The Sacramento Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, ACLU of Sacramento County, Atheists and Other Freethinkers, California Church IMPACT, California Council of Churches, Humanist Association of the Greater Sacramento Area, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Sacramento Region, and the Sacramento Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State presented:
The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children
Featuring:
Katherine Stewart
Author, The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children
In January 2009, Katherine Stewart learned that the Santa Barbara public elementary school her children attended had added a Bible study class called the “Good News Club” to its afterschool program. Stewart’s curiosity turned to concern as she discovered that the unstated purpose of the club, which is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, is to convey the impression to its young members and their schoolmates that their school favors a particular form of the Christian religion. She soon learned that the Good News Club - a seemingly spontaneous and voluntary after-school program - was in fact part of a larger, calculated initiative by national advocacy groups whose declared aim is to “take back” America’s public schools and repurpose them with a Fundamentalist Christian agenda.
In The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children, Stewart sets out on an investigative journey to uncover the effect the Good News Clubs and similar initiatives have on our schools, children, and communities. She discovers religion-driven programs inserting themselves into public school systems with unprecedented force and unexpected consequences. Today, Stewart concludes, there is more religious activity in American public schools than there has been for the past 100 years. The Christian Right’s strategy to “take back America” is stealthy, calculated, extremely well-financed, and coming soon to a neighborhood near you.