Californians arguing about high school history teacher accused of bias against Jesus
Some will see the dispute between the Farnan family of Mission Viejo and high school history teacher James Corbett in stark terms. The forces of light against the forces of darkness.
The problem is, not everyone agrees which side is which....
What makes the Farnan lawsuit intriguing, however, is that the guts of it come from Chad's tape-recording of one of Corbett's Advanced Placement European history classes at Capo Valley High School in October.
I can't vouch for the authenticity of the recording, nor do I have any reason to doubt it. Further complicating public discussion of this is that only the students and Corbett were there, and we haven't heard from Corbett yet.
But according to the suit, Corbett said at one point, "When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth."
In another segment, he says Americans are the most likely in the industrialized world to attend church and Swedes the least. America has the highest crime rate and Sweden the lowest, he says. "The next time someone tells you religion is connected with morality, you might want to ask them about that."
He later expands on that, mentioning "culture wars" in America and comparing the philosophies of rehabilitation and punishment for criminals. He says the South has more draconian views of punishment, but then notes that murder and rape -- and church attendance -- all are higher in the South.
In another excerpt cited in the suit, Corbett says, "Conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies. That's interfering with God's work. . . . All over the world, doesn't matter where you go, the conservatives want control over women's reproductive capacity . . . from conservative Christians in this country to Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan."
He also ventures into conversations about the Boy Scouts' exclusionary policies, pregnancies of middle-school girls and humorous side effects of erectile dysfunction pills....
Read entire article at Dana Parsons in the LAT
The problem is, not everyone agrees which side is which....
What makes the Farnan lawsuit intriguing, however, is that the guts of it come from Chad's tape-recording of one of Corbett's Advanced Placement European history classes at Capo Valley High School in October.
I can't vouch for the authenticity of the recording, nor do I have any reason to doubt it. Further complicating public discussion of this is that only the students and Corbett were there, and we haven't heard from Corbett yet.
But according to the suit, Corbett said at one point, "When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth."
In another segment, he says Americans are the most likely in the industrialized world to attend church and Swedes the least. America has the highest crime rate and Sweden the lowest, he says. "The next time someone tells you religion is connected with morality, you might want to ask them about that."
He later expands on that, mentioning "culture wars" in America and comparing the philosophies of rehabilitation and punishment for criminals. He says the South has more draconian views of punishment, but then notes that murder and rape -- and church attendance -- all are higher in the South.
In another excerpt cited in the suit, Corbett says, "Conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies. That's interfering with God's work. . . . All over the world, doesn't matter where you go, the conservatives want control over women's reproductive capacity . . . from conservative Christians in this country to Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan."
He also ventures into conversations about the Boy Scouts' exclusionary policies, pregnancies of middle-school girls and humorous side effects of erectile dysfunction pills....