TELEVANGELIST SUMMARIES March 1987 PAT ROBERTSON Bakker scandal ••.•..•••.•• • •• 46-48 Mobile, AL textbook case. • ••• 30-37 700 CLUB BENNET, WILLIAM School-based health clinics .• ••• 37 Gay rights .••.• .37 Welfare reform ••• • •••••• 38 School prayer ••• • •••• 38-39 JERRY FALWELL Bakker scandal ........... •••• 48-49 Bishop Desmond Tutu •• • ••• 39 PTL • ••..••.•.••••••. • 44-45 JIMMY SWAGGART Bakker scandal .• .41-43 Fundraising •. .45 Israel. •• 49 Jews •••• • ••• 40 JAMES ROBISON Media • ...••.•.•.•••.................•••••..•.......•....... 44 THE 700 CLUB March 6, 1987 MOBILE, AL Reverend Pat Robertson: "For years, many Christian parents have thought that the public ~chools were teaching humanistic values that were quite different from what they wanted their children to learn. Now the concept of humanism and the humanities is very noble. To be humanitarianism (sic) is good. But secular humanism is actually a type of religion. It's actually atheism in a new guise. Well, in Mobile, Alabama, 624 parents decided to do something about it. They were joined of course in that part of the 624 were teachers and students." NARRATOR: "It may go down as the religious liberty case of the twentieth century ••• The decision marks the first time, humanism, including secular humanism, has been recognized and defined as a religion. That means it can no longer be allowed a preferred position in public education but now, legally, will have to be treated with strict neutrality, as required of all religions by the Supreme Court." Attorney for the Plaintiffs, Tom Parker: "Not only does this decision ban the use of certain books in the state of Alabama which violate Constitutional rights, it also establishes some guidelines which could be used by state textbook committees or by concerned parents. It does this by defining humanism as a religion, protected by the First Amendment and also prohibited from being taught as truth in the school systems by the First Amendment. And it also defines omission of facts about theistic faiths as discrimination against religion." John Buchanan: "This is a case of nothing less than judicial book burning. I think this is the first time in history that a religion has been created and defined by its opponents and by its antagonists. I believe the judge has sadly erred in this case, and this is, indeed, nothing less than government censorship of textbooks. Robertson: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a landmark case for religious freedom ••• the American Civil Liberties Union and PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY have marshalled their resources behind the state VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3(a) 30 lMarch, 1987 school system to try to force students to be indoctrinated with atheism by using taxpayers money. They have always previous to this at least the ACLU has been on the side of the plaintiffs, of the students who were being quote indoctrinated with Christianity or Judaism. Now they're on the side of the heavy handed government trying to enforce a doctrine and they lost. And they lost big." "We hear the term "existential despair." The kids are so confused they're actually committing suicide. Plaintiff Doug Smith: "To my knowledge, no one in this case has ever asked that humanism be removed. It just can't be presented by itself." Robertson: "Well the judge took out 44 books. I mean, this was the predominant thrust of every one of those books that was being used, this was compulsory education, these values were being jammed down student's throats, they had to study these things ••• What about John Buchanan getting up with all this righteous indignation and talking about book burning, this isn't book burning, this is freedom, isn't it? Parker: "We couldn't be more pleased with this. It's a real strike for religious liberty in this country, and it also is a strengthening of democracy. These type moral views presented in the textbooks ultimately undermine democracy. When you teach a student that all values are personal and subjective, what you do is lay the groundwork for the destruction of the national consensus that we need to hold us together as a nation. And so ultimately they're anti-democratic. And we pray that this will be the beginning of a return to traditional values which are the foundation of this country." Robertson: "The job of the school system is to transmit the values of the preceding generation and of the history of the nation through to the young. That's what it's there [for], that's what's the main task of public education ••• well, I've seen this revisionist view of history. Let's face it. In the nineteenth century, we were considered a Christian nation. The Supreme Court itself ruled it. In 1892 or whatever, that this is a Christian nation. It said it in the decision. And were all those references essentially struck from the textbooks of Alabama, the religious beliefs, the pilgrims, and the Thanksgiving celebrations and all those things?" VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3(a) 31 lMarch, 1987 Tom Parker: "Not only struck but rewritten. This is what you heard under Khrushchev, in Russia, when he rewrote the textbooks to remove any references to Stalin. They rewrote the textbooks to change the intent of the pilgrims ••• one of the books had thirty pages on the pilgrims on the first Thanksgiving, never mentioned why they came to this country, why they were called pilgrims, they were supposedly just people who made long trips, and they never said to whom they gave thanks at the first Thanksgiving." Robertson: "This is a deliberate attempt, then, to impose [an] atheistic point of view and to take away the theistic heritage of America, this isn't accidental, it's a deliberate attempt to rewrite history, is what you're saying." Parker: "And there are very serious implications of it. Once you remove any references to religion, you are teaching the students that religion is unimportant, that it is not even worthy of study. And what that does is, in effect, harden the soil of these fertile young minds to the receipt of the Gospel from their parents at home, at church or in the synagogue. And what these parents and teachers were asking in Alabama is for the right, as taxpayers, to be free from state imposition of a indoctrinated view that makes it hard for them to meet their Biblical responsibility to pass on that faith to their children." Robertson: "Is this thing going up on appeal, by the way?" Bob Skolrood: "It's going to be an interesting case, because the decision by the judge really applies to the state school board, and its going to be up to the state school board to decide what they're going to do about it." Reverend Pat Robertson: "The ACLU and the PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY really don't have standing to appeal, is that the idea? Skolrood: "Well, as I see it right now, unless they substitute their opinion or do something with the state school board ••• if there's an appeal, then it's gotten the full light of day ••• this to me is the most important case on religious freedom at least in the last forty years." Robertson: "If it goes on appeal, just financially, what does an appeal VOLUME 7, ISSUE 3{a) 32 lMarch, 1987 to the Supreme Court cost? Half a million dollars?" Skolrood: "It'll cost in that neighborhood ••• it'll cost that much." Robertson: "PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY spent a million dollars on that!?" Skolrood: "They've indicated that they've spent over a million dollars in support of this case, just at the trial court level." Robertson: "Well, now, you've got another one coming up in Omaha ••• on equal access, whether or not religious groups can have free access voluntarily after school hours in Omaha, Nebraska." Skolrood: "Right .. and that case, in Omaha, Nebraska is coming up the first part of April. And everyone concedes that the Justice Department is involved in it and the judge out there also concedes that this is now the leading case in America on equal access." Robertson: "Well, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if you realize what we're talking about here. We're talking about the thing that you have had on your heart for so long, what's wrong with education. What's wrong with education is that the humanists have taken it over in many states and have begun to manipulate the textbook system and what is taught in the curriculum and yes, students are not learning. "And one of them wrote in their Humanist magazine, if you can imagine this shocking thing, and I'm quoting, "So what if Johnny can't read." That's what the author said. "So what if Johnny can't read. We have him 'til he's seventeen years old and we will drive every vestige of Christianity out of him. Now, you couldn't get any more blatant than that. That's the goal, the purpose, they've announced it. And they laugh, they say the quote ''fundamentalists" may scream about it, but we've already won the game. Well the answer is, in Alabama, Judge Hand says no you haven't won the game yet. And these plaintiffs and their attorneys have said, "not yet." And with the National Legal Foundation working there, and then moving into Nebraska on the equal access bill, once again a school system which has refused equal access to religious people after school hours for voluntary religious observance. They will be challenged and that law will be affirmed, apparently, throughout the nation. It's a landmark case.