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Inculcating Christianist Ignorance · Nov 13, 07:03 PM

As this article in New Scientist points out, there are real public policy issues involved with the Christianist home schooling movement, but, you know, I can’t help thinking that these brainwashed children are going to fail spectacularly if & when they step outside their subculture. It is a subculture with very poor reality-testing skills & poor reality testing is not a good qualification for success in what remains a secular culture. If there was a cult raising their children to believe that, say, the germ theory of infectious disease was simply a materialist myth & that people got sick because they were possessed by demons, those parents might, at least in jurisdictions outside the deep south, might be considered unfit. Teaching one’s children the junk science of Creationism will make them unfit to participate in the wider society. And I guess that’s all right with me. The idea that Patrick Henry College will produce a generation of Christianist politicians who will be able to get elected to Congress, or even to state legislatures in most places, strikes me as improbable. These people are really not all that well fitted for life outside their protected zones. Over this century, I suspect that the US will develop into two distinct cultures, with Christian fundamentalists retreating into enclaves mostly in the deep south & parts of the mid-west. At the start of the next century our descendants may very well look on Christianist tribal areas as exotic & primitive places for specialist research & eco-tourism.

* * *

  1. I applaud your optomism.


    — randi    11/13/2006 07:33 PM    #

  2. Perhaps they will become as quaint as the Amish.


    — jd    11/13/2006 08:35 PM    #

  3. This is an aspect of the protected Christianist enclaves that I had not heard before: “Arrows for the War” — Simply astounding. I personally know one of these women, and watching her struggle to make these viewpoints “right” and “God’s will” is heartbreaking. Augh.
    http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_002709.php


    — dreaminginthedeepsouth    11/13/2006 11:26 PM    #

  4. I read the blog of a Christian mother of 12 – don’t ask how it happened, I’m not really sure myself, but it’s turned into a guilty pleasure like reading romances on the beach or something – and the one flaw in your theory is the much higher birth rate among fundamentalist Christians than among seculars (and Republicans over Democrats, for that matter). She was recently writing that they will slowly take over the culture due to higher reproduction and I hate to say it but she really has a point. My one boy doesn’t stand a chance against her 12 kids. And her 12 kids will go on to have large families as well…

    I can’t dismiss this as optimistically as you; if read some Quiver Full websites it’s quite troubling, actually.


    — swissmiss    11/14/2006 07:34 AM    #

  5. The Amish have big families, too. But many, many of their children peel away from the faith as they grow up. Correction: Apparently, about 90% of Amish children stay in the faith; but the NY Times had a piece last month about evangelicals' fear that they are losing their young people. The homeschooling / Patrick Henry College phenomenon is a response to a crisis. I think the crisis will be ongoing.


    — jd    11/14/2006 08:40 AM    #

  6. I don’t worry about “the numbers” — the worldview of the Quiverfulls is basically materialist. The world seems to have its own life cycle. The truth seems to be “above” or, more accurately, “beyond” the materialist viewpoint. If we get stuck in a “how to” Christianity rather than the spirit of Jesus, it’s just more of the same. I believe that Jesus was more about “something new.”


    — dreaminginthedeepsouth    11/14/2006 11:07 AM    #

  7. I’m guessing randi’s statement was sarcastic… but I think he’s she's right. Predicting that they will retreat into enclaves is overly optimistic. They are training for public office… and, of course, actually hold public office. They are more akin to the Taliban than the Amish.


    — efp    11/14/2006 01:26 PM    #

  8. Randi can speak for himherself, of course, but I did sense doubt in his reply about my thesis. I’m not saying they’re not to be opposed. I just think that ultimately reality trumps fantasy. Maybe it’s just that I’m an old guy & can afford to take the long view.


    — jd    11/14/2006 03:15 PM    #

  9. Speaking for herself, let me say, both you guys are correct. I was being sarcastic as my world view has little cheeriness in it. That being said jd I really, really, really wish your long view was a certainty.


    — randi    11/15/2006 07:55 AM    #