When Christian Educators Prefer Islam
By Jen Shroder
Due to the efforts of Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) and others, public school textbooks remain rife with Muslim indoctrination. When the textbook publisher, Houghton Mifflin (HM), came under fire last year with accusations of proselytizing Islam, Forrest Turpen, Executive Director of CEAI, publicly defended the textbook. TruthorFiction.com (link below) noted the “Christian group” and wrote, “Turpen says the teaching about Islam has not been "slipped" into the curriculum…In fact," says Turpen, "the state of California has been a leader in requiring a balance of teaching about who we are and what has empowered us as a civilization."
BlessedCause, the organization that originally complained about the Islamic propaganda, wrote to Forrest Turpen and asked why he endorsed the textbook. Turpen wrote: "we focused only our attention on the Christian perspectives that were written and did not look at or compare the other content of the texts...In essence we did no evaluation of the other religions addressed in any of the textbooks of the HM series."
No evaluation. Yet Mr. Turpen, representing a “Christian group,” defended HM and quelled public outrage.
BlessedCause continued correspondence with Dan Elliott, Vice Chairman of CEAI, who wrote, “Our organization is not a “Christian Education” organization. It is a professional educators organization. We support teachers and administrators, working primarily in public schools who are Christians.” Elliott also confirmed CEAI did not evaluate the 7th grade textbook: “We did not review the information about islam but only some limited sections of one text book about Christianity.”
If Christian Educators is not a Christian organization per se, and did not evaluate the Islam unit, why was Turpen quoted like an expert representing Christians at TruthorFiction? BlessedCause asked CEAI to retract their statements. CEAI refused.
CEAI is a paid consultant for HM’s 6th grade textbook “A Message of Ancient Days.” BlessedCause reviewed this textbook including “Christianity and the Fall of Rome” and found Christians are blamed for the fall of Rome, Old Testament prophets provide an excuse for religious faith and Tacitus, a historical figure, shares that Christians deserve death for their “hatred against mankind.” Our children are left with that thought, unanswered. Additionally, one gets a description of Jesus that follows the Quran rather than the Bible. (see much more at www.blessedcause.org )
What a contrast to the Islam Unit with many statements such as
“The Quran is the final revelation, just as Muhammad is the final prophet”
and “In fact, the very first word the angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad was recite.”
Religious beliefs of Islam compose 10 times the text compared to the Christian Unit, with fewer disclaimers such as “Muslims believe.”(see graph) Instead of asking children to assume they are Muslim soldiers, in the Christian section they are asked to imagine they are back in the catacombs of dead Christians. It’s cleverly written in a fun way, but bottom line, that’s the exercise. In the Jewish section, children are asked to imagine they are with Jews forced from their homeland.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. With California spending $400 million per year on textbooks, Christian Educators sold out Jesus for a mere $500.
On July 25th, Forrest Turpen announced his resignation as Executive Director. Dan Elliott wrote BlessedCause privately on July 19th, “You are absolutely correct in saying that those things in the HM books about Islam should not have been there,” yet to date, CEAI refuses to retract their statements or renounce the textbook publicly. And the school year rapidly approaches, textbook replete.
A federal lawsuit has been filed by Thomas More Law Center regarding the Islam issue in public school. I do not accept donations, but Thomas More has been fighting for our rights as a free Christian legal organization. Please help support them if you can.
California's Department of Education has quietly removed ISLAM: A Simulation from their "approved" list at their website , confirmed by Suzanne C. Rios, Administrator of the Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Office for the Calif. State Dept. of Education.
Christian children, the bodies of Christ, are being crucified on the cross of public school. How long will we abandon our children to suffer this onslaught of their faith alone?
Jen Shroder is founder of BlessedCause.org, where dozens of exact quotes from both textbooks can be found, as well as documentation of children praying to Allah on their hands and knees at the request of teachers.
Sources: http://www.thomasmore.org/news.html?NewsID=12
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/byronislam.htm
Houghton Mifflin textbooks, http://www.cde.ca.gov/cfir/lc
