Brian Tashman's blog

The Texas Board of Education member who is leading the committee to review CSCOPE, a curriculum that has been the target of several right-wing conspiracy theories, told a Republican women’s group that his committee will “look at whether or not [CSCOPE lessons] treat the roles of men and women in a traditional way.”

Republican Marty Rowley also told the group that CSCOPE had “a definite leftist bent” but that it is not as left-wing as Common Core, promising to block “any opening or opportunity for Common Core to weasel its way into Texas.”

Like CSCOPE, Common Core has come under attack from conservative figures.

The comments were first spotted by Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, who notes that right-wing activists in Texas have consistently criticized textbooks “for including information on birth control, line drawings of self-exams for breast cancer and other content they found morally objectionable.”

“As folks began to look at those lessons what they began to see was there was a definite leftist bent to some of those lessons, particularly in the area of social studies and it became of great concern to folks, myself included,” said Rowley, R-Amarillo, during the Midland County Republican Women meeting Wednesday.

Rowley represents Midland as the District 15 SBOE member and was recently appointed chairman of an ad hoc committee to review the CSCOPE social studies curriculum this summer.

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“We have some specific criteria that we’re looking at (regarding the CSCOPE lessons). We’re going to look at whether or not they treat the roles of men and women in a traditional way. That’s part of the operating rules and things that we’re looking at,” Rowley said. “We’re going to look at whether or not they treat American exceptionalism in a particular way and whether they enforce the belief that America is an exceptional nation.”

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“I’ve looked through (the Common Core Standards) and it’ll curl your eyebrows. It’s not something you’ll enjoy reading. You think CSCOPE’s to the left, you ought to read Common Core,” Rowley said. “My concern is if we just say do away with this entire curriculum that 75 percent of our school districts use, they’re going to go shopping for something else. I don’t want to create any opening or opportunity for Common Core to weasel its way into Texas.”

• Michael Keegan @ PFAW Blog: Hypocrisy, McCarthyism & “Christian Persecution.” 

• Timothy Johnson @ Media Matters: Media Credulously Repeat Sen. Ayotte’s Claim To Have Voted For Background Checks. 

• Steve Benen @ Maddow Blog: With a whimper. 

• Alex Pareene @ Salon: GOP successfully scream “Benghazi” until people pay attention to them. 

• Good As You: One Million Moms seeks Mouse House’s mass discrimination.

• Joe.My.God: FRC: We Need “Divine Intervention” To Stop Gay Marriage In Minnesota. 

• Zach Beauchamp @ Think Progress: Harvard Historian Decries ‘Speech Police’ In Pseudo-Defense Of Homophobic Comments.

• The Minnesota State House today approved marriage equality legislation. 

• But according to Brian Brown, Minnesota’s marriage equality bill will cause “incredible social damage” and also “hurts the economy.” 

• Richard Land warns that if the immigration reform bill includes protections for same-sex couples then “most, if not all of us, would have to oppose it.” 

• The Family Research Council is asking people to pray for churches that “have abandoned the Bible” and “religious adversaries” like Mikey Weinstein, warning that “the worst can be averted only by national repentance and God-sent Awakening.”

• William Murray says what we have known for a very long time: “By backing Mark Sanford, or by saying nothing to stop his re-ascendancy, the social conservative leaders of the Christian right have declared that they are Republicans first and moral leaders maybe second, third or fourth.”

Liberty University professor Judith Reisman appeared on TruNews yesterday to speak with Rick Wiles about her latest venture: fighting against sex-education in Croatia. She told Wiles that George Soros has “brought in pedophiles from around the world” to the country.

According to Reisman, the debate over letting gays join the Boy Scouts all goes back to when Alfred Kinsey convinced the group to overturn its ban on masturbation, which she said is “one means, one very important way for men to seduce boys.”

“The Boy Scouts are up for grabs at this point in time, and I mean that in many ways,” Reisman said, to which Wiles replied: “literally.”

Reisman: It’s very serious and of course the Boy Scouts are up for grabs at this point in time, and I mean that in many ways. Wiles: Literally.

