{"id":2768,"date":"2017-06-07T09:51:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2017-06-07T09:51:22","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:51:22","slug":"give-the-devil-his-due","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2768","title":{"rendered":"Give the Devil his Due"},"content":{"rendered":"

All has been very quiet concerning the odious instructional materials<\/a> bill lately. The bill would allow any resident, not just parents, to protest against what’s found in textbooks, including coverage of evolution, climate change, vaccines, etc. On top of that, school districts must appoint a hearing officer to consider such complaints. It’s bad news all around. But the bill has yet to be delivered to the governor for his signature. I’ve been searching high and low and asking many different people but I have yet to get answers concerning this part of the lawmaking process. Is waiting this long to give a bill to the governor normal? How long can legislators wait? Is there a deadline? I have no idea but I would love to know. Any help would be appreciated.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the religious liberties<\/a> bill has been plopped onto the governor’s desk. He has until June 20 to take action on it. So, NOW would be a good time to contact his office and urge a veto<\/a>. This bill would give teachers and school staff the right to express religious views in school and would allow students to express religious views in coursework without discrimination. For us here at Florida Citizens for Science, this is a concern because of the possibility of creationism and other religious views being inserted into science classrooms.<\/p>\n

\"satanology\"<\/a>And we’re not alone.\u00c2\u00a0Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino doesn’t pull any punches in his latest piece:\u00c2\u00a0Banner flap at Boca High ought to be lesson for Florida lawmakers<\/a>. Some excerpts:<\/p>\n

The Palm Beach County School Board has had a practice of allowing religious groups to advertise their brand of salvation at county public schools. At least that was the practice until Stevens asked Boca Raton High School to display his banner, which said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Church of Satanology\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Give the Devil his due.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing like tossing a Satanist in the punch bowl to get public organizations to shake themselves awake to the Constitutional dictates regarding the separation of church and state.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

This session, our state lawmakers passed The Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act, a bill that encourages more religious proselytizing in public schools.<\/p>\n

Its two main proponents have been Rep. Kim Daniels, a Democrat from Jacksonville. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a self-described apostle who came to the legislature as a Christian evangelical preacher. Daniels believes that witches are trying to take over the country, and may be working extra hard on President Donald Trump. Seriously.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In the Florida Senate, her partner in this quest is State Sen. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who owns a string of funeral homes and was the former executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida.<\/p>\n

Baxley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a fan of evolution, and thinks it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfair that Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public school children are being exposed to a science curriculum that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow that the earth is just 6,000 years old.<\/p>\n

They were the guiding hands that successfully passed a bill that would expand the role of religion in Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public schools to levels that have alarmed the American Civil Liberties Union, the Florida Citizens for Science and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

I suspect that state lawmakers will do what the Palm Beach County School District is doing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d remembering that promoting religious expression in public schools means promoting all forms of religious expression. Something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suddenly not such a great idea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All has been very quiet concerning the odious instructional materials bill lately. The bill would allow any resident, not just parents, to protest against what’s found in textbooks, including coverage of evolution, climate change, vaccines, etc. On top of that, … 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":[32,33],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-IE","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":2768,"position":0},"title":"Nature notes one bad bill; no one notices the other","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The science journal Nature published an article about antiscience bills that have cropped up across America, with a special focus on our very own Sunshine State:\u00c2\u00a0Revamped 'anti-science' education bills in United States find success. The piece focuses on the instructional materials bill that pretty much sailed through the state House\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":2793,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2793","url_meta":{"origin":2768,"position":1},"title":"The fight will now be won or lost where you live.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Unfortunately, the devious Instructional Materials bill, which creationists and climate change deniers absolutely love, is now signed into law by Governor Rick Scott. This means our fight is only just now beginning. Each and every one of us has to be on alert. You must keep an eye on your\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":2732,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2732","url_meta":{"origin":2768,"position":2},"title":"Meet your new “unbiased” textbook hearing officer: Florida creationists","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationists, climate change deniers and other antiscience nuts scored a major victory in the Florida legislature with the passage of the instructional materials bill. This bill, if the governor signs it, will kick wide open the door for ideological crusaders to pester their local school boards about banning or changing\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":2618,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2618","url_meta":{"origin":2768,"position":3},"title":"More press about bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There are more news stories today about both the Religious Liberties bills and the Instructional Materials bills that we here at Florida Citizens for Science are opposed to and tracking. Naples Daily News:\u00c2\u00a0Senate committee pushes 'religious expression' bill forward Brandon Haught, a high school biology teacher representing the organization Florida\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":2570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2570","url_meta":{"origin":2768,"position":4},"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":2775,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2775","url_meta":{"origin":2768,"position":5},"title":"Governor signs Religious Liberties bill into law","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida legislature presented Governor Rick Scott with the Religious Liberties bill on Monday and on Friday he signed it into law. There are two sections of the bill\u00c2\u00a0(link to pdf) that concern us here at Florida Citizens for Science. One of them is: A school district may not discriminate\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/open-your-text-books-2-300x207.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768"}],"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=2768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}