so, rick santorum, what you’re saying is “be conservative: don’t go to college”

Rick Santorum’s real beliefs on education are finally frothing up and boiling over. Unfortunately, he’s saying them aloud in public.

Kyle Munzenrieder wrote a brilliant response for the Miami New Times to Santorum’s most recent comments, as did The Hill‘s Daniel Strauss. Allow me to offer my own.

Rick Santorum finally said aloud what many fundamentalist Christians have felt for a long time: “be conservative: don’t go to college. And if you do go to college, make sure it’s a Republican party-approved private conservative Christian college. (I’m looking at you Liberty University, Bob Jones, Oral Roberts, Regent University, BYU, and Pepperdine.)

Listen to what Santorum told a Florida audience:

“It’s no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go college..the indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination.”

Evangelicals would prefer that students either attend schools with the words “evangelical,” “theological,” and “seminary” in the title (preferably all three) or not at all. Because according to Santorum’s and other evangelicals’ line of thought, when the nation’s top colleges and state universities educate students, it’s liberal indoctrination. But, when private conservative evangelical schools educate students, it’s not indoctrination; it’s a simple dissemination of facts (and by facts, I mean faith claims that are often contrary to scientific facts).

It’s almost comical: Evangelicals don’t want kids to go to America’s top colleges because they might actually learn something besides a fundamentalist, conservative, literalist, theologically-laced worldview, which often leads to a biblically defended suppression of the civil rights of groups that don’t look and/or think like they do. So, from a very early age, they encourage like-minded people to isolate and insulate their kids from any point of view other than their own by placing kids in home schools, private (approved conservative) Christian schools, conservative Christian colleges, and if they do attend graduate school, they often receive some fantastic degree in education, physics, and applied scripture from Southern Evangelical Theological Seminary (I made this title up. If it does exist, my point has only been further underscored.)

So just to clarify:

Public school: Liberal indoctrination
Home school: NOT indoctrination

Public High School: Liberal indoctrination
Christian High School: NOT indoctrination

Public or Ivy League university: Liberal indoctrination
Christian College: NOT indoctrination

R1 Research Graduate School: Liberal indoctrination
Evangelical Theological Seminary: NOT indoctrination

I shake my head.

HT: Jim West

who needs reason when there’s personal revelation: god speaks to pat robertson?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a society and government that is based upon personal revelation (that is, the belief that God speaks directly to people, as opposed to, let’s say, a society and government that is based upon logic and reason that is repeatable, testable, and subject to peer-review and critical scrutiny to determine the veracity of claims) is doomed to be disproportionately influenced by religious charlatans and charismatic preachers with money like Pat Robertson.

For what is to stop a wealthy preacher with cable access to claim, for instance, that God has given him a direct, word-for-word revelation?

And in a world based upon revelation (as opposed to reason and rationality) who are you to dispute him? Does God speak to you, and if so, why are you at your desk fuming while Pat Robertson is on TV prophesying?

The Founders had a good idea: separate religion completely from the secular administration of federal government. Anything shy of this is a quasi-theocracy at the mercy of the one whom a religious majority happens to believe is in personal communication with the divine.

a christmas tree so tacky, glenn beck would be proud

Boss Creations Glowing Cross "Put the Cross back in Christmas" Trees. Now in "Natural" and "American Flag"

I simply don’t know what to say about this line of merchandise. A company, Boss Creations, has tried to put the ‘cross’ back in Christmas by selling Christmas trees with actual glowing crosses in them!!

And just when you thought Santa’s special troop of fundamentalist tacky elves couldn’t get any worse, Boss Creations has gone and Glenn Beck-ified Christmas by creating a red, white, and blue American flag Christmas tree, complete with glowing cross. Boss Creation’s new ‘Christian Nation’ Christmas tree (I kid you not, I’m not making this up) means they’ve gotten back to the true meaning of Christmas and put the ‘America’ back into Christmas.

(John 11:35)

Seriously?

The existence of this product has forced me to create a new blog category entitled HOLY CRAP, because that is literally what garbage like this is: HOLY CRAP! Or, like Steven Colbert said, “It’s like George Washington and Jesus teamed up and declared independence from taste.”

They even took the time to write President Obama a letter. (I wonder if they’re Republicans?)

HT: Steven Colbert and Steven Colbert.