Updating a Sister Sledge classic, the current crop of cowards finally tell the truth about their heartless quest for power — at the expense of our democracy. Sing along at the top of your lungs, and don’t forget to vote ’em all out “as ASAP as possible!” Unlike these clowns, we ARE family, so please share this one with all of them… and your friends!
Ten bears post a great short video from the Lincoln Project. It is a quick fact check of some of trump’s delusions he spouted during his Meet The Press interview. tRump simply has no grasp of reality. He makes things up and professes / promotes them as if really have happened. He no idea of the real history. Hugs
In 2022, before he began a campaign for the presidency, Ron DeSantis was reelected governor of Florida in a landslide. This was impressive and surprising because the 2022 elections were disappointing for Republicans almost everywhere else in the US. But DeSantis’s overwhelming victory was doubly impressive and surprising because when he had first been elected, just four years earlier, it was by just a tiny margin.
For a long time, in fact, tiny election margins were the norm in Florida elections. Florida was a “swing state” — it sometimes voted for Democrats, sometimes for Republicans, and was a major prize up for grabs in presidential elections. But by 2022, something had changed: Florida Republicans up and down the ballot won their races by margins similar to DeSantis’s, and no one was calling Florida a swing state anymore.
Florida seems to have undergone a political transformation. So what happened? In this video, we look at three possible explanations.
The rates of maternal and neonatal death have been dropping around the world since 2000. That’s great news – but since 2016, rates of maternal deaths have remained stagnant. We have to do better. I’ve been invited by the @GatesFoundation to partner with them and attend the 2023 Goalkeepers conference, which focuses on neonatal and maternal health. Goalkeepers is an organization that keeps tabs on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015 (links below), and this year’s report & conference is all about maternal and neonatal health. We’re not currently on track to meet the goals for maternal and neonatal mortality rates set out in 2015, but we can get there if we get the right tools to the right people.
DeathSantis is a Christian nationalist who believes the myth spread by Christian liars that the US is founded as a Christian nation by and for Christians. His version of religious freedom is total control by the Christians so that they can force their views on everyone else. His idea is to have the public pay for Christian schools and force Christian doctrines / moral standards on public school students. He doesn’t seem to understand that there are non-Christians religious people along with people of no religious views. He also buys deeply in to the myth that Christians are discriminated against and unfairly treated in the US. This man and his kind must never be allowed to have authority and control over the government. Hugs
Republican candidate vows to restore ‘full religious freedom’ in the US if elected president
Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on September 15, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The summit featured remarks from multiple 2024 Republican Presidential candidates making their case to the conservative audience members. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Pray Vote Stand Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on September 15, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The summit featured remarks from multiple 2024 Republican Presidential candidates making their case to the conservative audience members. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the vital role faith in God plays in leadership as he explained how he will advance the cause of religious liberty if he becomes the 47th president of the United States.
DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, addressed the crowd at the Family Research Council’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit Friday, where he discussed his faith in God and outlined how he would protect religious liberty if elected president.
“I don’t know how you could be a leader without having faith in God,” he said. “When you stand up for what’s right in this day and age, that is not going to be cost-free. You are going to face blowback, you’re going to face attacks, you’re going to face smears. And it’s the faith in God that gives you the strength to stand firm against the lies, against the deceit, against the opposition.”
DeSantis credited his faith in God with giving him “the foundation to know that all the insults, all the nonsense they throw at you ultimately doesn’t matter because you are aiming higher.”
After expressing concerns about the current state of affairs in the U.S., DeSantis lamented that “we do have a spiritual decline in this country.”
The candidate cited the practice of “forcibly closing churches and denying people their right to worship as they see fit” during the coronavirus lockdowns as one example of the spiritual decline engulfing the U.S. “The liquor stores were open, the strip clubs were open, but yet they shut the door on the people of faith,” he recalled.
“I believe that reviving the spirit of America is essential to helping reverse America’s decline. And this revival is going to begin in our religious institutions, our places of work, each of our households, all the institutions that make up the bedrock of society,” he declared.
DeSantis warned of “threats to religious liberty the likes we have not seen throughout most of American history” and highlighted the need for “people to be able to live their faith in all aspects of their life” as “faith has been treated as secondary to secular concerns in culture.”
