First up from the God machine is a story that combines two of my favorite subjects: religion news and science fiction.
Last week, two self-proclaimed Jedi Knights appealed to the United Nations to recognize their faith as an official religion and accordingly rename the International Day for Tolerance to Interstellar Day of Tolerance.
The petition from Britons John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law, who call themselves Umada and Yunyun, comes after a 2001 British census recorded 400,000 people who “practice” the Jedi faith.
As it turned out, the United Nations was not the droid agency Wilkinson and Law were looking for. “The UN is not in the business of certifying religions,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. “With or without light sabers.”
That’s probably a good thing, but I’m still struggling to understand how 400,000 people listed “Jedi” as their faith in the 2001 British census. If it was 400, I would have been surprised. But 400,000? There’s obviously some kind of Lucas-based spiritual movement out there that I’m not aware of.
Next up from the God machine is a great twist on a familiar story about school prayer.
It’s not unusual to have incidents in which a teacher and a student disagree about whether the instructor crossed the church-state line in promoting matters of religion, but it’s often a he-said/she-said situation. A student will have one version of events; the teacher another.
In New Jersey, however, one high school student accused his history teacher of preaching in class — and he backed it up with an audio recording.
Junior Matthew LaClair, 16, said history teacher David Paszkiewicz, who is also a Baptist preacher in town, spent the first week of class lecturing students more about heaven and hell than the colonies and the Constitution.
LaClair said Paszkiewicz told students that if they didn’t accept Jesus, “you belong in hell.” He also dismissed as unscientific the theories of evolution and the “Big Bang.”
LaClair, who described his own religious views as “non-Christian,” said he wanted to complain about Paszkiewicz to school administrators, but feared his teacher would deny the charges and that no one would take a student’s word against a teacher’s. So, he said, he started taping Paszkiewicz.
“I would never have suspected something like this went on in a public school,” LaClair said yesterday. “If I didn’t have those CDs, everything would have been dismissed.”
That Paszkiewicz went way beyond the line is not open to debate. On the fourth day of class, Paszkiewicz is on tape saying, “He (God) did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sin on his own body, suffered your pains for you and he’s saying, ‘Please accept me, believe me.'”
He adds, according to the tapes: “If you reject that, you belong in hell. The outcome is your prerogative. But the way I see it, God himself sent his only son to die for David Paszkiewicz on that cross … And if you reject that, then it really is to hell with you.”
It’s worth noting, of course, that it took a full month before school administrator would meet with LeClair about his concerns. Moreover, Paszkiewicz denied having included religious lessons in class, and according to LeClair, the principal was prepared to take him at his word.
The meeting took a turn, however, when LaClair reached into his backpack and produced the CDs. Apparently, the Baptist teacher was not only prepared to abandon his official responsibilities by proselytizing in class, he was also prepared to lie about it. Isn’t there some kind of Commandment or something against that sort of behavior?
The superintendent has vowed to take “corrective action,” though it’s not entirely clear what that will be. In the meantime, Christian students are blaming the student for the teacher’s outrageous in-class conduct.
“I lost a few friends,” LaClair said. “I don’t really hold it against them. I hope over time we’ll get back together.”
And, finally, odd news from the world of the religious right movement. Remember a month ago when Morbo noted with some optimism that Dr. Joel C. Hunter had taken over the Christian Coalition? Given Hunter’s background and published works, it seemed like a relative moderate would now lead the former-powerhouse organization.
Except it didn’t last. As of this week, Hunter is out as the Christian Coalition. He said he wanted to work on other issues besides just gay marriage and abortion, the Coalition’s board of directors insisted that Hunter stick to just those two issues, so he’s gone. Typical.