Textbook Case By Curt Guyette e-mail feedback   FIRST IN A SERIES: The Big MAC Attack How special interest groups and their think tanks waged the real Engler Revolution. SECOND IN A SERIES: Political Casualties Inside Gov. John Engler's war against worker's compensation.   THIRD IN A SERIES: Onward Christian Scholars How Gov. John Engler and the radical right are campaining to make taxpayers fund religious schools. SERIES HOME PAGE

The major tenets of American democracy-- respect for diversity, intellectual freedom, religious tolerance, racial and cultural pluralism, experimentation and pragmatism-- are often denied or ridiculed by the texts used in fundamentalist schools, according to Albert Menendez of the group Americans for Religious Liberty. "Religious bigotry permeates these supposedly secular textbooks," reports Menendez, adding that the curriculum views nearly every subject through a biblical prism. The textbooks examined by Menendez were published by Bob Jones University Press in Greenville, South Carolina, and Pensacola Christian College Press in Florida. One praised communist witch-hunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy as a man whose "accusations were indeed true...but the liberal media soon discredited him." One points out that the "Bible does not specifically condemn slavery" while another maintains that one factor in the Civil War was the South's desire to retain its Protestant identity. "The Indian culture typified heathen civilization," declares one history book. "Lost in darkness without light of the gospel." "Disgruntled over the loss of their lands and the destruction of the buffalo," notes another text, "the Indians were quick to go on the rampage." As far as sex education, "God demands sexual purity," and those who commit sexual sin should be forewarned: "The diseases that may result are a reminder that God punishes sinners." When it comes to science, the book "Biology for Christian Schools" instructs: "If the conclusions (of the scientific community) contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong no matter how many scientific facts may appear to back them." Most "reprehensible" of all, though, says Menendez, is the way these texts treat other religions. "Jews are blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus. Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus are ridiculed. And Catholic-bashing is an acceptable and seemingly indispensable method of instruction." Eliminate provisions separating church and state in regards to education, cautions Menendez, "and all Americans would be compelled to subsidize such instruction."