In a series of recent decisions, the National Park Service has approved the display of religious symbols and Bible verses, as well as the sale of creationist books giving a biblical explanation for the Grand Canyon and other natural wonders. Also, under pressure from conservative groups, the Park Service has agreed to edit the videotape that has been shown at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995 to remove any image of gay and abortion rights demonstrations that occurred at the Memorial.
These moves all emanate from top Park Service political appointees, in many cases over the objections of park superintendents, agency lawyers and career staff. A number of fundamentalist Christian and socially conservative groups are claiming credit for these actions and touting their new direct and personal access to Bush Administration officials.
Creationist Science
This summer, the Park Service approved a creationist text, “Grand Canyon: A Different View” for sale in park bookstores and museums. The book by Tom Vail claims that the Grand Canyon is really only a few thousand years old, developing on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale. The Grand Canyon National Park superintendent went so far as to ask Park Service headquarters for clearance to offer the book for sale at park-supervised concessions.
At the same time, Park Service leadership has blocked publication of guidance for park rangers and other interpretative staff that labeled creationism as lacking any scientific basis. That guidance was supposed to have been issued in 2001.
On these issues, the current Park Service leadership now appears to cater exclusively to conservative Christian fundamentalist groups. As a result, the Bush Administration is sponsoring a program that can fairly be called “Faith-Based Parks.”
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local, state and federal resource professionals, working to protect the environment.
Now, I'm not one who believes all vestiges of religious faith have to be forcibly extirpated from public and governmental settings. "Separation of church and state" comes from Thomas Jefferson, not the Constitution. But the Constitution does forbid the establishment of a state religion, and denying hard science fact while condoning and hawking creationist bullshit damn well sounds like the establishment of an official religion to me. I hope Dubya has plenty of time to ponder that issue, as well as the fallacy of "Divine right of kings" after his infallible ass gets handed to him on Nov. 2.
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It's not surprising that a fiction writer would be lost in a world of illusion when it comes to politics. Most of your stories are probably more truthful and real then anything that political waste flip flopper john kerry has had come our of his mouth.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should spend more time checking facts instead of floating around in a fictional state of bullshit!
Thanks for the intelligent, rational input, "Anonymous." Always nice to see dipsticks whip out the ol' purple crayon to let their voices be heard. If you choose to put your faith in someone who believes in the divine right of kings, who has never made a mistake as president and told Pat Robertson "there wouldn't be any casualties in Iraq," fine. No one's stopping you. Personally, I took the blinders off a long time ago. Insisting that the dinosaurs died because they couldn't fit onto Noah's ark just doesn't cut it for the leader of the Free World.
ReplyDeleteOh, man. You're from Texas, too. That's sad. Surely you can see that the current president is not the same man we had as governor.
ReplyDeleteThen again, maybe not. Real Texans always take credit for their opinions and comments. You're probably a carpetbagger from New York or *gasp* California...