolling through this thread and then it turned in like the Bataan Death March of scrolling.”

Pinko, if we can’t compare Sheehan to Rosa Parks, the we certainly can’t compare scrolling this thread to the Bataan Death March.

Jeez, Marie. Won’t these liberals ever stop?

PHC, like every non-profit in America, is allowed to require employees to sign a Statement of Faith.* Jeremy Hunley signed this document even though he disagreed with it (either because he simply misunderstood it or falsely claimed to agree to it). When it became apparent to other staff that he did not believe as he had indicated, they asked if he understood what he had signed and asked if he would be willing to sign it again. He said he (now) understood the document and would not be willing to sign it again.

He was then let go because he would not sign a document necessary for employment at the college. I hope this clarifies the issue.

* If you disagree with this, then your argument is not with a “fundie” college but with the laws enacted and upheld by the founders, legislature and courts of the United States, i.e. the right for groups to form in order to promote their ideas. I think this has to do with freedom of speech, religion, dissent, etc.