It’s more or less an article of faith among Christian conservatives that our society went down the drain in 1962 and 1963, when two separate Supreme Court decisions held that students can’t be coerced into praying and reading the Bible in public schools. Lately, it seems that whenever a major tragedy unfolds, you get some religious right pundit saying, “This would have never happened if we still had prayer in the schools!” Well, People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch dug up an example of just how far the religious right is willing to reach on this–and it comes from Jody Hice, the soon-to-be Congressman from Georgia’s 10th District. Apparently Hice thinks that Jerry Sandusky’s rampage of molesting children would have never happened if students were still forced to pray.
Back in 2011, Hice appeared on Rick Wiles’ radio show to discuss the Penn State scandal. At the time, Hice had become something of a celebrity among Christian conservatives for his effort to keep the Ten Commandments displayed on public buildings across Georgia. Wiles got the sense that Hice wanted to say something to the nation about the horrors in Happy Valley, which he believed was “a microcosm of what was happening to the whole nation.” This show aired a week after Sandusky was arrested on charges of molesting several boys from 1994 to 2009. Hice agreed it was a microcosm–one that went back to when “we kicked the Bible out of schools and then prayer out of schools.” To Hice’s mind, “we’ve just basically been going downhill since then.”
So how is it possible that not forcing kids to pray could lead to a 15-year (at least) rampage of pedophilia? Well, according to Hice, when the Warren Court issued the decisions that banned coerced prayer and Bible reading, it weakened our nation’s reliance on the “Judeo-Christian worldview” on which it was founded. He argued that Judeo-Christian ethics place both within people and the broader culture “the capacity to self-govern our lives based on right and wrong.” Without a Judeo-Christian worldview, Hice said, “you have things like pedophilia” and “other people seeing it, witnessing it, turning their back.” Um, Jody? If that’s true, then how do you explain cases of Catholic priests molesting boys as far back as the 1950s? That alone demolishes your argument. And it’s a pretty safe bet that kids were being molested well before 1962.
The religious right seems to have gotten it in its head that if we just forced kids to pray in school, all would be well in the world. This latest spiel from Hice proves just how far removed from reality that sentiment is. Unfortunately, we’re likely to get more of this, since Hice is running to represent a swath of rural and exurban territory between Atlanta and Augusta that would vote for a comatose Republican. The people of this district will not be well served. I know I’ve said this several times, but it bears repeating–the longer the Republicans control the House, the longer crazies like Hice are empowered.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC at Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
