Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Prophe-Zine Issue 042
PropheZine # 42
June 2, 1997
Ray Gano...............Welcome to PropheZine #41
iNews Digest...........Intermind Communicator is free
James BeauSeigneur ..The Lost Ark, the Shroud of Turin, and Enough Rope to
Hang Myself
Berit Kjos.....Character Training For Global Citizenship
POINT - COUNTERPOINT
William Bonville ...What Is Outcome Based Education?
G. Edwin Lint .....Outcome Based Education
PropheZine Newsbytes
Lee Underwood...FYI Israel in the News
Wendy B. Howard ...Australia - Great South Land Of The Nwo?
Sylvia Genders LeReverend...Privacy Standards For "Smart Cards"
Kepi .....Reservation System for National Parks
********************
Note: this issue is archived in HTML format in the PZ archives as
http://www.prophezine.com/search/database/is42.0.html
********************
Welcome to PropheZine #42
Hello everyone,
Here is PropheZine #42. In this issue we are focusing primarily on Global
education and Outcome Based Education. If you are a parent, then this is
the issue for you.
I am also proud to introduce to you a new friend, James BeauSeigneur. He is
the author of "The Christ Clone Trilogy," from Selective House Publishers.
This is a GREAT book and those of you who enjoy the Tribulation Force will
TOTALLY LOVE "The Christ Clone Trilogy." Jim has written a very good
article on the Ark of the Covenant and has thrown a new theory into the
pot. It is a very good theory and I asked him to expand on it for you. I
think you will enjoy it. I found it very stimulating.
I am also pleased to bring to the PZ newsletter a new feature.
Point-Counterpoint is written by The Monroe Weekly
(http://www.monroeweekly.com) a new Christian conservative monthly
newsletter. I really enjoy this because it also shows what the other side is
thinking. I found the counterpoint reply for this month very interesting. It
seems that the author has more against Christianity that interest in
education. Read it and enjoy.
I also want to remind you that PropheZine going to be putting on a three-day
international Prophecy Conference. This is going to be free to attend and
will be held on Sept 19, 20, 21 in Alta Loma, CA.
Those who are going to speak will be:
Gary Kah: Gary is the best selling author of "En Route To Global
Occupation" and The Demonic Roots of Globalism. Gary shows that the
movement towards a one world government is nothing more than a policy of
deceit and disaster, especially for the Christian community.
Berit Kjos: Berit is the author of "Brave New Schools" and "Your Child In
The New Age." She is a concerned parent and a widely respected researcher,
columnist, and conference speaker. She is considered "the" expert in
regards to the UN Global Education System and Goals 2000.
David Hocking: David is the speaker for "Hope For Today" radio broadcast,
heard on 34 stations plus satellite, he has authored several books, and is on
staff at Calvary Chapel of Santa Ana with Chuck Smith.
Steven Wright: Steven is the author of "Weather Modifications and UFO's"
and "Superpowers in Prophecy" plus several other books. He is also the host
of "The Prophetic Perspective." A syndicated radio weekly call-in talk show
on the Amerinet Broadcasting system.
Ron Graff: Ron is the author of "The Prophecy Puzzle" book and computer
program. He also the webmaster / publisher of PROPHECY CENTRAL
(http://www.Bible-prophecy.com) a monthly newsletter that is broadcasted
via email. Prophecy Central deals with Bible Prophecy on the Internet.
John Kinsella: John is the author of "The Eternal Generation." John has
contributed many excellent articles and television scripts for both Hal
Lindsey's "World Intelligence Briefing" and Peter Lalonde's "This Week In
Bible Prophecy". His extensive experience in the military and as a police
detective prepared him to be one of the best researchers in the field.
Scott Pearson: Scott is an up-and-coming conference speaker. He has spoken
for the last three years at the very well known prophecy conference that is held
every year in Tampa Florida hosted by Ray Brubaker of "God's News Behind The
News" TV show. Scott, a personal friend of mine, is blessed with
gift for scripture memorization. He is known in the prophecy circles as the
next Jack Van Impe.
.......Plus other special guests will be showing up as well!
These are all good friends of mine and I am very proud to invite them to my
conference. If you attend, you will be greatly blessed.
