Op Ed

At a breakfast meeting yesterday in New Hampshire, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, now a candidate for U.S. President, announced that he does not believe in anthropogenic global warming. He said,

I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes, our climates change. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed.

So not only does our governor not believe in human-caused climate change and global warming, he thinks scientists are fraudulently manipulating data to cash in and get rich quick. Yes, vilifying and maligning scientists is a sure way to win the Republican nomination in today’s partisan environment. It always worked in Texas, the state whose Republican Party is totally controlled by religious-right radicals who would rather believe in fundamentalist sectarian doctrine than what they were taught in science class. But will it work on the national stage?

Scientists are usually seen as quiet individuals who work to discover new knowledge that helps human civilization to survive, such as finding new sources of energy, new properties of matter that create better industrial materials and chemicals, and new drugs to cure diseases. Scientists also map the geology and biology of the Earth, so we know what we’re mining, drilling, and killing. But when scientists try to warn us that using fossil fuels as a major energy source is poisoning our atmosphere and changing the climate in dangerous ways, Rick Perry would rather think the worse of them: Not only are scientists wrong, they are venal, too. Indulging in baseless insults is a prerogative of some candidates, and Rick Perry is a master of this, a skill he learned during his Texas campaigns.

Perry makes his bizarre claims deliberately. Even though he sincerely believes what he says, an intelligent candidate would presumably keep his crazy thoughts hidden from the voters until after he –or she; I must not exclude Michele Bachmann – is nominated and elected. But our governor loves the publicity. He knows the nightly commentators on MSNBC won’t be able to resist him and will give him plenty of air time in front of their left-leaning viewers – a priceless opportunity to spread his message of hope to the unconverted. Already the national press (here and here) is falling all over itself to publicize his every utterance. Perry will certainly keep saying stupid things because it gains him enormous press attention and the commitment of millions of Republican voters.

Last year, Governor Perry was not shy about telling people he is a creationist:

Explain where you stand on evolution-creationism being taught in school.

I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.

Perry’s answer assumes that there is more than one side to science’s explanation of biological origins, a scientific side (evolutionary biology) and a religious side (intelligent design creationism). There is not. To this end, Perry has appointed three recent members of the Texas State Board of Education – Don McLeroy, Gail Lowe, and Barbara Cargill – to be the chairman. All three are, like Perry, creationists who worked hard to push their sectarian beliefs about the natural world into the science standards and textbooks. Scientists had to leave their important work at our state’s universities and take time instead to oppose these radicals on the State Board.

At least our governor is willing to act on his beliefs about science, as backward and mistaken as they are. Image what he could do as President. He could deny scientific facts repeatedly, politicize the country’s science agencies to publish inaccurate scientific information and suppress scientists who dare to speak the truth, and continue to give federal support to corporations who make money defying environmental laws. Oh, wait….that already happened during the previous Republican administration.

Steven Schafersman is a consulting scientist, writer, and science education advocate.

At a breakfast meeting this morning in New Hampshire, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, now a candidtate for U.S. President, announced that he does not believe in anthropogenic global warming. He said,

I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes, our climates change. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed.

So not only does our governor not believe in human-caused climate change and global warming, he thinks scientists are fraudulently manipulating data to cash in and get rich quick. Yes, villifying and maligning scientists is a sure way to win the Republican nomination in today’s partisan environment. It always worked in Texas, the state whose Republican Party is totally controlled by religious-right radicals who would rather believe in fundamentalist sectarian doctrine than what they were taught in science class. But will it work on the national stage?

Scientists are usually are seen as quiet individuals whowork to discover new knowledge that helps human civilization to survive, such as finding new sources of energy, new properties of matter that create better industrial materials and chemicals, and new drugs to cure diseases. But when scientists try to warn us that using fossil fuels as a major energy source is poisoning our atmosphere and changing the climate in dangerous ways, Rick Perry would rather think the worse of them: not only are they wrong, but they are venal, too. Indulging in baseless insults is a perogative of some candidtates, and Rick Perry is a master of that.

Perry makes these bizarre claims on purpose. Even though he really believes what he is saying, an intelligent candidate would keep his crazy thoughts hidden from the voters until after he is nominated and elected. But our governor loves the publicity. He knows the evening commentators on MSNBC won’t be able to resist him and will give him plenty of air time in front of left-leaning viewers–a priceless opportunity to spread his message of hope to the unconverted. Already the national press (here and here, for example) is falling all over themselves to publicize his every utterance. Perry will certainly keep saying stupid things because it is getting him enormous press attention and the committment of millions of Republican voters.

