Brad Warthen Claims to Speak for Jesus

Brad Warthen thinks Jesus Christ is against parental choice in education. Spake Brad:

Of course, I oppose even the more limited funding of Catholic schools with public money.[...]Jesus didn’t fund his ministry with the money St. Matthew had squeezed from the public as a tax collector. He didn’t take from the world; he gave. He told us to do likewise. We Catholics are far too stingy when the collection basket comes around, and that should change. We shouldn’t force Baptists, Jews, agnostics or anyone else to make up for our failing.

First of all, I do not have the words to express how offensive this is. Advocates for parental choice don't go around and pretend that Jesus, if he were alive and in the South Carolina legislature, would co-sponsor Put Parents in Charge. The supposedly theocratic religious right never says that Jesus would have wanted top marginal tax rates at Bill Clinton's 39% rather than George Bush's 35%. Likewise, this obviously falls under the "render unto Caesar" clause.

Second of all, there is no public money going to Catholic schools, Methodist schools, or Hindu Schools etc. There is money going to parents. That's it. How many times do we have to go over this? Parents can send their children to religious schools, secular schools, or schools that teach comparative religion. It's called a choice.

Finally, there is one way in which religion bears on this debate. Currently, public schools practice a fairly hardcore form of secularism. People of faith often say that "they kicked God out of school" and not without reason: a 30-second prayer at the beginning of school would be illegal under the current interpretation of the 1st Amendment. (This is the problem of choosing one default rule for everyone: someone's rights are going to be violated.)

Whether or not the interpretation of the 1st Amendment is correct, religious parents are surely getting the short end of the stick. They are not being allowed to educate their children in their own way. "But they can always send their kid to private school," a naif like Brad might protest.

Now if you're paying thousands of dollars a year in school taxes, you might not have the money left over to also pay for private school.

If the government is going to respect the rights of all kids, it's going to have to allow every parent to have an effective choice—either by giving them vouchers or tax credits. Either way, the resources are parent-controlled, not bureaucracy-controlled.

Every parent must have the right to choose the best education for their child.

Okay, that was a tangent. The original point of this that I wish Brad Warthen would quit his filthy blasphemy and go back to simply acting like an idiot.

Hey Look

Unlike La Socialista, this new blog doesn't suck.

Freedom vs. The State

I thought it would be a cold day in Hell before I saw some dude named Brad sticking up for political free speech on The State's Op-Ed page. I was wrong.

A Moron, That's What!

Brad Warthen wants to tax gasoline to make it $4 per gallon. He also thinks that President Bush's surge plan is a good idea.

Now we know what Warthen really thinks we are. [See the title.]