In the latest chapter of the GOP’s war on education, fundamentalist candidate Rick Santorum has claimed that the left is using higher education to “indoctrinate” young people.
During a recent speech to a Baptist church in Naples, Fla., Santorum accused universities of “undermining the very principles of our country every single day by indoctrinating kids with left-wing ideology.”
Santorum is known to be a long-shot candidate due to his far-right evangelical views. He earned his infamous “Google problem” by comparing homosexuality to bestiality, and only a month ago said that President Obama’s desire for all American children to have the opportunity to attend college was “snobbery.”
“62 percent of children who enter college with a faith conviction leave without it,” said Santorum. He did not cite the research behind his claim — assuming that there is any
Unfortunately for Santorum, a 2007 University of Texas study found the opposite to be true; “those who never attended college had the highest rates of (declining) church attendance (76.2 percent), diminished importance placed on religion (23.7 percent), and dis-affiliation from religion (20.3 percent). Students who earned at least a bachelor’s degree, on the other hand, had the lowest rates on those three factors with 59.2 percent indicating decreased church attendance and 15 percent placing less importance on religion and dis-affiliating from religion.”
He also claimed the status quo in education is unfair because “If they taught Judeo-Christian principles in those colleges and universities, they would be stripped of every dollar. If they teach radical secular ideology, they get all the government support that they can possibly give them.” This is even harder to swallow — Santorum is an attorney, so he’s definitely familiar with the Constitution. He knows that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof.”
If the government were to fund universities that taught strictly Judeo-Christian values as Santorum desires, but did not fund universities that taught the variety of other religious and cultural beliefs and values in the world, they would be, in fact, establishing a preferred religion which is in violation of the Constitution. After all, the framers had personally experienced the intrusive and negative influence of the combined power of the Crown and the Church. They did not want that power to hinder, damage, or otherwise corrupt the foundation of our democracy. Santorum no doubt knows this, he just doesn’t agree. Santorum has maintained his firm religious and political beliefs despite spending 10 years in public higher education institutions.
Universities and their various departments have different cultures; professors have varied beliefs and passions as well.
Exposure is not indoctrination. The truth is that while college exposes us to new ideas, it also teaches us how to think critically and evaluate information. A college degree is still one of the best ways to give you a financial advantage in life and knowledge itself will enrich your days. That experience can never be cheapened by someone like Rick Santorum.
Emily Brooks is an economics senior and may be reached at [email protected].
Because of his Google problem Mr. Santorum should change his name to Sanitarium, then proceed to commit himself to one!
For an idealist Santorum was indoctrinated by the catholic church. So who's the ingnorant one now.
Google: Mormon temple secret prayer ceremonies 24/7 for the SOULS OF AMERICA.
"I don't care about the rich. I don't care about the poor. I CARE ABOUT THE SOULS OF AMERICA." –Mitt Romney 2012
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The GOP made a deal w/ the Devil when they pandered to Social Conservatives. The Americam majority won't sign off on crackpots and nutters. There just aren't enough superstitious misfits to win national elections.
No, I think Emily Brooks should "know better". But she's one of the "indoctrinated" and can't help herself. Here come the lefties attacks on anyone conservative and in the news. She's obviously one of those "don't confuse me with the facts" crowd because she has accepted everything she's been taught without exercising any critical thinking. This was just a hate Santorum rant.
I find your "article" to be almost laughable. You miss several on several points first being that Senator Santorum is NOT an evangelical but a Catholic. You also have completely misunderstood the founding fathers intentions. They were not worried about the "Church" and its influence but about the state taking over
religion….in other words seperation of Church and state was to protect religions role. The founding fathers were to a man Christian influenced and that is why they believed in rights endowed by their creator and not the state. Religion does not "corrupt the democracy" and is the actual catalyst for the creation of our form of goverment.
While I have no issue with anyone exchanging ideas I would ask you when was the last time the conservative point of view given in any school. As a general rule we have ended up with the most liberal and left wing bias imaginable points of view. In general if you are a conservative you are ridiculed in most if not all schools.
Lastly while not a supporter of Mr Santorum I take issue with his potrayal in your article. I find the whole article not well thought out and very misinformed.
anyone who has read the journals and letters of the founding fathers knows that – after decades of inquisition and intrigues woven by the popes of the time, who were ruthless and powerful politcal figures, not above having their enemies assasinated – freedom FROM religion was the tenet that our constitution's framers supported… franklin and jefferson, in particular. at the time, there was no danger whatsoever of any state taking over religion, despite henry viii's earlier attempts. i'm weary of sheep regurgitating their favorite talking heads' sound bytes without bothering to find out if any of it – on the left or the right – is factual. how many colleges have you visited? how many classes have you sat in on? if you don't go and find out for yourself, you don't know.
followed by a hate emily brooks rant
Why is a left wing editorial posted as if it is hard news? Miss Emily is obviously extremely biased in her point of view and a countervailing perspective should be presented ion order for this posting to be fair and balanced.
The name of the newspaper probably more accurately reflects what Emily aspires to become when she matures. An ill tempered, old FemiNazi plotting ways to molest young boys!