Reisman: Yes.

Wiles: Unfortunately, literally. This is what it’s all about; it’s about getting sexual predators into the Boy Scouts.

Reisman: Yes. That’s been an active campaign, as everybody knows, ever since forever. By the way it’s really interesting Dr. Kinsey himself was an Eagle Scout and he had groups of younger boys in his tent that he did reports on and he was the guy who wrote to the Boy Scouts to insist that their prohibition against masturbatory activity was just foolish, it was not grounded in anything at all sensible and we ought to get rid of it in their manual. And they did, thanked him and got rid of it in their manual. Of course that’s always been one means, one very important way for men to seduce boys, is to get them into that situation and to move in on them so to speak.

She concluded by talking about how sex leads to Communist-style tyranny. Reisman maintained that the “the drive for homosexual, bisexual, bisexualization of the children” is meant to make people become “controlled by their sexual lust.”

At that point, they will become a “slave population” who will lose their sense of right and wrong and “buy into the tyranny.”

Wiles: Is there a link in all of your years of research, is there a correlation between the sex-education movement and pornography to sexual deviancy and communism, Marxism; is there a connection?

Reisman: Yeah, certainly there is because when you have an enslaved population which sexual addiction and sexual pornography creates, a slave population, when you have a slave population, when you have people whose focus is by no means on anything upper air, they’ve given up their religion, you can’t have two masters, they are controlled by their sexual lust, when you have that kind of population, that kind of population will do anything to fulfill their lusts, their interests and they have no compunction about forcing other people to adhere to that. Part of that is the drive for homosexual, bisexual, bisexualization of the children, we see it reflected in child pornography and we see it reflected in what has become a whole industry of child sex trafficking, if that isn’t slavery I don’t know what is.

Wiles: So if a political ideology wants to subjugate an entire nation they must first break down that society’s moral code, break down its family, all of the social fabric that holds that society together because once they can get the people to depart from their moral code then their primal, physical desires will rule those people and they’ll do anything just to gain physical pleasure and that means allowing tyranny to rule over them.

Reisman: Absolutely. If tyranny allows them to do what they want to do sexually then they will buy into the tyranny, no problem at all.

On today’s episode of the 700 Club, Pat Robertson urged viewers to avoid false prophets and televangelists caught up in scandal. “By your fruits you shall know them, what’s their track record?” Robertson told cohost Terry Meeuwsen, “You can dominate somebody that way: I’ve heard from the Lord, I have a message for you, do this.”

Funny he should mention this, because just today we stumbled across an interview between Pat Robertson and televangelist Benny Hinn the week before the presidential election where Robertson bluntly informed Hinn that “the Lord told me” that Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama.

Not only did God inform Robertson that “Romney will win” but that he will be a two-term president who presides over a huge economic boom.

Robertson even told Romney to save him a ticket for the inauguration: “I told Mitt a long time ago, I called him and said listen, I’ve been in prayer and number one you’re going to win the nomination and number two you’re going to win the general election, he said ‘well what can I do for you,’ I said give me a seat on the platform during your inauguration, give me a ticket to your inauguration.”

“The Lord said he’s going to have a second term, I told him there will be to be trillions of dollars coming into the economy when you’re elected,” Robertson continued, “the stock market ought to boom, everything ought to boom.”

This all deeply reassured Hinn who said that Robertson was conveying “God’s voice.”

Watch:

Os Hillman of “Reclaiming the Seven Mountains” argues in a column today at Charisma News that conservative Christians can show love to the gay community without offering an “endorsement of a lifestyle” that is considered sinful.

He warns that Christians “fall into deception” and “embrace a life of sin” when they affirm gays and lesbians, whom he says are seeking “acceptance from the straight community, politicians and God.”

Hillman urges readers to befriend gays and lesbians but only so “they might embrace God’s love instead of Satan’s counterfeit love.”