“Attempts have been made to wipe our Judeo-Christian religious symbols from our national heritage and national culture. The Left, you know, they talk about saying you can’t be involved in religious practice if you’re in government because it would represent [an] ‘establishment of religion,’” he added.
The presidential candidate refuted this argument, saying, “First of all, that’s not true. But second of all, they’re the ones that want to establish a religion. They just don’t want to establish traditional religions. They want political leftism to be the established religion of this country.”
DeSantis insisted that the effort to establish political leftism as the established religion of the country has led those who want to practice their faith in public to find themselves “only being able to do that up until the point it conflicts with [the leftist] agenda.” He pointed to the treatment of coach Joe Kennedy, a Washington state high school football coach who lost his job because of opposition to his effort to pray on the field after the game, as an example of how violations of religious liberty have become commonplace.
The governor noted that Kennedy’s victory at the U.S. Supreme Court was “hailed as a victory for religious liberty” while suggesting that “the fact that it even had to go to the U.S. Supreme Court shows us that religious liberty is not flourishing the way it should in our country.”
He then outlined how he would work to advance the cause of religious liberty if elected president.
“As your president, I’m going to get to work on restoring full religious freedom in this country,” he vowed. He pointed to nominating and placing “constitutionalist judges on the courts of appeal and on the U.S. Supreme Court” as an important step in achieving that goal, assuring the audience that “my nominees will reflect the jurisprudence of justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr.,” whom he referred to as “the two greatest justices on the court.”
DeSantis also announced his intention to “end once and for all religious discrimination” by abolishing “all government regulations that force groups to choose between government funding and their faith.” He maintained that “instead, we’re going to actively incorporate the faith community in our administration.”
“We will make sure that the faith community has a seat at the table as we work to do the business of the country,” he added. “We will also do what we’ve done in Florida. We have universal school choice in the state of Florida, and we need it nationwide. On day one, we’ll issue an executive order that ensures funding available to private non-religious schools must also be available to private, faith-based schools.”
He continued: “We will stop the federal government from targeting men and women on the basis of their faith. Religious schools should not be pressured to violate the tenets of their faith. There will never be a question about whether a faith-based charity that serves the poor deserves First Amendment protections. We will seek the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which suppresses the speech of our religious leaders.”
DeSantis detailed how his administration would “ensure that the Judeo-Christian tradition and values that our nation was founded on are respected and are preserved.” Specifically, he expressed a desire to “create divisions of conscience and religious freedom in the Departments of Education, Labor, and [Health and Human Services] to protect religious liberty against all agencies of government.”
“Even when God-fearing citizens have won in court, they have been forced to go through the time-consuming and invasive processes,” he lamented. “My Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute attacks on faith-based [crisis pregnancy] centers and pro-life activists, which the Biden administration is ignoring and they’re letting this go on.”
DeSantis repeatedly discussed his record as Florida governor in his remarks and concluded his speech by describing his state as “the place where woke goes to die.” He told the audience, “As president, we are going to leave the woke mind virus in the dustbin of history, where it belongs, once and for all.”
If you can’t separate church and state you can’t govern and ultimately you wont survive as a country, Christianity is not the only existing religion in America Bootsie.
Actually, I’d much prefer a leader who understands that no invisible man in the sky is coming to save us, and we need to fix the laundry list of problems we have ourselves.
I’d love to see presidents and prime ministers who are openly atheist, and quite a few being openly LGBTQ+, and quite a few being ethically nonmonogamous. And, of course, all of them being progressive and genuinely committed to making their nations and the world better for ALL the people.
I don’t really care if they believe in god. I don’t but I do care about how they govern others that don’t believe as they do. That keep their beliefs private and separate from their policies.
I am sick to death of the Bible thumpers who keep acting as though non-believers have no right to leadership in America and who treat secularism and humanism as dirty words. They are full of bullshit. We are Americans. We are decent people. We do not need to be led by superstitious fools.
We have a memorial in Salem here to show that this religious terrorism has always been part of the fabric of America. In that case, it cost a number of women their lives.