Shortly after I posted my comment above, Google News pulled from their site. At least someone there has journalistic integrity.
It's not posted as hard news. It's in the OPINION section. Of course she is biased.
FemiNazi? Yes, let's bandy about conglomerations of names and terms so that we can either sound stupider or more intelligent (your call), and get a fascist reference in as well. PediMike? MussoMike? FrancoConservative?
Homosexuality is unnatural and immoral sexual choice. I'm glad to see someone stop "tolerating" and actually take a stand.
How is it unnatural? It occurs in nature! And who's job is it to define what is and what isn't moral? Get out in the world Taria!
I am sorry I must do a comment on these Republican, Are they just so He– bent on destroying America. Just look at what they have been saying, End Social Security, End Medicare, End Health Care, Put Children to Work, End all Higher Education, End Unemployment, End all Social Program, End Food Safety, Go to War, There is no such thing as Global Warming, Build a pipeline for Dirty Oil that is partly owned by China. End all programs for clean energy research. Bar women from the pill or any type of birth control, end equal rights for women, Give the Rich even more Tax breaks. Is anyone sane anymore to listen to these people, They are sounding and doing the same thing as Hitler and Stalin did to purge the population. It is time to stand up People or are we to weak to do it anymore. I sure hope not. I believe in the United States were all are treated equal and I hope you do also and you do think about what they are saying
Thank you Scott, you nailed it, you exposed the 'new' Republican party for what it is. And they can't seem to agree amongst themselves what their platform is because they publicly act like a bunch of mud slinging self-righteous, intolerant, inflexible self-serving hypocrites. I use to be a party-line Republican…not anymore! I DON'T TRUST them! The nation is becoming more mature with a new generation taking the helm, and finally we are starting to include everyone… the homosexuals, the poor people, those of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds (none of which I am by the way) …we're starting to become amalgamated and ALL inclusive, FINALLY! And now that we are they are calling people who don't agree with them 'liberal'.
I'm sick and tired of the Christian conservatives in this country trying to corral the rest of the nation into their Jesus-centered politics, that is NOT what this nation was founded on in spite of their rhetoric to the contrary, and I'm a Mayflower descendent! The Republicans over the last decade have been stripping away civil liberties in the name of 'God and patriotism', in spite of what they say they are presenting themselves as the party of the rich and closed-minded, trying to hold on tightly to their ever-more antiquated values in the progressively evolving face of the American ideological landscape.
I would argue that Conservative Christians do not push forward "Jesus-centered politics." Having grown up in a conservative christian household, the Jesus of the Bible I read included the outcast, fed the poor, and commanded his followers to love thy neighbor. These modern Conservative Christians are politically trying to further segregate gays, withhold money from the hungry, and keep out/toss out their neighbors. These actions are the most anti-Jesus (ah-hem, "anti-Christ") things a person can do, and yet they deceivingly call themselves Christian. It's appalling, disgusting, and while we should have the freedom to hold onto our personal beliefs, trying to push them into law not only blur the lines between church and state, but this act of removing rights from tax-paying gay citizens is anti-American. Further, the Conservative "Christian" agenda of re-defining marriage as "one man and one woman" is such a blatant modern construct of an ever-evolving "institution" that I'm surprised they haven't been called out for trying to re-define the word "traditional." The "Defense of Marriage" is nothing but a thinly disguised Defense of Prejudice, and I believe that if these people want to live in a country that strips its citizens of rights and forces one religious belief on people, then they need to find somewhere else to live.
the bible has a Lot more in it than the few nice things jesus did. and that's just the stuff they chose to include in your version of the bible after thousands of years of revisions. in one book they left out, jesus made a child go blind for laughing at him, and i don't even need to mention all of the stuff they left in – the stuff that very much supports discrimination against gays and many others.
and i don't get xians who think that people should be left to make up their own mind. if i really thought people were going to hell i would force my beliefs upon them and want the govt to do so too. my guess is most xians don't truly believe, they just think they're fooling the possible god in the sky by saying so.
Meh… if this was a response to my comment, then you're probably talking to the wrong person. I don't have an irrational belief in an Inerrant Bible supposedly "preserved" throughout all time (that's a little naive, in my opinion), nor do I give this type of special credit to extra-Biblical texts – for all anyone knows, they are nothing more than historical creative writing. But at the same time, I don't throw the baby out with the bath water. There's a lot of good morals in the Bible – like in many religious texts – that we can apply to our lives in the ways we wish to. So many Biblical Literalists will say things like, "But the BIBLE says…," but the truth is that the Bible doesn't say anything. It doesn't have it's own mouth. We are the mouth(s). We read it through the lens of our personal experiences and current culture – which is a dark and dirty lens for anyone seeking the "true, original meaning." Ruthless, prejudice people do not have to base their anger and hatred on what they perceive in the Biblical text – that's a cowardice cop out in a ridiculous attempt to hide their ignorance. People who read the Bible CAN choose to read and interpret it in loving, merciful ways. We are all responsible for our actions, no matter what religious "authority", if any, we choose to live by. The freedoms we grant to Americans should be granted equally, not according to specific dogmatic lifestyles.
Keep the articles coming, Emily!