In 2009, the Good News Club came to the public elementary school where journalist Katherine Stewart sent her children. The Club, which is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, bills itself as an after-school program of “Bible study.” But Stewart soon discovered that the Club’s real mission is to convert children to fundamentalist Christianity and encourage them to proselytize to their “unchurched” peers, all the while promoting the natural but false impression among the children that its activities are endorsed by the school.
Astonished to discover that the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed this—and other forms of religious activity in public schools—legal, Stewart set off on an investigative journey to dozens of cities and towns across the nation to document the impact. In this book she demonstrates that there is more religion in America’s public schools today than there has been for the past 100 years. The movement driving this agenda is stealthy. It is aggressive. It has our children in its sights. And its ultimate aim is to destroy the system of public education as we know it.
I assume that like me a lot of you have already seen evidence of this taking place, however in this book author Katherine Stewart has dug deep and unearths some truly shocking data that should make ALL of us, regardless of our religious affiliations, stand up and take notice.
Here are a few of the reviews this book has received:
“The author is a great digger for facts and a respectful narrator as she brings to light a group’s efforts to bring fundamental Christianity to U.S. public schools….In this fascinating exposé, investigative journalist Katherine Stewart uncovers what she asserts to be the hard truth about the Christian right’s “stealth assault on America’s children.” In “The Good News Club” (Public Affairs, 304 pages, $25.99), she investigates crusading evangelical religious missions disguised as innocuous after-school programs, beginning with one at the public elementary school where her children were enrolled in Santa Barbara, Calif.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Even those well-versed in the religious right’s attempt to Christianize American institutions will likely be shocked by The Good News Club. Katherine Stewart’s book about the fundamentalist assault on public education is lucid, alarming, and very important.”—Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism
“Please read this book, talk about it, tweet about it, recommend it to friends, review it on Amazon, name and shame the culprits, do everything possible to bring Katherine Stewart’s shocking message to the attention of everyone in America.”—Richard Dawkins
If you would like to purchase the book for yourself, you can do so by clicking here.
Remember the best defense against indoctrination is education.
When I was a kid in the early 1970s, this club was after school at someone's home. The club dissolved because the woman teaching it grew resentful about providing "free babysitting" for the other neighborhood moms. That's exactly what it was, too; a place to dump the kids while the soap operas were on (none of the mothers in my neighborhood worked). I'm wondering if now, when most women do work out of the home, it's marketed as affordable after-school care.
ReplyDeleteI suspect I already know most of this stuff, but thanks for bringing it to my attention. Despite my grudging childhood indoctrination in religion, I still find myself reading it, but now I choose all types. Maybe my husband would like it for Christmas and I can read it later.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly did Vashti McCullum fight for in 1948? We have to fight back and insist that ALL religious activities be kept away from public schools. Can you imagine if a muslim or jewish group tried to start an after school program at the local public school in "anywhere" USA?? People would be up in arms. Well, I feel the same way about the christians. KEEP OUT. Religion belongs at HOME or at in you house of WORSHIP! No where near a PUBLICLY FUNDED INSTITUTIONS which belong to ALL AMERICANS! Many whom are NOT CHRISTIAN.
ReplyDeleteYou know what it is, don't you? It's free daycare--that's the price we pay for being forced to work long hours, our children get indoctrinated.
Gryph, it's Veteran's Day. 11.11.11
ReplyDelete~Canuck~
Nope 11.11.12
DeleteEven as a Christian, this disgusts and enrages me.
ReplyDeleteYes me too.
DeleteOne of these met at our local elementary school. Thankfully, they were pretty quiet about it and disappeared w/in a year. Of course I live in "Librul America" vs. Jesustan.
ReplyDeleteThis club just showed up in our Hamilton County/IN elementary school this fall.
ReplyDeleteIN our small SE IN town, all it became was a place the young drug dealers could sell their drugs. The idiots who ran it had no experience in child care of any kind and were so fucking stupid that a closet in the classroom was used as a make out blow job room, and yes this was elementary school.
