A middle school teacher in Texas is no longer employed after a video posted on social media showed him telling students his race is “superior.”
“Deep down in my heart, I’m ethnocentric, which means I think my race is the superior one,” the teacher was recorded telling students of various races last week inside a classroom at Bohls Middle School, a sixth- through eighth-grade school in Pflugerville, about 18 miles northeast of Austin.
“I think everybody thinks that,” the teacher says. “They’re just not honest about it.”
The remark appeared to be directed at two Black students. Some students challenged the teacher. One student says: “I’m not racist though. I like all types of kinds.” The teacher responds, “Did I say I don’t like people?”
Another Black student asks the teacher: “Wait, so you said you are what? You are a racist?”
“I think everybody is a racist at that level,” the teacher responds. The same student tells him: “No. But you said you are a racist.”
“I did. I did,” the teacher said. A pair of Black students then told the teacher that they no longer had respect for him.
Ethnocentric? More like butthole bigot to me. The story goes on at the link. Thankfully, the school district fired his racist butt. It’s one thing to think such things; it is another entirely to say them out loud.
Now, I could go on about how this a sign of the Republican Party under Donald Trump and all that stupid nonsense. But, truthfully, I believe this a bad case of someone speaking, when he should keep his damned mouth shut and speaking without really engaging his rather small pea brain.
Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders.
She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older.
In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take action against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers. Vasquez, by then in her 40s, implored them to consider prevention policies like those adopted by faiths that include the Catholic Church.
“Listen to what God has to say,” she said, according to audio of the meeting, which she recorded. “… All that evil needs is for good to do nothing. … Please help me and others that will be hurt.”
Days later, Southern Baptist leaders rejected nearly every proposed reform.
The abusers haven’t stopped. They’ve hurt hundreds more.
This story is a personal for me and it does hit home quite a bit. When I was 9 years old; a man, who is now deceased, attempted to molest me in a Independent Baptist Church’s School. This school has been closed for many years. But, the mental scars from this, have never left me.
The Pastor of this now defunct Baptist Church ended up resigning in disgrace over an adultery scandal. What I will say to those conservatives who will dismiss this as an attack piece of Christians, is this: This story is very true and it is one that I know too well about. The abuse, the attempt to cover it up and put blame on the victim are all too real.
The sad part is that there is not much that the Southern Baptist Convention can do about it. As the bylaws of the SBC are designed as such, that the SBC is merely a Missionary Organization and does not control their local Churches. It is simply a missionary support clearing house, of sorts.
My prayers are with these victims and their families. I know the pain, I have been there and it is very terrible.
You may recall the recent post here revealing that Highlights For Children, the venerable magazine, had come under fire from SJWs for its policy of not featuring families headed by gay couples in the magazine, out of a willingness to allow parents of the magazine’s young subscribers the opportunity to talk to their children about homosexuality as they considered appropriate.
Well, the SJWs got their scalp. A reader forwarded me the correspondence between herself and the magazine around the issue. She kept writing, trying to get a straightforward answer about whether or not the magazine was going to feature same-sex families. Finally, out of frustration, she cancelled her family’s subscription, and told the magazine, “I think Highlights should continue being what it is and leave conversations about this sort of thing up to families.
This is the e-mail she got back:
Dear [Name],
Thank you for your message, and I’m sorry that we were slow to respond.
Although I see that you have already canceled your subscription, I thought it still important to answer your questions about what Highlights means when we say we plan to be more fully reflective of all families, including families with same-sex parents.
As you know, Highlights publications focus on kids. We are general interest magazines, and we publish fiction and nonfiction of all types, as well as games, puzzles, jokes, and crafts. Our target audience is kids under the age of 12, most under the age of 8 or 9.
The themes we cover in our magazines are broad and universal—relatable to children trying to navigate childhood. Because children are our focus, we rarely show a full family in our illustrations, instead focusing on showing the child the reader relates to. When a parent is shown or integrated in a story, it is frequently just one parent because a good 800-word children’s story cannot support too many different characters.
When we do show families in the magazines, we make it a point to include diversity. We strive to be diverse in every way. The goal, however, is not to specifically call attention to diversity but instead to help kids understand that while differences exist, we are all actually more alike than different. For instance, from time to time we show families headed up by a grandparent or single parents. We show adoptive families, blended families, multi-generational families, and multi-racial families. In the future, we will depict same-sex families in our magazines in a manner consistent to the way all diverse families are depicted. This is in support of our mission to help children become their best selves and understand that all families, including theirs, are important.
We’re sorry to lose you as a subscriber, but I hope this email helps to clarify our position.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A chapter of a nationally-recognized Christian group that seeks to reach children with the gospel of Jesus Christ is under fire for teaching kids the biblical doctrine of sin and eternal judgment, in addition to sharing about the love and mercy of God.
The Portland chapter of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is facing resistance from some area residents as they conduct voluntary summer camps in the area and plan on hosting after-school Bible studies in local public schools. The problem? CEF teaches children that each person is a sinner in need of the Savior.
Those who oppose the group assert that because of this, CEF does not present “Jesus loves you” mainstream Christianity, and claim that the organization is “hardcore evangelical fundamental.”
“They pretend to be a mainstream Christian Bible study when in fact they’re a very old school fundamentalist sect,” resident Kaye Schmitt told local television station KATU.
[….]
