Mastriano will lead down wrong path
Perhaps I am a fool to believe that my children will grow up in a democratic representative republic where they not only receive a quality education in fundamentals, but an education that includes learning to respect others different from themselves, whether that be skin color, nationality, family structure, religion or lack thereof, and sexual or gender identity. I teach my children not what to think, but how to question, to evaluate, and to be open to the possibility that they, or history, may be wrong when presented with new evidence, or previously whitewashed historical accounts. I expect the community, and that includes the school, to do the same for them. Pennsylvania’s GOP candidate for governor, Doug Mastriano, would have us take a different path.
Mastriano promotes a Christian nationalism far removed from the religious right influence of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, one in which he believes he was chosen by God to save the state from evil. This is not only absurd, but dangerous. Doug, exactly what evil are you talking about? Are you referring to the truth about our history as evil, that white people did some very heinous things to the indigenous and people of color? Or maybe it’s those evil teachers not teaching the critical race theory you claim they’re teaching that you’re so fired up about. Since you purport that America’s First Amendment dealt only with Christianity, I guess those nonbelievers or other religions are the evil you are saving us from. Christ would be so proud.
The last time I checked, America was not a theocracy, and the Bible was not a textbook in a public school. Mastriano would ban what he calls porn in children’s libraries. I haven’t seen any of that either, but apparently, it’s a problem for him and his followers. I want my, and all children to have access to whatever books they choose and learn that their own experience is not limited, and that we have common connections. I want teachers to teach widely accepted history, no matter how ugly. No teacher is teaching your white children to be ashamed of themselves. That is a false narrative. We progress by learning from our own mistakes.
You will find no greater supporter of religious liberty than I, but Doug Mastriano’s Christian nationalism is antithetical to the idea that belonging in America is not rooted in what religion someone does or does not practice. Mastriano wants to impose strict religious views in government and schools, where they don’t belong, eroding the pluralism on which we have built American society. That comes at the expense of the rights of others, and that is not only un-American, but also un-Christian.
John Schoener
Uniontown