The first smallpox insufflation clinic in Boston in the 18th century was firebombed by a mob shouting that it was the devil’s work.
And American culture in general is violently prudish compared to Europe, with the Puritan roots never escaped from as the reason why.
So I cannot agree that America is better. It never escaped its horrific roots to this day.
“At the time Ron DeSantis became Governor of Florida, the Florida Retirement System (FRS1) was already in serious financial trouble, with “unfunded pension liabilities” exceeding $30 billion. Under his administration, that shortfall has risen to $36 billion, and losses continue to mount. DeSantis’ politically motivated decision to promote an Anti-ESG2 investment strategy for FRS investments is increasing that funding shortfall. This is placing the retirement savings and pensions of career state employees at risk, unless Florida taxpayers are forced to pay for the shortfall, to keep the FRS from failing.
“The massive FRS shortfall is only the tip of the HB3 iceberg. Governor DeSantis’ anti-ESG political campaign has negatively affected a number of Florida financial systems. Counties and municipalities are paying higher interest on bonds; Florida is walking away from billions in potential investments and tens of thousands of good-paying jobs in renewable energy; Florida is finding itself at a competitive disadvantage in attracting new investments and businesses. And, just like the captain of the Titanic, Governor DeSantis didn’t see it coming.
He’s pretty stupid, our taxes are paid to the county here for schools and fire, police and emergency and sanitation services. There is no mechanism in place since there is no state income tax to take it from Florida residents
This is what happens when a governor and his hired henchmen, playing a public health official, constantly misinform, lie about, and work to spread harmful myths about the much-needed vaccine. Florida’s death rate from Covid is much higher than states that pushed the vaccine. This anti-science fundamentalism is head in the sand denial of facts and reality. I am really not sure of DeathSantis motivation for his crusade to not protect the people in his state. Is it religious fundamentalism, is it for political advantage with people that are unable to understand medical fact or is he a conspiracy believer? Hugs
Matt Rourke/AP
Most Floridians believe COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, but many also believe false information about the vaccines. There is a major divide between Democrats and Republicans. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
With COVID on the rise and new vaccines arriving in pharmacies and doctor’s offices, the vast majority of Floridians believe the shots are safe, help prevent the spread of infections, and reduce the risk of hospitalization and death.
Those assessments are validated by the overwhelming majority of public health authorities — and, a statewide poll shows, seven in 10 Floridians.
But the University of South Florida/Florida Atlantic University public opinion survey that probed what people know — or think they know — revealed sizable numbers of Florida residents believe inaccurate assertions about the vaccines.
And that’s a problem, said Stephen Neely, an associate professor at USF’s School of Public Affairs.
“The misinformation unnecessarily costs lives. The CDC has said that. The World Health Organization has said that. And the data confirm that,” Neely said. “It’s disheartening, but it’s the reality that we’re facing right now. … Overall, people perceive vaccines to be generally safe and efficacious. But even among those who do, there’s still pretty widespread belief in some things that are not true.”
Among the findings of the USF/FAU survey, conducted in August:
The biggest factor associated with beliefs in misinformation was political affiliation, with Republicans far more likely than Democrats and independents to agree with a range of false assertions about vaccines. “Unfortunately our best efforts to communicate the truth about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines have not been able to break through these political barriers,” Neely said.
One in four Floridians incorrectly believe the vaccine causes alterations in DNA. Almost as many believe it can cause infertility.
A smaller, but notable, number of Floridians believe one of the most far-out conspiracy theories, that the vaccines contain microchips.
Politics and health
An enormous political gulf has emerged around COVID. And that’s true as well about the vaccines, especially after the initial rush of excitement in late 2020 and early 2021. Vaccinations have become more politically polarized and some people objected to being told what to do and chafed at recommendations from public health authorities.
Despite the belief in various falsehoods — and outspoken vaccine skepticism among some prominent officials, including Gov. Ron DeSantis — 66% of Floridians surveyed in August said they were very or somewhat confident in COVID “guidance provided by the CDC and other public health officials.”
And 69% said they were very or somewhat likely to get regular COVID-19 booster shots if recommended by public health officials — which is precisely what the Food and Drug Administration did on Monday and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did on Tuesday.