We are working on getting special hotel rates for our visitors from outside
southern California. We are also looking into selling VIP/sponsorship
tickets. These tickets will guarantee you seating in the front and center of
the conference room. We have not figured out how many of these tickets we
will put on sale, but when we do, I would advise that you try to get some.
So far the response to the conference has been outstanding and we are
expecting standing room only with this lineup of speakers. Keep an eye on
the PZ WWW site for more info. I urge you to try to attend.
Well, that is all for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to
drop me an e-mail at ray@prophezine.com.
So, till we meet here on this earth or in the clouds with our Lord,
Always in His service,
Ray Gano
Editor
PropheZine
******************
PROPHEZINE using INTERMIND for iNews Digest Department
PropheZine has adopted an exciting new technology to more efficiently get
timely news into your hands (or should we say, your website browser?) PZ
is using Intermind Communicator for the PZ iNews Digest department,
which "pushes" timely news to your browser on a frequent basis.
Intermind Communicator is like the "bookmobiles" (almost a thing of the past)
used by library districts. The bookmobile, loaded with a select number of books,
travels around the district, bringing books to those who cannot get to the
library conveniently. A visit to the library takes extra time and often requires
the assistance of a librarian to help in a search.
Intermind Communicator(TM) is the best of both worlds: it provides new
information virtually instantly, and it does so without requiring the user
to plough through an elaborate search process. In addition, access is
usually easily available to past news.
Intermind Communicator(TM) is a program used on your own computer.
When you have Intermind Communicator running on your computer, it will
automatically poll the servers to see if new updates are available. If so,
the new information will be "pushed" right to your browser and you'll be
notified. This way, you have the advantage of receiving timely new
information without having to scour the contents of a number of websites.
You can also "filter" the information based on "topics," which categorize
the information. If certain topics are of no interest to you, then you need
not be inconvenienced by their appearance in the update.
If you have WWW access, you'll want to try this by visiting:
http://www.prophezine.com/inews/pzim.html
Download Intermind communicator for free and subscribe right now!
***********************
Editor's Note: The following is the first of several articles adapted by
the author from his new novel, "In His Image: Book One of The Christ Clone
Trilogy," from Selective House Publishers. I am currently reading the book
and can highly recommend it. It is by far the best end-times novel I've
ever read to date. For ordering information, including a discount and
autographed copies for PropheZine readers, see the information at the end
of this article.
Ray Gano
PropheZine
-----------------------------------
The Lost Ark,
the Shroud of Turin,
and Enough Rope to Hang Myself
by James BeauSeigneur
There are a lot of theories and claims about where the Ark of the Covenant
is. A few people claim to have actually seen it. Strangely, they all
claim to have seen it in different places, so to such claimants I think
it's prudent that we take a "put up or shut up" attitude.
Me, I've got my own theory. And if you'll give me enough rope to hang
myself (for the non-US readers, that's just an expression) I promise to
raise some interesting questions, even if I don't convince you my theory is
correct.
The Bible doesn't mention the whereabouts of the Ark after the Temple was
destroyed in the Babylonian invasion. It's generally assumed that when the
Persians plundered the Temple they took the Ark with them. But the Bible
says that when Ezra returned from Babylon to rebuild the Temple, he brought
back what the Persians had taken.1 Some people have speculated that the
Ark may have been taken from the Temple when it was destroyed by Titus in
70 A.D. and that it was either melted down or perhaps locked away and later
hidden in some secret treasury room in the Vatican. However, there is some
evidence to dispute that theory. In Rome there is an arch which was
dedicated to Titus in honor of his successful siege of Jerusalem. Carved
into the arch are scenes of the Roman destruction and looting of Jerusalem,
including a detailed carving showing the treasures taken from the Temple.
The Ark is NOT among the treasures depicted, even though, as the most
highly valued item, it surely would have been included had Titus taken it.
One possibility that I've never heard of anyone pursuing is based on II
Maccabees, one of the apocryphal books appearing in the Catholic Bible.
According to that text, the Prophet Jeremiah hid the Ark in a cave on Mount
Nebo in Jordan to prevent the Persians from finding it.2
I think it may be somewhere in southern France.
I never really gave it much thought until a few years ago when they
announced the results of the carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin.
