Teacher James Corbett
JAMES Corbett, the Capistrano Valley High School teacher found guilty by a federal judge in California of violating the First Amendment’s establishment clause by disparaging creationism, put his side of the case in an article yesterday in Open Salon.
Corbett wrote:
Every teacher who makes a student think takes the risk that he will be attacked by parents and others who see themselves as guardians of cherished political and religious myth.
The teachers willing to take that risk should be rewarded, not punished.
Chad Farnan, the boy who sued me, was an average student, who admitted under oath that he did not do the required reading for the class. If Chad’s lawyers, the ‘Advocates for Faith and Freedom’, and his parents were actually concerned with protecting the boy, why didn’t they simply come to me and ask me to explain my comments?
Chad Farnan, who brought the suit against trhe California teacher
Neither they nor the Farmans ever expressed concerns to me nor to any administrators before they came to school with attorneys and reporters in tow to drop a lawsuit on the desk of Tom Ressler, our principal. Perhaps more importantly, the Farmans were aware long before Chad took my class that I go out of my way to be provocative. Every year in July, I send a letter home to students who have signed up for my class. Chad admitted under oath that he received that letter. The letter says, in part:
Most days we will spend a few minutes (sometimes more) at the beginning of class discussing current events from either The Orange County Register or the LA Times. I may also use material from a variety of news websites. Discussion will be quite provocative, and focus on the ‘lessons’ of history. My goal is to have you go home with something that will provoke discussion with your parents. Students may offer any perspective without concern that anything they say will impact either my attitude toward them or their grades. I encourage a full range of views.
I included my home phone number and e-mail address in that letter and encouraged parents to contact me if they had any concerns. Chad admitted under oath that my lectures prompted many discussions with his parents. I might add, that in 20 years in the CUSD, I have never had a complaint filed against me, save this one.
Every teacher in California (this was a federal case after all) now works with the knowledge that any student, at any time, and in violation of California law, can sneak a tape recorder into a classroom, record the teacher and use an out-of-context five second comment as a bludgeon to threaten, to intimidate and, ultimately, to destroy the teacher’s career and good name.
Challenging myths is dangerous, but it is the essence of getting students to think for themselves …
Ms Farnan objected to my challenging the myth of the Puritans as a pious people who fled religious intolerance to found America. As Ms Farnan sees them, the Puritans are quaint, pious people with buckles on their hats and shoes as portrayed in the national mythology, but they may also be seen as intolerant, misogynistic and homophobic religious bigots who hanged Mary Dyer, a Quaker girl, for preaching something other than Puritan doctrine and several other women for the crime of ‘witchcraft’.
Questioning may make students and parents uncomfortable, but students have a right to think for themselves. It is not ‘bullying’ to demand that students think.
Ms Farnan also objected to my challenge of another national myth, that the United States was founded as a ‘Christian’ nation. There is some truth to that notion, but embracing that myth and excluding other views can be used to unfairly gain political advantage.
Another view of the founding fathers can be seen in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, the man who authored the Declaration of Independence. He translated the Bible. The last words of the Jeffersonian Bible might shake Ms Farnan’s faith: ‘There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed’.
There was no resurrection for Jefferson, he rejected all the Biblical miracles, as contrary to reason. I doubt with his view would be called ‘Christian’ by Ms Farnan or anyone else.
James Madison, who penned the Constitution, warned, ‘Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and units it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.’ If Jefferson and Madison were alive today, I doubt they could be elected. The guardians of the national myth would rise up and smite them as unbelievers.
Two pupils at a rally held in support of Chad Farnan
We respect the guardians and their myths at our peril because history (and science) changes and improves with knowledge, but the same force damages myth based on belief. That’s why the guardians fear the knowledge begat by questioning. For them, ‘knowledge’ is gained in rote memory of approved truth. They chant in the school, temple, church or mosque and fool themselves into thinking they’ve acquired knowledge.
All those teachers, and there are many of us, who understand the value of questioning sacred myths serve this nation as faithfully as other patriots. What is true will be strengthened. What is false will be destroyed, as it should be. Such teachers should be honored. There is no greater gift teachers can give to students than to teach them to think. Don’t sue them for it.
You can read more about the case against Corbett here.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 10th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I took a look at Chad's site – what an ignorant – proud to be stoopid looking arsehole.
That goes for the vile fascists supporting him, faith-freedom.com. the hyphen is also a minus sign –
of course; faith minus freedom. Since when did ANY productive society value faith over fact?
I thought hanging chads was a popular pasttime in the USA….
May 10th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Now that I am aware that James Corbett reads this site, I would like to draw his attention to a comment I posted to the story, "Describing Creationism as superstition…" 8th comment from the top. As a former teacher, I am aware that North American schools are babysitting institutions in which bruising tender psyches by requiring them to learn anything has been illegal since 1945. If Mr Corbett has actually been TEACHING something, I am surprised that he was not purged long ago, before he could raise the question, "How come nobody else is doing this?"
May 10th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Can this guy appeal and take the case to the Supreme Court?
May 10th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
This might be a good place to offer any viewer of this site who has a good-faith belief that it might be useful to him, or at least interesting, a free CD-Rom containing a PDF file of my forthcoming book, God, Jesus and the Bible: The Origin and Evolution of Religion. Repeat: free. No strings. Send an e-mail to barry@freethinker.co.uk and ask him to forward it to me, giving your name and snail-mail address to which the CD should be sent. Web pseudonym optional, as I am prepared to assume that unteachables will see no reason to respond to such an offer. Available until I run out of stamps.