The CDC recommended that everyone 6 months and older get the latest vaccine, which the agency said “remains the best protection” against COVID-related hospitalization and death and reduces the chances of long COVID.
“I think we all wish COVID would be fully in the rearview mirror, but the reality is, it’s still here with us, it’s still circulating, and it’s still making some people very sick. But the good news is, we have more tools to protect ourselves. We just have to use those tools,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC, said on the PBS NewsHour.
Florida has the highest COVID hospitalization rate in the country. Statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations were 2,536 during the week ending Sept. 2, the most recent date published by the CDC, up from 951 the week ending July 1.
On Wednesday, DeSantis and the surgeon general he appointed, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, responded to the FDA and CDC by recommending people under age 65 not get the new booster. Cohen decried DeSantis and Ladapo’s move. “Public health experts are in broad agreement about these facts, and efforts to undercut vaccine uptake are unfounded and dangerous,” she said in a statement to news organizations.
That leaves Floridians to decide what advice to follow. Among Floridians surveyed last month, 42% said they were very likely to follow vaccine recommendations “by public health officials.” Other findings: somewhat likely, 27%; somewhat unlikely, 17%, and very unlikely, 15%.
There were significant differences based on political affiliation. Among Democrats, 84% said they were or somewhat likely to get the shots, compared to 69% of independents and 53% of Republicans.
The share who don’t plan to get vaccinated is still too high, said Kenneth Goodman, founder and director of the Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
“It means more people sick, and it kills more people,” he said. Goodman, who was not involved with the survey, said the views it uncovered showed many people believe false statements about the vaccines would translate into a “higher body count.”
Misinformation
Researchers surveyed Floridians in an attempt to understand the impact of public perceptions of vaccines, given the volume of information floating around “particularly in online/digital spaces.”
Neely’s work in public opinion research has delved into COVID since the early days of the pandemic, including a research about people who have defriended others on Facebook because of their views.
To gauge public beliefs, people were given multiple statements and asked whether they believed the claims. The statements were classified by the CDC as “true” or “false,” but respondents weren’t told what was true or false.
There was widespread agreement with three true statements:
COVID-19 vaccines are safe — 71%.
Vaccines help prevent the spread of COVID-19 — 69%.
Vaccines reduce the risk of dying from COVID-19 — 77%.
Statements classified as “false” by the CDC and percentage of Floridians who believe they are true:
Getting sick with COVID-19 builds better immunity than getting a vaccine — 51%.
COVID-19 vaccines are causing new variants of the virus to emerge — 42%.
COVID-19 vaccines alter your DNA — 26%.
COVID-19 vaccines contain a “live strain” of the virus — 49%.
Vaccines can cause you to get sick with COVID-19 — 42%.
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine will cause you to temporarily test positive for the virus — 42%.
Party affiliation
On almost every question, Republicans are far more skeptical of vaccines than Democrats, significantly more likely to believe in statements that the CDC classifies as false, and less likely to believe statements health authorities say are true.
“Attitudes toward the pandemic remain starkly divided along political lines,” the researchers wrote in a summary of their findings.
For example, Democrats were significantly more willing to receive ongoing vaccine boosters than Republicans (84% to 53%).
And Republicans reported lower levels of trust in COVID guidance from public health officials (47% to 88%) than Democrats.
“Politics shapes perception,” said Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies who specializes in politics and voting at Nova Southeastern University. “And it’s pretty clear in these numbers that Republican perspective on the world leads you down one path and a Democratic perspective leads you down another.”
Zelden wasn’t involved in the survey.
Statements classified as “false” by the CDC and the percentage of Floridians who believe they are true showed the divide:
Getting sick with COVID-19 builds better immunity than getting a vaccine — Democrats, 36%; independents, 53%; Republicans, 67%.
COVID-19 vaccines are causing new variants of the virus to emerge — Democrats, 31%; independents, 43%; Republicans, 48%.
COVID-19 vaccines alter your DNA — Democrats, 16%; independents, 28%; Republicans, 32%.
COVID-19 vaccines contain a “live strain” of the virus — Democrats, 36%; independents, 48%; Republicans, 57%.
