A Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible (mid-15th Century). It’s written in Latin Vulgate.
— Photo by NYC Wanderer (Kevin Eng)
Silver and Elm streets in Waterville, Maine, in 1910, showing the Universalist Church, which was established in 1832. Colby College — and its superb art museum — is in Waterville. Note the beautiful elm trees.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
The U.S. Supreme Court, run by right-wing extremists called, very inaccurately, “conservatives,” continues to erode walls between religious organizations (real or purported) and government, ruling, for example, last week in the case of two “born again’’ Christian schools in Maine that they can’t be excluded from a state tuition program. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the 6-3 majority, says that states that subsidize private schools can’t discriminate against religious ones. But a couple of tricky things here are that some religious schools operate as theological propagandists to the public and as adjuncts of the Trump/QAnon Republican Party.
Consider:
One of the two schools, Temple Academy, in Waterville, says it expects its teachers “to integrate biblical principles with their teaching in every subject” (including science) and teaches students “to spread the word of Christianity.” It seeks:
“To foster within each student an attitude of love and reverence for the Bible as the infallible, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God.’’
But which translation/version of the Bible to use? Which one is “infallible”?
What about the Good Book’s innumerable contradictions? And its support in places for slavery and violence? Only God knows!
The other institution, Bangor Christian Schools, says it wants to develop “within each student a Christian worldview and Christian philosophy of life” – whatever that means in these days of public hyper-hypocrisy.
And both institutions’ admissions policies let them deny enrollment to students based on actual gender, gender self-identity, sexual orientation and religion, and require their teachers to be born-again Christians. (I admit, by the way, that I’m weary of “sexual-identity’’ issues.)
Fine.
It’s their business, until the matter of taxpayer money beclouds the situation.
Evangelicals are a key part of the coalition that has ardently supported the least Christian and most immoral president in American history, but Trump promised he’d get them the sort of judges they wanted and he came through. (And then he got them to send him millions of dollars, which he pocketed.)
This reminds me of the fact that too many organizations (including those run by TV con men preachers) claiming to be mainly “religious” in order to be tax-exempt are in fact political-propaganda or commercial organizations that under tax laws are not supposed to be tax-exempt. A lot of us are becoming increasingly irritated by having to pay their taxes for them.
For some reason, this reminds me of a school reunion I attended back in 2016 in which I was asked to preside over a memorial service for our departed schoolmates. After the school chaplain gave me the program printout, I noticed that it was a Christian service – Lord’s Prayer, Corinthians, etc. – and asked the minister (an Episcopalian): “What about the Jewish classmates?’’ of which there were a few. “They can suck it up,’’ he replied with a smile.
The service took place without incident.
Paul Bunyan statue in Bangor. Maine has an old and famous lumber industry because of its vast forests.
— Photo by Dennis Jarvis
