Christian Pre-School Teacher Leads 4-Year-Olds in Anti-Biden Chant

March 24, 2022 By Shane Phipps

Imagine walking into a preschool classroom full of precious and impressionable little children. The teacher entrusted with keeping these precious, innocent children safe and preparing them to go into kindergarten has apparently been teaching them about our president. The students seem well-versed in a sort of ritualistic group chant. The teacher asks, “who is our president?” The children, in unison, gleefully shout back, “Biden!” Isn’t that sweet, you think to yourself. These cute little 4-year-olds are learning about the president…then... Read more

Gas Prices: What Would Jesus Pay?

March 21, 2022 By Shane Phipps

Many of my conservative Christian friends have been having a field day on social media lately with the rising cost of gasoline. Not surprisingly, they are using the inflation, particularly at the gas pumps, as an opportunity to point fingers at President Biden. I’ve tried to respectfully point out that, while there may well be things that Biden deserves criticism for, the price of gas really isn’t one of them. As you might expect, they don’t seem to want to... Read more

Jesus Was a Social Deviant: A Brief History of WASP-y Assimilation in America.

March 15, 2022 By Shane Phipps

Americans like to say that this country was founded on the ideals of religious freedom. That sounds good, doesn’t it? Another concept that goes hand-in-hand with that is the “American Melting Pot.” That concept is stitched into to American fabric so much that it would be the first thing that came to mind to many Americans if you’d ask them what America means to them. But really, it’s one group of Americans that would answer that way, White Anglo-Saxon... Read more

If I Were a Pastor

March 11, 2022 By Shane Phipps

If I were a pastor, I’d create a church that reflected its community. It wouldn’t matter what our meeting space looked like. It wouldn’t even matter if we had a permanent meeting space at all. Sometimes church buildings tend to make certain people uneasy. Some people have become conditioned through personal experience to view a church building as a place where the pious people meet. They’ve gone into these buildings and felt the judgmental stares burning into the back of... Read more

CRT is the latest in a long history of far right moral panic attacks against public education…remember Ebonics?

March 10, 2022 By Shane Phipps

The uproar we are currently experiencing over the topic of the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools is just the latest in a long history of unwarranted attacks from the far right on public education. It is just the next thing in line where right wing leadership misrepresents the truth and uses mendacious propaganda to play to the deep-seated racial bias and fear of middle class, conservative white America. Let me give you an example of another such false-flag... Read more

Viral Video of Teacher Slapping Student Shines Spotlight on Our Mental Health Problem

March 4, 2022 By Shane Phipps

Chances are you’ve seen the shocking video from Jimtown, Indiana that shows a veteran teacher slapping a student in the hallway. If you haven’t, you can see it here. It’s a difficult thing to watch. For most teachers, it’s a difficult thing to watch for multiple reasons. Before I go any farther, I want to make this point clearly, right up front. That teacher deserves to lose his job. I don’t think you’ll find many teachers who would argue against that.... Read more

Conservative Christians, Do You Stand with Ukraine?

March 1, 2022 By Shane Phipps

As events unfold in Ukraine and world-tensions continue to grow, my mind is once again drawn toward my staunchly Republican Christian friends. I know you aren’t happy with President Biden. I’ve watched you have your fun with the “Let’s Go Brandon” catch phrase. It would appear that a lot of loving Christians are tickled to death to use a phrase that means F**k Joe Biden. The humorous bowdlerizing of such an offensive phrase seems to delight some Christians, as if... Read more

Christian Nationalists vs. Critical Thinking in Public Education

February 22, 2022 By Shane Phipps

For decades now, education insiders have been proclaiming to the public that the far right has a clear agenda to discredit and completely dismantle public education. We’ve warned anyone willing to listen about the critical teacher shortage that would follow. Some of you have listened, some of you have laughed. Well, it can’t be ignored anymore. In red states all over the country, those prophesies have all come to pass. The far right’s end game is now upon us, and... Read more

New Education Bills are Trojan Horses for Christian Nationalists

February 17, 2022 By Shane Phipps

It is the middle of the day at the public high school in Anytown, Texas. During the school’s non-instructional break period called FOCUS, which is used for various things such as study hall, working on college prep, or attending occasional convocations. Today happens to be a convocation day. The school’s 1,100 students gather in the gymnasium and listen to an Islamic imam proselytize about the virtues of his religion. During the presentation, students are asked to get down on their... Read more