Vaccines can cause you to get sick with COVID-19 — Democrats, 31%; independents, 42%; Republicans, 50%.
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine will cause you to temporarily test positive for the virus — Democrats, 36%; independents, 36%; Republicans, 48%.
Development of some vaccines was accelerated by Operation Warp Speed under former President Donald Trump, and political leaders like DeSantis were initially enthusiastic promoters of vaccination.
But as the pandemic was moving into its second year, many Republicans became much more skeptical. DeSantis ultimately emerged as a vaccine skeptic, and he replaced the Florida surgeon general with Ladapo, a vaccine skeptic.
One effect of the partisan divide: Areas in which President Joe Biden performed better than former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election generally had higher vaccination rates. In July, Yale University researchers who studied Florida and Ohio reported in JAMA Internal Medicine that “excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before.”
In March, Ladapo said that “at this point in the pandemic, I’m not sure anyone should be taking them (vaccines).”
Appearing with DeSantis at a campaign-style event in Sept. 7, Ladapo said there was “no evidence” supporting the new vaccine and asserted there “are a lot of red flags.”
Zelden said the vaccine views reflect an overall shift among many Republicans concerning “attitudes toward government telling you what to do and what not to do, toward expertise. A lot of the culture war positions that the Republicans have challenge existing expertise, because they don’t like what they’re being told. So they question the validity of the underlying science.”
Neely said the survey shows there is no indication that the polarization is easing.
“A lot of us had hoped for a time we could kind of coalesce around a shared scientific understanding,” he said. “Instead, this form of political beliefs around COVID have sort of become a kind of partisan political identity.”
Age, gender
One demographic category stood out: 25- to 44-year-old Floridians.
They had higher beliefs that false information was true — sometimes significantly higher — than other age groups on six of the eight statements considered false by the CDC. In most cases, the belief in the false statements was about 10 percentage points higher among 25- to 44-year-olds than the population as a whole.
Neely said he doesn’t have a good answer for the greater embrace of false information among people aged 25-44. Because it is a large and diverse age group — 25-year-olds are very different from 44-year-olds, Neely said — “it’s a little harder to parse out the meaning.”
He said there may be a lower perceived threat from COVID in that age group “and therefore less urgency to research and talk to your doctor.”
And the oldest group — age 65 and up — had much lower belief in the false claims.
“This is the group that is most at risk for severe COVID illness, the group that is most likely to have spoken to their doctor about a vaccine. They are the least likely to believe in these misinformation themes,” Neel said.
Men and women had almost exactly the same assessments about most of the false statements.
Two exceptions: Men were more likely than women (57% to 45%) to believe getting sick with COVID-19 builds better immunity than getting a vaccine, and women were more likely than men to believe (53% to 45%) that the vaccines contain a “live strain” of the virus.
Microchips
Even before the first vaccines were administered to the public in December 2020, one conspiracy theory was circulating on the internet: that the shots were being used to inject tiny devices allowing people to be tracked.
Many people regarded the notion as a joke and mocked the idea. But it became fairly widespread; a July 2021 YouGov/Economist poll found 20% of Americans said it was definitely or probably true that the U.S. government was using the vaccines to microchip the population. Though 65% said that was definitely or probably false, many public public health organizations and news media outlets debunked the idea.
And it is believed by enough people that it’s refuted by the CDC website: “FACT: COVID-19 vaccines do not contain microchips. Vaccines are developed to fight against disease and are not administered to track your movement.”
Yet the August USF/FAU poll found 14% of Floridians said the claim that the vaccines contain microchips was definitely or possibly true.
“That conspiracy theory has proven more troublesome than we expected at first,” Neely said. “We’re sadly confident that this is the correct number that believe in that particular misinformation theme.”
That’s one area in the survey in which there wasn’t a statistically significant difference between Democrats (12%) and Republicans (13%).
And it was the only false statement included in the survey in which independents had a slightly higher belief (16%) than Republicans. In all other areas, Republicans had a higher percentage of people accepting the misinformation.
There were variations by age, with people aged 25-44 more likely to say the microchip statement was true and people 65 and older far less likely to say it was true.
