Target sited! Illinois math teacher and atheist activiist must be expelled

Notable atheist blogger, activist, and math teacher, Hemant Mehta, is being targeted by some Christians in his area. They want to erode his position. At least they seem to want an alternative math teacher because his atheism might *gulp!* wear off on their children. According to Mehta, he never proselytizes atheism in his classroom. He teaches math. But Lauri Higgins and the Illinois Family Institute will have none of it. His blog is all the evidence they need that he is a corrupting force upon their children.

Read his account here and marvel at how religion can twist people's minds into Orwellian verbal inversions. When they say they want "choice," they mean they want "my first choice." The Illinois Family Institute has responded with this letter.

I have a few thoughts on this.

As if teachers aren't all the time leading their own lives and acting in ways they deem appropriate outside of the classroom and that those activities are recognized as distinct and separate from institutional life. Whether they are truly distinct or not is another topic.

We also all know that teachers hold and act upon beliefs we don't like. Plenty of them. But if we are to allow some group of religious activists to harp a school district about Mehta's private religious, social, and political beliefs then why can't we change Mehta's identity and see what we think?

Why not alert all the parents in the area that...just a pick a good Jewish name...Chaim Dershowitz actually practices such and such and really thinks that Christians are not chosen and that this might make him unfit to be a teacher in a public school. After all, he is active in his synagogue, has been known to publish in their newsletter, has raised money for the Hebrew school, is a regional representative of the Anti-Defamation League, and a member of the ACLU. Shouldn't parents know about this man's activities? Should they find him morally unfit and a potential (though not actual) bad influence might they try to coerce the district to hire another teacher or remove their children from Mr. Dershowitz's classes?

No. That would patently constitute religious and political persecution. Plain as day once we make it about a Jew. Would it be morally sound of me to encourage the school district to hire a non-believer English teacher because there are just too many Christians occupying the slots there now and they might be filling my son's head with Christian propaganda even if they don't know it? They all go to church on Sunday where they are receiving the most inane sermons and having their heads filled with ideas about a man being resurrected from the dead, something that is quite plainly impossible. No. Even if my son were to do an internet search and find Mr. Christianguy's blog, that should not prompt an action toward the school. What is Mr. Christianguy's behavior in the classroom and how is my child learning from him? Is it educative?

Is Mehta working with children to a) enhance their growth as individual people, b) improve their understanding as math students, and c) as people with integrated intellects? Those are the questions Ms. Higgins and the Illinois Christo-family Council should be wondering about. Parents do not have a right to not have their children learn from Mehta if their kids are enrolled in his school. What are you going to do, ask for a religious litmus test? That would be both unconstitutional and unethical. The Illinois Christo-Fascist-Family Panopticon have embarked on a soft-gloved witch hunt that should be met with scorn and admonition by anyone who thinks that religious toleration within reason (a teacher genuinely espousing violent action against their neighbors for religious reasons should not be tolerated), though difficult, is foundational to a thriving democratic community.

This is religious intolerance. It's bigotry masquerading as some sort of faith-induced virtue.

But I guess Higgins isn't really democratic. All people are created equal. Some are just more equal than others.