"What does all this have to do with the Shroud?" you ask.
It really isn't important to my faith whether it's real or not, but from a
purely scientific point of view, I believe the Shroud is just too good to
be a fake. Until recently though, the carbon 14 dating seemed conclusive.
Then one day I was reading some of the writings of St. Jerome. Jerome
lived in the fourth and early fifth century and was the person who first
translated the Old Testament directly from Hebrew to Latin. In the piece I
was reading, Jerome quotes from a book which he called the 'Gospel of the
Hebrews,' a book which unfortunately either no longer exists or is lost.
Jerome doesn't quote from it very extensively, but the small piece he does
quote reveals a very interesting piece of information about the Shroud. Of
course, there's no way of knowing how authentic this gospel really was. It
may have been as spurious as some of the other apocryphal writings. But
what it says is that after Jesus rose from the dead, he took his burial
shroud and gave it to the servant of the High Priest.3 That's not very
much, but it's the only record we have that indicates what happened to the
Shroud following the resurrection.
You may remember reading about the servant of the High Priest in the Bible.
He's a rather minor character but he's mentioned in all four Gospels.4 We
even know his name: Malchus. Malchus was among those who went to arrest
Jesus on the night before his crucifixion. The Apostle Peter attempted to
fend them off with a sword and in the scuffle he cut off Malchus' ear.
Jesus told Peter to put his sword away, and then picked up the ear and
placed it back on the side of Malchus' head and instantly healed it.
This same Malchus would have been in the Temple on a daily basis and would
have seen the curtain which separated the people from the Holy of Holies
inexplicably torn in two after Jesus' crucifixion.5 (The Holy of Holies
was the most sacred place in the Temple. According to I Cor. 15:6, when
Jesus died, God himself tore the curtain from top to bottom, allowing
ordinary men and women--not just the high priests--access to his holy
presence.) And Malchus, like everyone else in Israel at the time, would
have been very much aware of Jesus miracles and especially the evidence of
his resurrection. It seems reasonable to me to assume that Malchus, having
experienced all this - especially the healing of his ear - may well have
become a follower of Jesus himself. If so, it would explain Jesus' contact
with him after the resurrection: the Bible says that Jesus appeared to more
than five hundred people in and around Jerusalem after the resurrection.6
If Jesus did give the Shroud to Malchus it must have been to preserve the
Shroud as evidence of the resurrection! I believe Jesus may have told
Malchus to put the Shroud in the Ark of the Covenant.
Why would he do that?
It's a little complicated. As I said, we're pretty sure that the Ark
wasn't in the Temple when it was plundered by the Romans in 70 A.D. So
where was it? I believe it was hidden by the High Priest.
Between the time of the Babylonians and the Romans there were several other
times that bandits tried to rob the Temple. I think the priests probably
developed an evacuation plan to hide the Ark whenever the Temple was
threatened (much as the National Archives of the US protects the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence by lowering them into a
vault below the building). Surely when the Romans conquered Israel, the
priests realized that the Temple was once again an extremely attractive
target for those seeking their fortune. Are there really tunnels and
hidden passageways under the Temple where the Ark could have been hidden?
Absolutely. In fact, not just tunnels, but large vaulted rooms. Most
haven't been excavated but they have been identified by radar soundings.7
My theory is that the Ark was hidden somewhere in the tunnels beneath the
Temple to protect it from the Romans. If so, very few people would have
known about it, but certainly the High Priest would have known. And if the
High Priest knew, it's likely that his servant--that is, Malchus--would
have known as well.
Okay, now let's move ahead in time about eleven hundred years, during the
time of the first Crusade. Not many people realize that the Crusaders, who
were mostly French, were quite successful in their first attempts to take
the Holy Land from the Muslims. They even succeeded in capturing and
holding the city of Jerusalem and establishing a French-born king (who
claimed to be a descendant of David) over the city. Shortly after that, an
order of knights known as the Knights Templar was formed in Jerusalem.
The stated purpose of the Knights Templar was to protect Jerusalem and to
aid European pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. This was a rather
unrealistic undertaking, since originally there were only six or seven
members in the order. And they were very poor. Ironically, poverty was
one of their vows. I say "ironically" because somehow over the next
hundred years, this small group of knights not only grew in number, but
grew unbelievably in wealth. In fact, these men became the first
international bankers, loaning money to kings and nobles throughout Europe.