May 10th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
If it was an atheist getting their beliefs mocked in a classroom in the heart of Texas, you would be outraged. Challenging the motivations of the Puritans and beliefs of the founding fathers is obviously not the same as calling Creationism superstitious nonsense.
Both the teacher and student are d-bags, and this stands as more proof that loudmouth atheists are just as annoying as loudmouth Christians.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Thanks for pointing out the caption cock-up, Stuart. Correction has been made.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
When Creationism acknowledges that it is religion, then it deserves to be treated as religion. When it claims to be science, then it is superstitious nonsense and deserves to be identified as such. Apparently this site is still not troll-free.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I haven't come across many "loud mouthed atheists". The BBC ban atheists, loudmouthed or otherwise, whereever possible and one example is the banal, bigotry on Thought for the Day. Or we might consider the platform given to bishops in the House of Lords; the Blair slithering to support his Catholicism; and the slew of Christians now exposed as corrupt by their helping themselves to expenses where only they and mininisters of religion receive tax exemptions. I would like to hear from a few loud mouthed Christians so we might hear the views of Rowan Williams or Murphy O'Connor – silence. However, I welcome and acknowledge that one retired Archbishop did put the boot into these scumbags hard and accurately. As for Texas- the arsehole of the USA as far as Christians are concerned and they do just love judicial murder on Polunsky Unit – Death Row. This is about free speech not causing offense. As for that prick of a student ………….. His actions and strutting pose say it all; thick as a plank and twice as nasty.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
When a person simultaneously claims that (A) he has the right to believe in Creationism, and (B) that he has the right to be treated as someone with a functioning human brain, he is making demands that are mutually exclusive. A nontheist is not necessarily sane, intelligent and educated (Norman Lycan comes to mind). But a person who is sane, intelligent and educated is necessarily a nontheist.
May 10th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
For all the milking – sometimes for years – of any news story about a Christian being stifled or threatened, there is a constant stream of examples where they are the ones doing it. Chad's lawyers have 'Freedom' in their title as well!
May 11th, 2009 at 12:05 am
The fight goes on. Freethinkers against the brainwashed. Nothing new. Terry Schiavo, a person who wanted to be dead, but the moral dictatorship demanded that she live and claimed her best interest. LOL. It's not going to change any time soon. It's a dogfight in the trenches. Stick to your guns soldiers.
NL
May 11th, 2009 at 6:45 am
Referring to Christian mythology got this teacher in trouble. However, what about "Greek Mythology"? No judge has ever declared that to be going to far – even though that several thousand year old religion still has adherents, as some posters in the past have found out.
For a judge to protect the Christian religion from being called a mythology, and not other religions, is by definition, unconstitutional.
To answer an earlier question, though; if you read his entire opinion – where this judge through out 19 of the accusations, only finding for the 'student' on one – you'll find him more liberal than the current majority of the U.S. Supreme Court. He appeals at his – and our – peril.
May 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
A judge has ruled that calling the pseudoscience of creationism "superstitious nonsense" is a criminal offence. If that ruling is allowed to stand, we might as well all move to Iran, because publishing the results of scholarly research will be as illegal here as it is there.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Generally if someone criticises our beliefs we offer a refutation rather than outrage. Just so that you know, Creationism is superstitious nonsense, the best way to get a handle on this is to brush up on world creation myths and then ask yourself what is special or different about Genesis?
May 12th, 2009 at 2:38 am
Creationalism IS superstitious nonsense.
May 12th, 2009 at 5:53 am
Call me a black sheep, but I side with Truth on this (and you William Harwood, are very childish to call him a "troll" just because you disagree with his opinion). This jerk of a teacher is clearly proselytising on behalf of atheism, and I'd want him kicked out just as quickly as any religious evangelist.
Atheist propaganda is fine, but not in the school classroom, delivered by the teacher.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
A person who thinks that "3 + 2 = 167" is a legitmate opinion rather than superstitious nonsense is intellectually challenged. A person who thinks that belief in a 6,000 year old earth is a legitimate opinion rather than superstitious nonsense is intellectually challenged. A person who thinks that all life on earth did not evolve from a common ancestor is perhaps merely educationally challenged — unless he has encountered the proof of evolution and rationalized it away, in which case he is intellectually challenged. A person who equates Creationism with Truth is a brain amputee. Stating a fully proven fact is not proselytizing. It is TEACHING. A person who cannot tell the difference between knowledge and opinion, and posts proof of his ignorance to a site designed for the educated, is a troll.
May 14th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Very funny shargraves!
May 14th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I couldn`t believe that this guy actually had a website ( http://chadfarnan.com ), but when I looked at it and saw the enormous logo of "Advocates for Faith & Freedom" ("Protecting Religious Liberty" again!!)everything became clear! Still, looking on the positive side, he does invite us all to email him…..
May 14th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
If anyone emails this fruitcake (chardfarnan.com), I would appreciate his posting a comment on whether he was consequently bombarded with emails from the godphuqt. I would like to send the brain amputee my hoax-novel, The Gospel according to Saint Bartholomew, to see whether he swallows it. When Scientology learned my email address, I received about 300 booby-trapped emails (which I knew not to open) in three days, and had to change my address. It is an experience I do not want to have to repeat.
May 14th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
The brain amputee's address is: Chad Farnan, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, 24910 Los Brisas Road, Suite 110, Murrietta, CA 92562, USA. So anyone who wants to advise him where to shove his uneducated drivel need not risk revealing his email (or street) address.