Let’s face it: Jesus got a lot angrier at Pharisees than He did at those living a sinful lifestyle. When Jesus saved the prostitute from being stoned, He didn’t discount her sin; He just told her to “go and sin no more.” My guess is that if Jesus were living today, He would befriend gays to let them experience His love personally in hopes they might embrace God’s love instead of Satan’s counterfeit love.

The Christian community has failed to embrace Jesus’ model of helping and loving those who, in many cases, don’t think they need Christ or a different lifestyle than the one they live. We all believed that before we embraced Christ. Unfortunately, when we embrace a life of sin, no matter what sin it is, we fall into deception. Moral compromise always leads to deceit.

The gay community has adopted the position, “You will accept us whether you want to or not!” The community seeks acceptance from the straight community, politicians and God. The problem is, they want endorsement of a lifestyle versus acceptance of them as people deserving of mutual respect. There is a big difference between these two concepts.

Christianity cannot, nor should it, condone sin in whatever form it is expressed. However, no sin is worse than another in the eyes of God. God hates pride, religion, pornography, divorce and homosexuality. But He never hates individuals. He does hate sin.

In his WorldNetDaily column today, Erik Rush claims that President Obama likely “orchestrated the attack” on the compound in Benghazi “given his connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and legendary understanding of all things Islamic.” He offers no evidence as to why or how Obama “arranged for the assault on the compound,” but that’s par for the course at WorldNetDaily.

Rush cites the “Trinity United murders,” which according to far-right lore was Obama’s move to murder his former gay lovers he attended church with, as proof of Obama’s record of “grave criminal action.”

“Depending on the outcome, measures might be as severe as charges filed against Cabinet officials or the impeachment of Obama himself,” Rush writes. “While this president reasonably deserves to be occupying a cell in some federal penitentiary anyway, impeachment presents many troublesome aspects.”

But he warns that impeachment proceedings against Obama will “ignite civil unrest,” which Rush claims is actually Obama’s plan all along!

Earlier this week, Fox News Channel analyst Brit Hume asserted that for the investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, “to become the scandal it surely deserves to be,” it will require relentless news coverage.

Hume is quite right, of course; however, there is another requisite for definitive results to develop with regard to Benghazi, and that is the willingness of Congress to see the process through to a just conclusion.

And what would be a just conclusion?

I suppose that depends on two things: One, what is revealed in the hearings, and two, whom one asks. I have always leaned in the direction of the administration having orchestrated the attack for reasons of its own – given his connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and legendary understanding of all things Islamic, it is possible that President Obama could even have arranged for the assault on the compound without the foreknowledge of his Cabinet.

A bold charge, to be sure, but I am operating with such questions as the unresolved Trinity United murders before me. Then there are the possibilities that the tragedy came about as the result of less grave criminal action or a series of irresponsible and craven decisions.

The burning question at present (and which may remain so for some time) is why efforts were not made to rescue the beleaguered staff at the facility and whether or not a stand-down order was given to military personnel in the area. If the latter becomes the case, then obviously we want to know who issued the order. Depending on the outcome, measures might be as severe as charges filed against Cabinet officials or the impeachment of Obama himself. While this president reasonably deserves to be occupying a cell in some federal penitentiary anyway, impeachment presents many troublesome aspects.

A major reason Obama has skated for so long – and particularly with Republican leaders – is that no one wishes his or her legacy to include having brought down America’s first black president. There is the very real concern that such action might ignite civil unrest. The latter is a realistic concern, since both activists and the administration might catalyze said unrest as a “push back” to impeachment.

It is the job of Andrew Collins of the right-wing Media Research Center to watch shows like Glee and The New Normal, and then complain about them being too gay.

In his latest post, Collins attacks an episode of Glee for having a “particularly large dose of gay” and says that the high school is an insult to its namesake, President William McKinley, as it is “The World’s Gayest High School.”

“So many characters play for the other team it's hard to believe that there’ll be any future generations of McKinley High students to mock the Bible and cheer on transgendered [sic] performers,” Collins writes.