Last year, Governor Perry was not shy about telling people he is a Creationist:

Explain where you stand on evolution-creationism being taught in school.

I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.

Perry’s answer assumes that there is more than one side to science’s explanation of biological origins, a scientific side (evolutionary biology) and a religious side (intelligent design creationism). There is not. To this end, Perry has appointed three recent members of the Texas State Board of Education–Don McLeroy, Gail Lowe, and Barbara Cargill–to be the chairman. All three are, like Perry, Creationists who worked hard to push their sectarian beliefs about the natural world into the science standards and textbooks. Scientists had to leave their important work at our state’s universities and take time instead to oppose these radicals on the State Board.

At least our governor is willing to act on his beliefs about science, as backwards and mistaken as they are. Image what he could do as U.S. President. He could deny scientific facts repeatedly, politicize the country’s science agencies to publish inaccurate scientific information and suppress scientists who dare to speak the truth, and continue to give federal support to corporations who make money defying environmental laws. Oh, wait….that already happened during the previous Republican president’s term.

As a native Texan, I’m used to crazy religion and crazy politics. So, the announcement of Gov. Rick Perry’s plans for “The Response,” a prayer event scheduled for Aug. 6 at Houston’s Reliant Stadium, was not a surprise.

But as a Presbyterian minister and community organizer, it’s part of my job to stand up for my neighbors. The use of the governor’s office to promote one religion in a country with such rich religious diversity is obviously unhealthy politics, but—if one takes the Christian and Jewish scriptures seriously—it is also unhealthy religion. Here are five rather important verses of scripture you aren’t likely to hear at “The Response”:

 

Don’t make a show of prayer
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray in public places to be seen by others… But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your heavenly parent, who is unseen.” (Matt. 6:5-6)

While Jesus never addressed the issues most important to some of this event’s co-sponsors, such as homosexuality and abortion, he did speak out against public displays of religion. Whatever Jesus meant by the word “prayer,” it seems to have been about the quiet and personal. The disciples had to ask Jesus how to pray, which is a pretty good indication that he wasn’t praying a lot publicly.  What he did say about prayer carried a warning label: “Don’t rub it in other people’s faces.”

God doesn’t withhold rain because we’ve done something wrong
“God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt. 5:45)

Perry recently called Texans to pray for rain, which implies that God steers clouds toward the worthy. According to Right Wing Watch, one of the events co-sponsors, the earthquake in Japan happened because the emperor had sex with the Sun Goddess. It may be a part of our lower nature to blame disasters on people we don’t like or understand, but Jesus taught that God sends rain on the just and unjust.  Furthermore, he said our love should be equally nonselective.

I have chosen Christianity as my life’s religion, but when nonjudgmental love is taken out of its center, it becomes poisonous and predatory. The word “God” can be a helpful symbol for all the transcendentals of life, but the symbol becomes instantly pathological when used as a scientific explanation or political justification.

God doesn’t have favorites
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.” (Acts 10:34)

When the Bible says that God is not a “respecter of persons” it means that God doesn’t have a favorite country or religion. The idea that God wants Christians to be in charge of other people violates Jesus’ teaching that we are to take the lowest place. We are to change the world by humble persuasion and good example, not by messianic coercion. The assumption that Christianity and America are God’s two favorite things will be particularly ironic, as the prayer event falls on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Worship by those who neglect the poor is offensive to God
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me… Away with the noise of your songs!  I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21-24)

The prophet Amos chastised the religion of his day for praying to God while mistreating people.  Texas leads the nation in citizens who are uninsured, who work for minimum wage, and who die from unsafe working conditions on construction sites. Our state has the widest gap between rich and poor of any in the union.  If the governor wants to call us to repentance it should begin with our real sins against the poor not the imaginary sins dreamed up by his friends.

The heart of Christian ethics is being a good neighbor
When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) it was to teach humility to a rich young zealot who thought he was approaching moral perfection.  The Samaritans were the scapegoats of the day. The rich young ruler would consider Samaritans heretics and immoral people. Jesus used a merciful Samaritan as the example of ethical perfection.  It is a lesson many Christians have yet to learn.

One sponsor of the event, the American Family Association, is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.  The group’s director of analysis for government and policy is quoted by the SPLC as saying that Hitler was “an active homosexual” who sought out gays “because he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough.” He also said Muslims should not be allowed in the military or be allowed to build mosques in the United States.

None of this analysis springs from malice. In fact, I must confess that I have a soft spot for Rick Perry. When the James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in Texas was passed, I had the honor of pushing the wheelchair of Byrd’s mother into the governor’s office for the signing.  I privately thanked Perry for his courage in standing up to all the groups who had fought against the bill; I knew he might pay a political price for signing the bill.  Tears came to his eyes, and he said, “It’s the right thing to do.”

