…try indoctrination.  There really is something sad, and altogether frightening, about stuff like this.  Granted, many of these children will grow up and realize what this man is doing is wrong, but in the mean time you will have a bunch of children being taught that disruption and disrespect are OK as long as you have God on your side.

Apparently, all it takes to get one of the most well-known musicals and one of the greatest plays about the 20th century banned from a high school is three lousy complaints.  First, let me say that I have never understood how Grease made it onto high school stages.  It’s a bit on the risque side and is really meant for a more mature audience; however, I have often seen it performed in high schools and on college campus with cleaned up dialog that doesn’t take away from the overall fun.  Apparently, that’s just not enough for three people from the Callaway Christian Church congregation.  Now, to avoid bogging the school down in controversy, the Fulton school superintendant has also banished The Crucible!  The Crucible, Arthur Millers searing indictment of the Salem Witch Trials and an allegory the McCarthyism of the time, is the perfect kind of play to be shown in a high school.  Especially these days when political discourse and disagreement is equated with terrorism.  Unfortunately, the school’s superintendant is too scared to allow the play to be shown.  Shame on him.  Three lousy complainers should not have this much control over a school.

When one of the most conservative Popes in recent years finds no problem with reconciling faith and science you have to wonder why it’s so difficult for Conservative American Catholics and Protestants to embrace the same thing.  I’ve spent my entire life as a believing Christian, yet I have never had to the sort of faith crisis so many Christians seem to have when it comes to Evolution, the Big Bang, stem cells, etc.  Just because science has explained no much about our world, or galaxy, and to some extent the universe we inhabit does not necessarily mean there is no God.  In many ways it’s easier to believe in a higher being when you think about the vastness and wonder of the universe.

In my opinion, it comes down to being scared.  So many Christians get bogged down in a literal translation of the Bible.  They refuse to believe the Earth is more than 6,000 years old even though accepted scientific evidence proves otherwise.  They refuse to believe dinosaurs roamed the earth even though we have the bones to prove it.  I’ll admit it’s hard to accept we may have descended from cosmic goo, but that doesn’t mean we should shun science of all forms.  That’s just backward thinking.  Unfortunately, and here I may get in trouble, it’s been my experience that many Christian leaders don’t want a knowledgeable flock.  A knowledgeable flock is less likely to take whatever they say at face value.  A knowledgeable flock is more willing to question.  This is really a shame because religion and science could accomplish so much together.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I am unabashed fan of Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody Mysteries.  They are a mixture of archeology, Victorian mystery, and a lot of fun to read (and listen to if you’re into audiobooks).  Peters is a pseudonym of Barbara Mertz who is herself an archaeologist with a PhD from the University of Chicago’s renowned Oriental Institute.  When I read recently about the intact tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings, the first in 84 years, the first thing I thought of was how Ms. Peters was going to work this into her series.  She has a fun way of attributing all kinds of modern discoveries to her intrepid heroine and her husband, Emerson (the greatest Egyptologist of this or any age).