He goes on to lament that Kurt’s father stressed “the seriousness and permanence of marriage” when he told Blaine, Kurt’s off-and-on boyfriend, that he shouldn’t ask Kurt to marry him…because “his refusal builds the legitimacy of gay marriage even more.”

Pity William McKinley. Our 25th president was a Civil War hero who successfully prosecuted the Spanish-American War and presided over a booming economy. For his trouble, he was assassinated. Adding insult to injury, he’s the namesake of The World’s Gayest High School.

It’s no secret that “Glee” frequently and flamboyantly pushes a gay agenda. So many characters play for the other team it's hard to believe that there’ll be any future generations of McKinley High students to mock the Bible and cheer on transgendered [sic] performers. But as this season prepares to wrap up this week, things are heating up on "Glee." Last week’s episode featured a particularly large dose of gay.

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And finally, in the most overt display of all, Blaine asks Kurt’s father for his son’s hand in marriage. His father is all in favor of the institution, those who support gay marriage are on the right side of history, he says. However, he says no because, like most parents these days, he believes high school is a bit too young for someone to be proposing. If anything, his refusal builds the legitimacy of gay marriage even more because he emphasizes the seriousness and permanence of marriage.

Anti-gay activist John Stemberger is continuing to argue that sexual abuse will skyrocket if the Boy Scouts let in openly gay members. As evidence, he sites current statistics on the abuse that happens with the discriminatory ban in place.

While speaking to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on Washington Watch, Stemberger predicted that a policy shift in the Boy Scouts of America will “create a wave of boy-on-boy sexual abuse” as straight scouts will “be preyed upon” by their gay peers:

I think the national organization is just kind of winking and nodding, saying, ‘oh yeah, homosexual boys, no big deal, we can influence them for the better, boys are better off in scouting.’ Well wait a second, yeah homosexual boys are better off but what about the other boys who may be preyed upon? You know BSA’s own statistics show, their own youth training program shows that seventy percent of all abuse in scouting takes place by other boys, not by adults. So I’ve been saying from day one that this is going to create a wave of boy-on-boy sexual abuse which is going to contribute future to the scandal that scouting has had in the past and also not to mention the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of countless boys.

In a column yesterday, Rev. Mark Creech of the North Carolina-based Christian Action League warned that marriage equality will lead to “a flood of religious persecutions” and can only be stopped by reversing America’s “rapid decline into paganism.”

Writing for Alan Keyes’ Renew America, Creech argues that Christians will face “serious bouts with persecution” and be forced to “bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image” if same-sex marriage is legalized.

These events of late prove, without question, that the normalization of homosexual behavior in the culture and the legalization of same-sex marriage will inevitably usher in a flood of religious persecutions for Christians who dare say homosexuality is a sin. Touting as they have that gay rights are about civil rights, the LGBT community deceives the public into believing every born-again, God fearing, Bible-believing, follower of Jesus Christ is worse than an prejudiced Archie Bunker type idiot.

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Unfortunately, very few people understand why such persecution is inevitable for those who would reject same-sex marriage. The reason is because the legalization of gay marriage doesn't simply facilitate the ability of homosexuals to marry along-side of heterosexuals; instead it legally redefines the institution of marriage for everyone. No longer is marriage between a man and a woman, but between two adults – regardless of gender. Therefore, this presents a radically different paradigm resulting in a myriad of societal conflicts that government uses its broad enforcement authority to resolve. In other words, if citizen Christians with small businesses or Christian organizations and ministries are unwilling to comply with this new legal orthodoxy on marriage, then such are outside of the law and vulnerable to the government's coercive powers to bring them into compliance.

For many years, Christians in this country – one largely based on Christian values – have had it relatively easy and not experienced serious bouts with persecution. But that may soon change if America continues its rapid decline into paganism.

Don't be fooled. True Christianity is in no way compatible with homosexuality. And same-sex marriage is in no way compatible with religious liberty.

This writer is not conceding to the so-called inevitability of gay marriage. But his point is that regardless of what happens on that front, every genuine believer must always like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, purpose in his heart that he will not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image.