Due to the efforts of Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) and others, public school textbooks remain rife with Muslim propaganda such as "Assume you are a Muslim soldier." When the textbook publisher, Houghton Mifflin (HM), came under fire last year with accusations of proselytizing Islam, Forrest Turpen, Executive Director of CEAI, publicly defended the textbook. www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/byronislam.htm noted the "Christian group" and wrote "Turpin says the teaching about Islam has not been "slipped" into the curriculum…In fact," says Turpin, "the state of California has been a leader in requiring a balance of teaching about who we are and what has empowered us as a civilization."

BlessedCause, the organization that originally complained about the Islamic propaganda, wrote to Forrest Turpen and asked why he endorsed the textbook. Turpen wrote: "…we focused only our attention on the Christian perspectives that were written and did not look at or compare the other content of the texts...In essence we did no evaluation of the other religions addressed in any of the textbooks of the HM series."

No evaluation. Yet Mr. Turpen, representing a "Christian group," defended HM and quelled public outrage.

BlessedCause continued correspondence with Dan Elliott, Vice Chairman of CEAI, who wrote, "Our organization is not a "Christian Education" organization. It is a professional educators organization. We support teachers and administrators, working primarily in public schools who are Christians." Elliott also confirmed CEAI did not evaluate the 7th grade textbook: "We did not review the information about islam but only some limited sections of one text book about Christianity."

If Christian Educators is not a Christian organization per se, and did not evaluate the Islam unit, why was Turpen quoted like an expert representing Christians and defend the Islam unit at TruthorFiction? BlessedCause asked CEAI to retract their statements. CEAI refused.

CEAI is a paid consultant for HM’s 6^th grade textbook, (www.blessedcause.org/6th_1.htm) "A Message of Ancient Days" which contains the Christian section. BlessedCause has since reviewed this textbook including the chapter titled: "Christianity and the Fall of Rome."

This is a partial list of items found:

• Blame of Christians for the fall of Rome;
• Quotes a historical figure that Christians should be convicted (death) for their “hatred against mankind” without explanation or opposing view;
• That Christians fed to the lions in Rome were mostly an exaggeration of Christian writers;
• That Jesus was predominantly described as a "popular teacher with ideas”;
• That Old Testament prophets provided an excuse for religious faith and unable to tell the future
• That salvation is earned by “believing as Christians believe,” good works and tithing (what a dry, contrived view of the Gospel!);
• That Jews mistreated Christians more than Nero;
• Secular explanations for the origin of Hebrews;
• Atheist versions of Biblical stories;
• Islam’s beliefs about Jesus subtly passed off as Christian beliefs in the Christian section!

Mary McLean Hix wrote in her article Sorting out the Noise, "Forrest Turpen, executive director of the Christian Educators Association International, points to California as further evidence. Sixth-grade textbooks there cover Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount and 10 Old Testament books."

Why does Forrest Turpen defend the Islam unit and applaud California and the 6th grade textbook?  Where one gets a description of Jesus that aligns with the Quran rather than the Bible? Yes, Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, but in the CHRISTIAN section, it might be mentioned that Christians believe Jesus died for our sins! That He rose again and after 40 days, visibly ascended into heaven. The textbook surgically skips all that and describes a popular teacher with ideas. 

What a contrast to the Islam Unit where Muhammad's "ascension" is described more than once and includes a picture, along with statements such as:

• "The Quran is the final revelation, just as Muhammad is the final prophet."
• "In fact, the very first word the angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad was recite."
• "Ramadan is a holy time, because in this month Muhammad received his first message from Allah."
• "These revelations confirmed both Muhammad’s belief in monotheism, and his role as the last messenger in a long line of prophets sent by God."

Religious beliefs of Islam compose 10 times the text compared to the Christian Unit, with LESS disclaimers such as "Muslims believe." (see graph) Instead of asking children to participate in activities such as "assume you are Muslim soldier", in the Christian section they are asked to imagine they are back in the catacombs of dead Christians. It’s cleverly written in a fun way, but bottom line, that’s the exercise. In the Jewish section, children are asked to imagine they are with Jews forced from their homeland.

Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. With California spending $400 million per year on textbooks, Christian Educators sold out Jesus for a mere $500.

We Christians often leap to the rationalization of our anger by bringing up the turning of tables by Jesus. Usually we are wrong to do that. But there are times such as these when one can do no less. Last month, Forrest Turpen announced his resignation as Executive Director, leaving without retraction. Dan Elliott wrote BlessedCause privately on July 19^th, "You are absolutely correct in saying that those things in the HM books about Islam should not have been there," yet to date, CEAI refuses to retract their statements or renounce the textbook publicly. And the school year rapidly approaches, textbook replete.

A federal lawsuit has been filed by Thomas More Law Center (www.ThomasMore.org) regarding the Islam issue in public school. I do not accept donations, but Thomas More has been fighting for our rights as a free Christian legal organization. Please help support them if you can.

California's Department of Education has quietly removed ISLAM: A Simulation from their "approved" list at their website http://www.cde.ca.gov/cfir/lc, confirmed by Suzanne C. Rios, Administrator of the Curriculum Framework and Instructional Resources Office for the Calif. State Dept. of Education.

TruthorFiction erroneously reported that Islam's beliefs were under the umbrella of "The Teachings of Islam." That heading appeared after four full pages of religious beliefs. For details of Islamic proselytizing, click here. For details of Christianity maligned, click here.

Christian children, the bodies of Christ, are being crucified on the cross of public school. How long will we abandon our children to suffer this onslaught of their faith alone?

See also: Christian Educators Association International

Jen Shroder is founder of BlessedCause.org, where dozens of exact quotes from both textbooks can be found, as well as documentation of children praying to Allah on their hands and knees at the request of teachers.

Related article: Houghton Mifflin's Fabricated Defense 

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Sources: http://www.thomasmore.org/news.html?NewsID=12
 http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/byronislam.htm, Houghton Mifflin textbooks, http://www.blessedcause.org where you can find direct quotes and documentation supporting facts listed as well

5.14.03

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