Nathan Black of The Christian Post is reporting on the war of words between Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute and myself.
At least Black mentioned my book title… unlike *some* Christian “family” groups I know… And he gets bonus points for noting that certain comments I made in my original posting were sarcastic.
Since my last posting on the topic, I haven’t heard anything from IFI. Maybe they figured out they have no real argument to use against me.
Groups like IFI dabble in fear-mongering. They want me to be worried that I might lose my job if I keep advocating atheism on this site. They want school officials to think twice about why they hired me. They want parents to regret having their children in my classroom. They want English teachers to fear assigning a challenging book that may be “too controversial.” They want gay people to feel uneasy about coming out.
The way to respond to groups like this is to not be afraid of them.
Call them out when they lie, dare to publicly disagree with their ridiculous beliefs, and let other Christians have to defend these groups’ actions. Eventually, those Christians will be too embarrassed by IFI-like interpretations of their faith and not support them any longer. (Christians have the ability to take the power away from groups like IFI — much more so than the rest of us.)
For what it’s worth, my job is perfectly safe.
My administrators know that I maintain separation of work and blog, and they respect my right to free speech in my private life even if that means sharing minority opinions on controversial issues. Other teachers aren’t always so lucky.
I said it before, but thanks for your support. The emails and comments mean a lot.