DeleteIt's like band camp, Christian camp, boy scout camp et al. Any place kids get together and are not properly herded by adults means trouble of several different kinds follow. Look for a few knocked up kids (and now a days even females as young as TEN can get pregnant).
For fun ... Watch Game Change on HBO Spanish channel.
ReplyDeleteSarah speaking Spanish is a hoot ....
THis sounds seriously bad for a person's blood pressure.
ReplyDeleteApparently, it isn't working if young people are leaving the churches in droves, as they should. After this election, I think we might be seeing the turning of the tide albeit slowly. I think the pendulum may have swung as far right as possible. Just in my small, conservative town, I have talked to many devout Christians who have abandoned their churches in disgust of the hypocrisy. Yes, they still believe in Christ, but they reject the man-made rules, pomp and circumstance, greed, and hypocrisy of the various churches. I see that as a good sign.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, WakeUp, I believe that while they are losing THIS generation, and some of every generation actually, they are going to want to try different tactics this next time around. Their brainwashing tactics are going to be even more harsh and one of the tactics they will seriously push is peer pressure! They will push even harder on teaching the children to hate and fear those who don't believe as they do!
DeleteWhile I hope that a turning point has been reached, I also seriously doubt enough of one has been made.
Fanatics don't give up! And fanaticism for ANY reason is dangerous!
I believe you are correct. A few weeks back, some kids in my daughter's school told her that she was going to hell, because she told them she doesn't believe in god. Eleven years old.
DeleteRight now, I am now a campaign to end the RCC infiltration of our public school system in Indiana. Indiana is one of those ridiculous abstinence only states. I refused to allow my 8th grade child to participate.
ReplyDeleteFirst the very idea that an ed program would ever take a position like abstinence until marriage (aka I will be a 30 year old virgin!) is neglect of their charge of education - it belongs right next to "Choosing a Career - how to buy a winning lottery ticket" if you look at the odds.
Second, we have a health/phys ed teacher. Why are we paying extra to an outside program?
Third, this program is from Franciscan Alliance, an RCC run hospital. The RCC, in regard to the Affordable care Act has been arguing that hospitals are part of their religious mission and should be exempt from covering reproductive health care aka birth control. In which case, this program is a direct violation as we are allowing a single religion to proselytize in public schools. I will be contacting the ACLU tomorrow.
What do you all think? suggestions?
8:09, personally I can't see how the RCC can claim it is part of their "religious mission" when they CHARGE for the services. Trust me on this when I say it is definitely NOT a charitable system!
DeleteAs to your final paragraph, ALL religious organizations - including the Boy and Girl Scouts (because of their intolerance for anyone not Christian!) or organizations like them - should be banned from all our public educational institutions. I further think that the distribution of funds for so-called Charter Schools should be stopped immediately.
If I can be told I MUST pay school taxes even though I have never had children, then ALL the funds collected in the name of public education need to be retained for public education.
I am being forced to pay for the support of the public schools. (I really don't have a problem with that since in the long run we are better off with a well-educated population.) I SERIOUSLY object, however, to paying for some child to go to some religious school. That is NOT separation!
Just another damned thing we can hang on George's neck. Too bad we can't use it to hang him!
And Scarah says Obama violates the Constitution!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for suggesting the book, just bought it. I looked online and it turns out there are a few of these "brain washing after school programs" in cities near me. The Americans for Separation of Church and State brought it out into the public view and since then there have been several articles about the group in local papers.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with kids going to this if their parents decide that is what they want, however when they are circumventing the parents that is a problem regardless of where the meetings are held........
We have freedom of religion, but we also have freedom from religion.
Check out this little documentary, which YouTube may soon pull down due to a bogus claim from “Mr. Bob” of the Good News Club in Raleigh NC:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aISnyA6k5Io