I can’t know what is in Perry’s heart, of course, but I do know the problem isn’t one politician but rather a nation that has embraced an unhealthy political arrogance undergirded by even unhealthier religious hubris.  The “prayer” that is most needed at this time is for each of us, believer or not, to go into our own heart and find the humility and empathy that is at the core of righteousness, political and spiritual.

 

Jim Rigby is pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. He can be reached at jrigby0000@aol.com, and videos of his sermons are available online at http://www.staopen.com/sermons/.

This morning we received great news—the Observer has won a 2011 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for Melissa del Bosque’s story “Children of the Exodus“. The prestigious national award, given out by the University of Maryland, honors outstanding coverage of children and families.

Like many great stories, this one started with a nugget of news that hinted at something larger. In late 2008, Melissa came across a brief article in a Mexican newspaper reporting that the United States had deported 90,000 unaccompanied Mexican children in the previous year. She wondered how this could be and what was happening to these children. Two years later—after obtaining a reporting grant from The Nation Institute—Melissa and her husband, photographer Eugenio del Bosque, traveled to the Mexican border towns of Reynosa and Matamoros to find out. What she found was a region terrorized by drug cartels and riddled with violence into which U.S. and Mexican authorities were sending thousands of unaccompanied children. The resulting story—“Children of the Exodus”—was published in November 2010 and recounts the disturbing tales of Mexican children detached from their families and caught between the tough-on-immigration policies in the U.S. and the deadly drug war in Mexico. It’s a stunning story that’s receiving national recognition.

More than 500 journalists from across the country entered work in the award competition. First-place awards were given in 12 writing and multimedia categories. 

Melissa and Eugenio won first place medal for magazine journalism. Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman of Newsweek were runners up for the story “The Creativity Crisis.” Other winners included reporters from the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times and Palm Beach Post. The medals and the $1,000 award will be handed out at an October ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The contest judges wrote of Melissa’s story: “This important story is the result of unusual initiative, determination and bravery on the part of a journalist. Most Americans probably don’t know that their government deports tens of thousands of unaccompanied Mexican children each year, and even fewer know what happens when those children reach Mexico. The Texas Observer traces the path of deported children to dangerous Mexican border cities, finding that many of them end up on the streets. Others try to reunite with their parents by attempting the hazardous and illegal border crossing, and some are even kidnapped and held for ransom. By taking readers on the hunt through first-person accounts of what she sees and hears, the writer enables us to feel the atmosphere of fear, incompetence, desperation and duplicity.”

The story, which was edited by Michael May, has also recently been honored by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and by the Texas Institute of Letters.

Congratulations to Melissa and Eugenio on a terrific honor. We couldn’t be prouder.

If you want to help support courageous reporting like this, consider making a tax-deductible donation or becoming an Observer partner.

Well la-dee-da!

This weekend, we won six awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, including two for first place.

Our very own executive editor, Dave Mann, won first place from AAN in two different categories. That gives Dave a total of seven awards from AAN in his time at the Observer. Dave won the top prize in public service journalism for his story DNA Tests Undermines Evidence in Texas Execution. The article broke the international story that DNA testing disproved key evidence that led to the 2000 execution of Claude Jones. The Observer partnered with the Innocence Project in the successful three-year court battle to obtain the evidence: a single strand of hair.

Meanwhile his story Bloody Injustice won the top prize for best long-form news story. The article explored the flawed evidence that convicted Warren Horinek of murder in 1996 and revealed how questionable testimony from forensic experts can send innocent people to prison.

We’re pretty darn proud ourselves. In addition to Dave’s articles, four other staffers won awards, all listed below. That gives us at total of 49 awards from AAN. We see it as an affirmation of our mission: providing independent, investigative reporting to readers, with all the stories available free on the web. (If you want to help in our mission, consider becoming an Observer partner.) 

Here are all the awards we snagged:

• Dave Mann won first place in the long-form news story category for his story A Bloody Injustice and first place for public service reporting for his story DNA Tests Undermine Evidence in Texas Execution. 

• Forrest Wilder won second place in investigative reporting for his story, Agency of Destruction. 

• Melissa del Bosque won third place in features writing for Children of the Exodus. The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund provided support for Melissa’s reporting.

 

• Michael May won third place for his reporting on the War on Drugs in his article Gone Rogue.

 

• Ben Sargent won an honorable mention in the cartoon category for his regular feature Loon Star State.