Wrapped up in a flag and carrying a bible

http://www.libertylegal.org/issues.php?category=7&article=54

Battle Over History Heats Up in Texas

SBOE to Adopt New Social Studies Standards

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) takes its final vote for the new social studies standards for public schools in its meetings on May 19-21 - guidelines that will impact students around the country from kindergarten to 12th grade for the next ten years.

Don't let the liberals ReWrite history.

Sign our petition of support for the SBOE at www.StopReWritingHistory.com and then help spread the word.

If you would like to speak at the hearings in Austin, please contact Jonathan Saenz at legislative@libertyinstitute.org.

Bible Curriculum

"In what light soever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue." ~John Quincy Adams

About the issue:

In classrooms all over the world, students study such works as Shakespeare's Hamlet, John Milton's Paradise Lost, and Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper". All of these well-known and loved classic masterpieces contain Biblical allusions and references. That is why Liberty Institute has worked to encourage schools to offer instruction on the Bible's historical and literary value.

Not only does teaching about the Bible's impact on literature, culture, and history give students and academic edge, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy insists that such teaching should be an important part of the educational experience: "No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible? The Bible is also essential for understanding many of the moral and spiritual values of our culture, whatever our religious beliefs."

In two separate opinions, the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed the academic advantage of Bible instruction:

"(I)t might well be said that one's education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization. It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment," School Dist. of Abington Township v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 225 (1963)(June 17, 1963)

The "study of religions and of the Bible from a literary and historic viewpoint, presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, need not collide with the First Amendment's prohibition?" Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 106 (1968)(November 12, 1968)

What We're Doing:

In 2007, Liberty Institute successfully helped to push legislation through the Texas Legislature that requires public schools to offer instruction on the Bible?s impact on history and culture. Additionally, with help from Liberty Institute, the Texas State Board of Education passed Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards that define the Bible curriculum that should be taught either in an elective Bible course or implemented into existing history and literature courses.

Also in 2007, Liberty Institute's legal team represented a West Texas school district against an ACLU attempt to shut down a Bible course in the school district.

http://www.libertylegal.org/issues.php?category=7&article=8

Marriage

"As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families." ~John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 16, 1814

About the Issue:

It seems that our nation is faced with a new assault on traditional marriage every day. From legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and attempts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to a soaring no-fault divorce rate, marriage is becoming less valued in our culture.

ENDA, a proposed act of Congress, is one of the gravest threats to religious freedom and traditional marriage today. ENDA prohibits both public and private employers from making employment decisions (hiring, firing, advancement, etc.) based on an employee?s actual or perceived sexual behavior, ambiguously defined by ENDA as "sexual orientation." While it is unsure at this point whether ENDA will apply to church schools, Christian bookstores and daycares would be covered and controlled under this law as well as all Christian businesses in telling them what moral standards they may have, including "gender identity" (a person who "changes" their gender in their psyche). Passing ENDA is one large step toward legalizing gay marriage nationwide and forcing all Americans to support open homosexuality no matter their religious beliefs or conscience.

However, more is at stake than that. Family breakdown (divorce, single-parent households, etc.) not only costs taxpayers more than $30 billion a year, it manifests itself in children. A majority of children growing up outside of married families have gone through periods of poverty. Additionally, in Texas alone, the cost of no-fault divorce runs citizens more than $2 billion a year, which goes to direct and indirect costs such as food stamps, public housing, juvenile delinquency, and bankruptcies.

That simply cannot stand. Our children deserve better.

What We're Doing:

Liberty Institute works hard on a national level to defeat bad legislation like ENDA and DOMA, which threaten traditional marriage and freedoms. We also sent a strong message to national law-makers in 2005 after helping Texas lawmakers draft and pass a constitutional amendment, by a 2 to 1 margin, protecting traditional marriage in the Lone Star State.

Right now, we are working for ground-breaking divorce reform in Texas. In previous sessions of the Texas Legislature, we helped to pass a law that waives the marriage license fee for couples who go through state-approved pre-marital education courses. We are also pushing for laws that require marriage training courses for at least one person in a couple seeking a no-fault divorce in a home where children are present.

http://www.libertylegal.org/issues.php?category=7&article=6


Hate Crimes

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him." ~Thomas Jefferson to Francis Gilmer, 1816.

About the issue:

What most refer to as a "hate crime" is not a separate offense itself, like burglary or murder. The term ?hate crime? refers to a criminal act committed at least partially due to the victim?s inclusion in some protected group, such as race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, or gender. If one is found guilty of committing a hate crime, the punishment is significantly increased beyond the penalty allowed simply for committing the offense.

In 2009, President Obama signed an expansion of existing hate crimes legislation that now provides additional protection for sexual orientation and gender identity, and allows the federal government to prosecute all hate crimes, even those that individual states choose not to charge as a hate crime.

In Texas, a bill was proposed, and almost passed, that would have required that children found guilty of committing a hate crime to attend a government re-education program to "further the child?s acceptance" of the protected classes of people and to perform community service projects directly benefitting the class(es) offended by the child?s crime.

Every "group" protected by supposed hate crimes laws already receives the same protection as every other American citizen. Hate crimes laws literally create specially protected classes, enshrining in law the proposition that a crime committed against one group is worse than a crime committed against another and upsetting the doctrine of equal protection under the law. Many see the expansion of hate crimes laws as a tool to silence opposition to homosexuality and eventually silence pastors from speaking Biblically on the subject.

Hate crimes laws and eventually hate speech laws have been passed in other countries and the results have been dire. A Swedish pastor was sentenced to one month in jail for preaching about homosexuality from his pulpit. At least one Canadian bishop and a Canadian priest have been investigated by the Canadian government for alleged human rights violations for speaking a Biblical view of homosexuality. In Philadelphia, seven Christians were charged with a hate crime and threatened with 99 years in prison for simply sharing their faith at the homosexual "Outfest" on city grounds. There is every reason to expect that expansion of current hate crimes laws at national and state levels would pave the way to similar results in the United States.

What We're Doing:

Liberty Institute opposes efforts to expand hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation or gender identity in protected classes. The bill filed in the Texas Legislature that would have required children to attend re-education courses as punishment for committing hate crimes was defeated largely due to Liberty Institute's work to inform and encourage citizens to contact their elected officials.

Hate crimes laws put citizens in different classes of people and protect some more than others. For example, an attack on a healthy 22-year-old homosexual man would be more protected under the law than an attack on an eight-year-old child. Liberty Institute believes that all crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law without putting citizens in classes, attempting to protect some more than others, and attempting to punish people?s thoughts.

Liberty Institute will continue fighting these battles regularly. We cannot allow the government to continue encroaching on the rights of its people, and will work to ensure that free speech is upheld at every turn.