Religious Right Using After-School Bible Clubs to Undermine Public Education, Says Author
By Tim Walker
For many anti-public education activists, maybe, as the saying goes, “nothing succeeds like failure.” Pushing extremist agendas is often more about undermining, or even dismantling, the institution they claim they want to “reform.” Journalist Katherine Stewart sees such a dynamic at work with the Religious Right and its aggressive and increasingly successful campaign to install so-called “Good News Clubs” in schools across America. In a nation as diverse as ours, a plan to transform public schools into fundamentalist boot camps is bound to ultimately fail. But, says Stewart, much can be accomplished along the way to chip away at the institution and exhaust and frustrate its supporters.
Stewart’s book, “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children”investigates a specific brand of after-school bible study programs (called “Good News Clubs”) that have proliferated across the country. Her interest was piqued a few years ago when her own daughter’s elementary school opened its doors to such a club. Initially, Stewart thought the program sounded harmless enough – it
For many anti-public education activists, maybe, as the saying goes, “nothing succeeds like failure.” Pushing extremist agendas is often more about undermining, or even dismantling, the institution they claim they want to “reform.” Journalist Katherine Stewart sees such a dynamic at work with the Religious Right and its aggressive and increasingly successful campaign to install so-called “Good News Clubs” in schools across America. In a nation as diverse as ours, a plan to transform public schools into fundamentalist boot camps is bound to ultimately fail. But, says Stewart, much can be accomplished along the way to chip away at the institution and exhaust and frustrate its supporters.Stewart’s book, “The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children”investigates a specific brand of after-school bible study programs (called “Good News Clubs”) that have proliferated across the country. Her interest was piqued a few years ago when her own daughter’s elementary school opened its doors to such a club. Initially, Stewart thought the program sounded harmless enough – it