The microchip belief, broken down by age, was: 18-24 — 17%; 25-44 — 23%; 45-64 — 12%, and 65 and older — 5%.
To Goodman, Neely and Zelden said the overall share of people buying the microchip theory is in line with Americans’ acceptance of all sorts of conspiracy theories.
“This is your basic conspiracy theory,” Zelden said. “That 14% is about the percentage that believe in most conspiracy theories.”
Goodman said “that 14% were out there for other things too: that the moon landing was staged, the world was created 4,000 years ago, and bitcoins are great investment.”
Neely said the result is consistent with previous surveys, and the result is an accurate assessment of Floridians beliefs in the microchip theory — and not a case of people parking the poll by claiming a belief in the microchip theory.
He said it is possible that some people don’t understand what is meant by microchips and so aren’t equating it with the conspiracy theory that microchips are being implanted in people via vaccines so they can be tracked.
Infertility
The survey found 24% of Floridians believe vaccines can cause infertility. The CDC doesn’t state this is false, Neely said, but that there is no evidence in support.
Concerns about fertility have gotten attention since the early days of the vaccine, perhaps most prominently by entertainer Nicki Manaj, who in September 2021 said she wasn’t vaccinated and told her 22.6 million followers on the social media platform then known as Twitter that her cousin’s friend had become impotent after getting the shot.
A wide range of medical experts debunked the assertion. Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, an associate professor of urology at the University of Miami, wrote at the time that the truth was the opposite of what Minaj said, that the virus that causes COVID — not the vaccine — poses a risk for both erectile dysfunction and male infertility.
Many Floridians believe it does cause infertility.
The survey reported 33% of people aged 25-44 — who are in peak childbearing years — believe the vaccines cause infertility, 9 percentage points higher than the overall population.
Other big believers in the infertility statement: 29% of Republicans and 24% of independents.
Democrats (15%) and people 65 and older (12%) were less likely to believe it.
As with many statements on the survey, there was little difference between men (22%) and women (25%.)
Most say effective
Most Floridians rated the vaccines as effective.
On preventing infection, 71% said they were very or somewhat effective. Among Democrats, 86%; independents, 72%; Republicans, 56%.
On preventing hospitalizations, 79% said they were very or somewhat effective. Among Democrats, 92%; independents, 81%; Republicans, 67%.
On preventing death from COVID-19, 78% said they were effective or somewhat effective. Among Democrats, 91%; independents, 80%; Republicans, 67%.
And most Floridians — 66% — expressed confidence in the COVID guidance provided by the CDC and other public health officials.
Floridians were very confident (31%), somewhat confident (35%), not very confident (18%) and not at all confident (16%).
Very and somewhat confident ranged from 88% among Democrats to 47% among Republicans. As with almost all questions on the survey, independents were in between, at 65%.
Goodman said he’d like to see much more information into people’s COVID and vaccine beliefs, and the behavior it encourages.
“This is no longer politics, this is anthropology. How do you get ordinary people to believe in preposterous things,” Goodman said. “Why are some of the people willing not just to believe, but to embrace the preposterous?”
The fine print
Researchers from the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, sponsored by the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, surveyed 600 Florida adults. The poll was conducted Aug. 10 to 21 using an online survey through market research firm Prodege MR.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Because subgroups (such as Democrats and Republicans or men and women) are smaller than in the overall poll, the margins of error are higher for those groups.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Facebook, Threads.net and Post.news.
Notice the title specifies “Indoctrinate Other People’s Children”. These people don’t care about other parents rights to raise their children as they wish, they don’t care about other families religious views. They are saying their long time actions in public schools out loud, to force their god, their religion, on everyone else. Yet they are always claiming they are the victims, that they are being discriminated against. The video is at the links, Hugs
Evangelical pollster George Barna spoke at FRC’s “Pray Vote Stand” conference on Oct. 7, 2021 (Image from event livestream)
While right-wing groups are mobilizing angry mobs to yell at school board members that parents have the right to control what their children are taught, evangelical pollster George Barna told religious-right activists at the Family Research Council’s “Pray Vote Stand” summit Thursday that it is their duty to try to indoctrinate other people’s children into a “biblical worldview.”
