The Christian Right's Assault on Public Education and the Science Curriculum

This meetup is a production of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Georgia) (https://www.meetup.com/americansunited-georgia/).Since the topic concerns threats to the integrity of the teaching of science in public schools, the Atlanta Science Tavern is pleased to be a co-sponsor.

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/6/d/2/event_112466322.jpegIn 2009, the Good News Club came to the public elementary school where journalist Katherine Stewart sent her children. The Club, which is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, billed itself as an after-school program of “Bible study," but its real mission was to convert children to fundamentalist Christianity, all the while promoting the false impression that its activities were endorsed by the school.

Astonished to discover that the U.S. Supreme Court had deemed this activity constitutional, Stewart set off on an investigative journey to dozens of cities and towns across the nation. The result, her book The Good News Club (http://www.amazon.com/The-Good-News-Club-Christian/dp/1586488430), documents the impact of this legal decision and demonstrates how the aim of this group and others like it is to undermine our system of public education.

Please join us as Stewart describes the continuing efforts on the part of certain fringe elements of the evangelical Christian community to inject their religious views into public schools, making clear the link between climate science deniers, creationists and this movement.

Katherine Stewart was born in Boston. She started her career in journalism working for investigative reporter Wayne Barrett at The Village Voice and freelanced for Newsweek International, Rolling Stone, Marie Claire and others. She cowrote the book about the musical Rent and, after moving to Santa Barbara in 2005, published two novels about 21st century parenting. Most recently she has written for The New York Times, Reuters, the Daily Beast, Bloomberg View, and Religion Dispatches. She lives with her family in New York City.