Robert Aughenbaugh also told reporters this week that preaching to children about sin might give them feelings of fear and shame.
Aughenbaugh, Schmitt and others have organized a group called Protect Portland Children, which seeks to speak out against CEF’s message and influence parents not to allow their children to attend its events. It has set up a Facebook page that has so far generated over 800 likes. It’s profile photograph is of a child holding a sign that reads “I am not a sinner.”
[….]
[The] curriculum teaches young children that they’re born sinners, bound for eternity in hell unless they obey the club’s teachings,” the group asserts.
“Before the Portland public schools allow ‘The Good News Club’ to use school facilities or to promote their activities on campus it would seem appropriate to allow mental health professionals to further investigate the activities of this group,” wrote Chuck Currie of the United Church of Christ in a recent blog post about the matter.
[…]
But CEF says that it is not teaching anything outside of the basic and fundamental truths of the gospel—and that mankind must understand the bad news to know why the good news is so good.
“Listen, the message of the gospel the teaching of the core Christian tenets of the Christian faith that have been taught for 2,000 years in the Bible is what we’re teaching,” CEF Vice President of Ministries Moises Esteves told local television station KOIN. “There’s nothing new here.”
The group has partnered with over 30 area churches to present its evangelical outreach to youth in Portland.
“We do teach about sin,” Esteves stated, “[But] we’re not nasty. We’re not high pressure. We’re not negative, but we teach what the Bible teaches that every human being is a sinner in need of a savior.”
Reporters observed the group in action on Wednesday, singing John 3:16 with the children in attendance, which reads, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
My friends, we are, in fact, living in the last days. Israel is at war, our Nation is being overran; war is imminent with Russia, the economy is teetering on disaster — Now there is this; Christ’s servants are being persecuted for sharing the timeless gospel to children.
Here on display is cultural Marxism in its purest form:
Editor’s note: Michael MacKenzie is an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. His research involves stress and risk in early parenting and the effects and reasons behind children going into and through the child welfare system.
(CNN) — In my first job in high school stocking the shelves with fresh produce at the grocery store, I often saw parents struggling with misbehaving children. Some would scream, while others would spank their kids.
It was always awkward to witness, because I felt sympathy for both sides. Were the children choosing to act out because the parents were busy and stressed buying food? But surely the parents could think of a better way to handle a defiant child?
I’m now a researcher at the Columbia School of Social Work and a specialist in child welfare, and I have just completed a study of this very issue. Columbia colleagues Eric Nicklas, Jane Waldfogel and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and I published findings in the journal Pediatrics (PDF) this week showing that the children who are spanked by their parents are at greater risk for later problems in both vocabulary and behavior.
We found that children who were spanked by their mothers at age 5, even relatively infrequently, went on to have higher levels of behavior problems at age 9, even after taking into account other family risk factors that also affect child behavior. Given the chicken vs. egg cyclical nature of this, we also controlled for earlier problems with the children to ensure that it wasn’t just that kids who acted out were simply being spanked more.
Everytime I see one of these articles, I think of this Gospel tract by Jack Chick:
Click the image to read “Bad Bob”
The Bible says plainly:
Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. (Proverbs 19:18 KJV)
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. (Proverbs 13:24 KJV)
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. (Proverbs 22:15 KJV)
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. (Proverbs 23:13-14 KJV)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1-4 KJV)
I think that pretty much speaks for itself.
How this relates to me: Folks, let me tell you something; when I was kid, I got spanked, it was not an everyday thing with me. Because pretty much, when I was told to do something, by my parents; especially my Mother — I did what I was told, because if I didn’t, I knew what I would get! My butt tore up by my Daddy or my Mother.
I also will tell you something else too: I got spanked in school too! Yes, I went to private schools folks; and when I needed it, I got spanked by the principle. Again, with me, it was not an everyday thing. Because I usually did what I was told.
So, when I read these articles stating just how “horrible! Terrible! Arrrgh! ELEVENTY!!!!1111” it is to spank a child, I just have to laugh about it; and I also have to think about our jails and juvenile centers that are overcrowded and wonder just how those people would have been different, if they had parents, who actually disciplined their kids?
Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School.
The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as “pansexual” and “genderqueer.”
Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date.
“She told me, ‘Mom we all get teased and picked on enough. Now I’m going to be called a lesbian because I had to ask another girl if I could kiss her,'” parent, Mandy Coon, told reporters.
Coon says parents were given no warning about the presentation and there was no opportunity to opt-out. Both the school principal and the district superintendent are defending the workshops and advising they will schedule more.
“The school is overstepping its bounds in not notifying parents first and giving us the choice,” another parent said. “I thought it was very inappropriate. That kind of instruction is best left up to the parents.”
“I was absolutely furious — really furious,” a parent who asked to remain anonymous told reporter Todd Starnes, “These are just kids. I’m dumbfounded that they found this class was appropriate.”
Superintendent Paul Finch told The Poughkeepsie Journal the presentation was “focused on improving culture, relationships, communication and self-perceptions.”
“We may require more notification to parents in the future,” Finch said
One simply word comes to mind: Unbelievable. One word folks: Home-School. I did it, and so should every parent today. Because the public school system has just become too evil to send your children to it anymore.
Trust me on this: If the Tea Party had stood in a circle and made a little black boy dance for them, it would have been The Racist Event of the Century. But here — it’s perfectly OK. Move along, nothing to see.