Barna, one of the first senior fellows at FRC’s recently established Center for Biblical Worldview, specializes in studying what he calls “SAGE Cons”—Spiritually Active Governance Engaged Conservative Christians. What is most striking about FRC and Barna’s “worldview” project is how few people—and how few conservative evangelicals—measure up to their right-wing “biblical worldview” standard.
When the Center for Biblical Worldview launched in May, FRC President Tony Perkins said that a biblical worldview “is only achieved when a person believes that the Bible is true, authoritative, and then taught how it is applicable to every area of life, which enables them to live out those beliefs.”
Barna told “Pray Vote Stand” attendees that only 6 percent of American adults measure up to that standard of a biblical worldview—and only one out of five people who attend an evangelical church.
“Biblically, it’s parents’ responsibility to shape their children’s worldview—both directly and indirectly,” Barna declared. But, he said, only 7 percent of parents with children under the age of 18 have a biblical worldview. That’s a problem that people with a biblical worldview must fix, he said:
That doesn’t portend well for the future because you can’t give what you don’t have. And so, the rest of us who do get it have to come alongside these children in some way. We’ve got to look for opportunities—sports teams, other kinds of activities that are taking place to help them shape things. You can’t wait for your church to get the job done.
…
This is a battle for the mind, the heart, and the soul of America, and so it’s up to you. It’s up to me—those of us who know God, love God, love Christ, read his word, study his word, embrace, embody his word—and to take that into the world in every way, shape, and form that we can.
Ultimately, we will win or lose this battle long term by what we do with children today. And so when you leave this conference, I’m asking you to think about making a list identifying the children whose lives you can impact. It is our biblical responsibility to raise up children to know, love, and serve God the all their heart, mind, strength, and soul, and I pray that you will do that with all the energy and wisdom that you can muster.
Barna’s PowerPoint slide hammered home his message that parents without a biblical worldview have “neither the vision nor the equipping” to “raise spiritual champions.” That means, it said, “True Christians must seize the moment … Go, make disciples!”
In 2017, Barna spoke at the Values Voter Summit—FRC’s annual gathering that has been rebranded as Pray Vote Stand—and told participants that the 2016 election was a “Christians vs. non-Christians” election and that Trump became president because “God did a miracle for us.”
“Pray Vote Stand” is the new name for the FRC’s annual “Values Voter Summit.” Many prominent extremists and GOP elected officials are scheduled speakers over the next three days.
Because none of the other kids parents are showing up to demand anything different. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The fascist are making all these demands and moves basically unopposed. The parents of the kids in the schools affected have to take a stand
First, let’s call this what it is…grooming Second, if they don’t groom children into biblical world views, they won’t have them…and that scares the shit out of biblical peons.
Very informative how conservative and fundamentalist religious leaders have been attacking the public school system with disastrous results. She does talk rapidly but the CC is pretty good for YouTube. Hugs
Public education is under attack from all sides in this country, typically at the hands of a few wealthy and powerful conservatives who stand to benefit from the failure of public education at the expense of children and teachers.
The people pushing these bans to remove any LGBTQIA representation from schools and libraries are a very small vocal minority using the laws that DeathSantis along with his fellow fundamentalist Christian ideological bigots implemented just for this purpose. This is what the republicans wanted. I get so tired of repeating my self, but this small minority wants to rule over the majority, return society to 1950 basically wiping any LGBTQIA from society or public view. Please remember these books are not intended nor available to younger kids, these are for teenagers, 13 and up. In one case it says for 17 and up. I have news for everyone, 13 years are ready to read these books and may desperately need to read them. Plus most kids that old have free access to internet or a friend that has it, and studies show that by 13 kids have watched and viewed porn along with nude human pictures. Here is an example of two people, yes just two people pushing their idea of moral values on everyone else, regardless of the wishes of the other people. This is fundamental Christian Taliban in action. Hugs
School district officials responded to more than 1,200 book objections.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — According to a list released by Florida’s Department of Education, school districts across the state issued a combined total of 386 book bans after receiving a total of 1,218 objections in 2022.
