Religion Dispatches’ Candace Chellew-Hodge wrote today about SC gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley’s vision for South Carolina public preschools and pre-K classes.
Abolish them. In Haley’s words, public early childhood education should be replaced by “creative” alternatives “that don’t cost government dollars.”
And what type of creative alternatives should be sought? Faith-based ones, she says, and as Candace Chellew-Hodge points out, only certain faiths need apply:
“What I will do is get a huge faith-based coalition together from all over the state and develop a community project, which is preschool programs, afterschool programs, job shadowing, mentoring, won’t cost the first dollar,” [SC Gubernatorial Candidate Nikki Haley] said. “But just imagine what we could do if we create a plan like that for South Carolina where they can go into those rural areas and sometimes show those kids something they don’t always see, or mentor them, or help them with their homework in a way they don’t get. That’s when South Carolina will be strong again. That’s when we can make improvements that are creative that don’t cost government dollars.”
Yes, just imagine! As in most of the country, and especially in the deep South like South Carolina, when Haley says “faith-based organizations” what she really means is “Christian organizations.” Here in South Carolina, Muslims, Jews, or any liberal faiths like the Unitarian Universalists or the United Church of Christ, need not apply.
I can’t imagine that “Dar ul-Islam Early Childhood Center” would get as much love as “First Baptist Day Care”, and Ms. Chellew-Hodge sees through the veneer of the multicultural-sounding “faith-based” initiative as much as I do. This is only a gateway to the utopia all of these radical Christianists envision: the indoctrination of America to the point that their outlook becomes normalcy.
In their minds, they’re spreading morality to the next generation. In their minds, they are staving off what they see as a cultural decline by arming the next generation against what they see as a social ill.
Were they truly open to diversity of opinion, were the pro-gay Metropolitan Community Church or Muslim groups like MCNA truly to be operating on equal footing, there would be less of an issue. But the fact that this initiative is coming from a Sarah Palin-backed Republican makes me think that anti-choice, pro-homophobia, anti-progress organizations will be at the forefront of such a radical shift towards parochial supremacy.
The Right always says that the Left wants to brainwash (“indoctrinate“) youth. Nikki Haley and her Tea Party compatriots prefer their version — neural baptism.
