The Bad News Bears

Exactly ten years ago the U.S. Supreme Court allowed legal after-hours access to elementary schools by religious groups (Good News Club v. Milford Central School).  This was a long standing practice in most upper schools, but many elementary schools felt that children would have a difficult time making the necessary separation between the authority of their school and the religious activities taking place there.  Such a perception could amount to a violation of the Establishment Clause.

The Supremes decided (6-3) that free speech trumped this concern.  The plaintiffs, The Good News Club, went on to establish chapters in elementary schools all over the nation.  There are now 3,200 of them.  And what kind of “Good News” are they spreading?  Katherine Stewart has just released a book exposing this group.  As she writes in the Guardian, the news ain’t all that good:

The…curriculum makes clear…that if God gives instructions to kill a group of people, you must kill every last one:

“You are to go and completely destroy the Amalekites… – people, animals, every living thing. Nothing shall be left.”

“That was pretty clear, wasn’t it?” the manual tells the teachers to say to the kids.

Even more important, the Good News Club wants the children to know, the Amalakites were targeted for destruction on account of their religion, or lack of it. The instruction manual reads:

“The Amalekites had heard about Israel’s true and living God many years before, but they refused to believe in him. The Amalekites refused to believe in God and God had promised punishment.”

The instruction manual goes on to champion obedience in all things. In fact, pretty much every lesson that the Good News Club gives involves reminding children that they must, at all costs, obey. If God tells you to kill nonbelievers, he really wants you to kill them all. No questions asked, no exceptions allowed.

Isn’t that good and lovely?

Jews remember Amalek, too.  The Rabbis identified that nation as a wellspring of evil and connected it to Haman, the villain of Purim (in turn, some modern rabbis have associated Amalek with Hitler).  The Shabbat preceding Purim is known as “Shabbat Zachor” entreating the Jews to remember what Amalek did to them.

Today we often hear about Orthodox rabbis pointing fingers at  modern Amalekites, including Jews with whom they disagree.  But Jewish tradition also bears many examples of attempts to soften this verse through creative midrash.  Some made Amalek a metaphor for evil rather than a living nation.  Others said God’s commandment to kill Amalek was intended only for some future messianic king and not to any actual living Jews.  Still others declared that Amalekites have ceased to exist. (See David Golinkin’s excellent survey.)

The Good News Club is in no need of any such interpretations.  After all, they have the truth and it’s whatever they say it is.  Putting aside any later moderating interpretations, it’s likely that they are actually pretty close to the original intent of the verse.  It’s a primitive, barbaric notion for a group with a primitive, barbaric ideology.  Who knows where they’ll find these latter-day Amalekites?  I’m pretty sure that they would count me as one.

We are unlikely to see any change in the Court’s ruling.  But by shining some light on this group’s doctrines, maybe we can keep a few kids away from their fantastically bad news.