A small movement
According to a recent analysis by the Tampa Bay Times, more than half of the objections were raised by the same two people: Bruce Friedman, the founder of the Florida chapter of the activist group No Left Turn in Education, and Vicki Baggett.
He reportedly got titles from an internet database and photocopied thousands of objections with vague complaints like “Protect Children!” and “Damaged Souls!”.
Baggett submitted hundreds of complaints of “indoctrination” and apparently copied from book reviews on BookLooks.org, a book challenging group founded by a member of Moms for Liberty, the Times found.
And of the 386 book bans issued last year, 300 of them covered only three school districts: Clay County where Friedman lives (177 books banned), Martin County (98) and Manatee County (25). There are 67 school districts in Florida altogether. Fifty-one of those districts (including Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, and Citrus counties) did not remove a single book from school shelves in 2022.
5 controversial titles
The titles that were removed from schools often varied by school district despite the fact that efforts to get specific titles banned made national headlines. Such was the case with “And Tango Makes Three,” “Let’s Talk About It” and “This Book is Gay” (which was also the only title Hillsborough County schools banned last year).
Even so, the controversy around some titles reached far enough to get them removed from multiple counties:
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – The popular series of adult fantasy novels about a young woman who is taken to a faerie kingdom at war was a New York Times Bestseller. The books are intended for adults 17 or older as they contain sex scenes and abusive relationships. However, it is unclear whether school libraries even carried these books in the first place.
Lucky by Alice Sebold – The memoir written by the author of the book “The Lovely Bones” detailed her rape and brutal assault and how surviving it shaped the rest of her life. The memoir generated attention in Florida after Friedman objected to the book’s graphic descriptions of sexual assault at a school board meeting in November. The board cut his mic before he could read a passage from it.
L8r, G8r by Lauren Myracle – The third book in Myracle’s famous “Internet Girls” series, which told coming-of-age stories for young girls written entirely in internet-speak and instant messages, was removed from multiple schools for its use of profanity and its depictions of adult sexuality as part of its plot.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews – A novel about a socially awkward high school senior who, along with his friend and fellow amateur filmmaker, befriends a classmate who is dying of leukemia. Though the novel was well-received, schools have banned it due to complaints about sexually explicit content.
The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur – Canadian poet Kaur’s second book of poetry was the follow-up to “Milk and Honey,” which became one of the most widely banned books in the U.S. due to its explorations of difficult subjects like sexual assault, trauma, abuse and family issues. Her second collection, which featured more poems touching on abuse, healing from trauma, infanticide and other touchy subjects, was pulled from schools due largely to the controversy “Milk and Honey” generated.
In the upside-down, through-the-looking-glass world that is DeSantis’s Florida, what should be condemned as an abomination is touted as an accomplishment.
And to think when I was a teen growing up in Houston I read ‘The Chants of Maldoror’ which I checked out at the public library. People didn’t make a fuss about books back then. Once in a while my mom would read a Truman Capote book and make a face. I think most parents were just pleased that their kids read anything.
They banned Bernard Malamud’s “The Fixer”. That book is a Pulitzer Prize winning classic…and I doubt any single one of these philistine chucklefucks even know what it’s about. (It’s about antisemitism in Tsarist Russia, by the way.)
It’s disgusting that 2 people can hold so much power over the parents of children that just want to go to school to learn REGULAR educational cirriculum, and not be dictated to by Christofasicst Theocratic wanna be’s that are determined to take this country back 150 years!
If anyone has become legendary due to the hatred of moral busybodies, it’s definitely her. She’s not only one of the pioneers of realistic YA fiction, she’s also one of the most widely banned.
It’s all about sex education, gays, trans, and other LGBTQ+ types being people and finding love and acceptance throughout the pages. Stuff Christofacists hate, yet they do anyway as they target boys and girls for sex both off and online.
So Florida is hostage to two cranks. I’m a bit surprised that De Spotic didn’t assign this power to himself or his immediate cronies, and not some upstarts.
By Peter Montgomery | October 7, 2021 5:09 pm
Evangelical pollster George Barna spoke at FRC’s “Pray Vote Stand” conference on Oct. 7, 2021 (Image from event livestream)
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