{"id":2530,"date":"2017-01-23T18:04:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T23:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2017-01-23T18:19:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T23:19:43","slug":"baxley-and-the-religious-liberties-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2530","title":{"rendered":"Baxley and the Religious Liberties Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

I told you about the\u00c2\u00a0“Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act<\/a>” (House Bill 303) filed in the Florida house and my concerns with it. Today, a companion bill was filed in the senate: Senate Bill 436<\/a>. It’s a duplicate of the house bill.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen troublesome bills in past years that were only filed in one chamber but not the other. Those bills always faded away, usually without even getting a hearing in any committees. But seeing that the current bill has versions filed in both chambers heightens my\u00c2\u00a0concern. That increases the chances of it at least making it out of the starting gate, so to speak.<\/p>\n

\"baxley\"<\/a>Another thing to worry about is who filed the senate bill: Dennis Baxley<\/a>. He was a representative in the state house back in 2005 when he sponsored an infamous bill titled The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights. That bill would have prevented “biased indoctrination” by “the classroom dictator.” In defense of that bill he related an upsetting personal story of a Florida State University professor ranting against creationism in class. You can read more about that bill in chapter 8 of Going Ape: Florida’s Battles over Evolution in the Classroom<\/a>. (Please excuse the shameless self promotion … but I think the fact that Baxley is back in action is a good reason to get up to speed on his history, don’t you think?)<\/p>\n

In 2008 we here at Florida Citizens for Science were deeply involved in the brawl over the inclusion of evolution in the new state science standards. Baxley was then executive director\u00c2\u00a0of the Christian Coalition of Florida and he had a firm opinion about the issue<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is no justification for singling out evolution for special skepticism or critical analysis,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wrote Richard T. O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Grady, executive director of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in a Feb. 8 letter to the Board of Education. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Its strength as a scientific theory matches that of the theory of gravitation, atomic theory and the germ theory.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The response from Dennis Baxley, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in error.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At one time, the scientific community thought that for good health, you should attach leaches to your body,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Baxley, a former state representative from Ocala. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just asking them to leave the door open a little bit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for other evidence to be considered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stay tuned …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I told you about the\u00c2\u00a0“Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act” (House Bill 303) filed in the Florida house and my concerns with it. Today, a companion bill was filed in the senate: Senate Bill 436. It’s a duplicate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-EO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2570","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":0},"title":"When more is not merrier","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We noted yesterday that the bad Instructional Materials bill from last year has been resurrected for another attempt this year in the Florida House. Unfortunately, the House bill now has a companion in the Senate that was filed today: SB 1210. I believe it's a duplicate of the House bill.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2579,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2579","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":1},"title":"Religious Liberties Bill: Analysis and Fasting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I know. It's the weekend. You're recharging for the week ahead. But I have to ask you to do something on behalf of science education. I have to ask you to send some emails and make some calls. Yes, your voice matters and right now we really need it. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2572,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2572","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":2},"title":"Update: Religious Liberties bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A bad bill filed in the Florida Senate by Sen. Dennis Baxley that could potentially affect science education has taken its first step forward. SB 436, entitled the Religious Liberties bill, is scheduled to be considered by the education committee on March 6 at 1:30 p.m. Many bills are filed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2650,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2650","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":3},"title":"A Tale of Two Bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Religious Expression in Public Schools bills, which\u00c2\u00a0invite conflicts between creationism and evolution in science classrooms (see our\u00c2\u00a0Religious Liberties Act 2017 blog category), are nearing the finish line in the Florida legislature. The Senate version won easy approval through the entire process and the House version passed through all of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2551,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2551","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":4},"title":"“A solution in search of a problem”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science needs your help! It's going to be a busy year for us and we need all the vocal, passionate, action-oriented science advocates we can find to support our cause. Please read all the way to the end of this post and consider our call to action.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2534,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2534","url_meta":{"origin":2530,"position":5},"title":"Baxley comments on school Religious Liberties bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the first public comment Sen. Dennis Baxley has made concerning the\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he and Rep. Kim Daniels filed in their respective chambers:\u00c2\u00a0Florida Senate to consider public school \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreligious liberties\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bill The bill would allow religious clothing and jewelry. It would also allow \u00e2\u20ac\u0153religious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2532,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}