How they acquired their immense wealth has been the subject of great
speculation.
The headquarters for the Knights Templar was in the Mosque of Omar, that
is, the Dome of the Rock, which sits on the site of the old Temple. It has
been suggested that the knights excavated the tunnels beneath the Mosque
and found the treasures of Solomon's Temple and that was the source of
their wealth.
But how does the Shroud of Turin fit into all this?
One of the reasons God had Moses build the Ark was to act as a container for
certain sacred objects: the stone tablets on which God wrote the ten
commandments; the first five books of the Bible written by Moses; a
container of manna, which God caused to fall from the sky each morning for
the Hebrews to eat while they were in the desert; and one other thing,
Aaron's staff, which God had miraculously caused to sprout, bud, and bear
almonds.8 Those things were placed in the Ark as a witness to later
generations of God's covenant with Israel.
But something always struck me as odd about that list of items. Stone
tablets will last forever. Protected in the Ark, the parchment that Moses
used to write the first five books of the Bible might last for thousands of
years. But the container of manna, under normal conditions, would turn to
dust within just a matter of months. And Aaron's staff - though it might
survive the centuries as a simple wooden staff - without the budding and
the almonds, would not be much of a witness of God's covenant or of His
power. That's when it occurred to me that perhaps the power of the Ark is
greater and quite different than we may have realized. For instance, think
about the staff for a minute. How tall do you imagine Aaron's staff would
have been?
Shepherding hasn't changed much over the centuries, and if you visit the
Middle East you'll still see most shepherds' staffs are about six or seven
feet long. So when you think about Aaron's staff, with the limbs and
sprouts and almonds growing from it, it would have had quite a large
diameter. But, based on a standard 18 inch cubit, the absolute longest
that staff could have been and still have fit in the Ark is four feet, nine
inches, and that's without any branches.
The only way that a six to seven foot shepherd's staff could have fit into
the Ark is if the inside dimensions of the Ark are not limited by the
outside dimensions.
Now, for the container of manna and Aaron's staff to have been a witness to
future generations, there must also be some miraculous, preservative power
to the Ark - something which prevents deterioration of items that are
placed inside of it. What I'm suggesting is that perhaps inside the Ark
there is a total absence of dimensions: no length, width or height (which
would explain how Aaron's staff could fit); and no time (which explains how
the manna and the staff could be preserved)!
Further, I'm suggesting that the servant of the High Priest put the Shroud
in the Ark to preserve it, and there it remained until it was taken out,
over a thousand years later, by the Knights Templar when they discovered
the Temple treasures!
Of course, it's mostly just conjecture - but it does offer a unified theory
that would provide a consistent explanation for a number of unanswered
questions. Besides, it makes sense that the Shroud - the only physical
evidence of Jesus' resurrection and the consummation of God's new covenant
with his people - would be kept in the Ark of the Covenant together with
the evidence of God's old covenant.
That's why the Shroud flunked the carbon 14 dating. For over a thousand
years it totally escaped all deterioration and aging while it was inside
the Ark!
But what about the Knights Templar? Is there any connection between them
and the Shroud of Turin?
As far back as it can be traced, the first person who we can positively
prove had the Shroud was a man in France named Geoffrey de Charney. Some
years later his family gave the Shroud to the House of Savoy, who later
moved it to Turin, Italy.
So is there a link between de Charney and the Knights Templar?
I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact, there is.
As I said earlier, the Knights Templar became very powerful throughout
Europe. But then the King of France decided he no longer wanted them
around. He accused their members of hideous sins and atrocities. They
were arrested and tortured to force them to confess to his trumped up
charges. Those who confessed were locked away in prisons; those who
refused were tortured to death or burned at the stake. Two of the last to
be executed in this way were Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the
Knights Templar, and Geoffrey de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy. That
Geoffrey de Charney apparently was the uncle of the later Geoffrey de
Charney, who was the first person that we can positively determine had
possession of the Shroud.
Additionally, one of the things the king accused the knights of doing was
worshipping the image of a man. The Shroud of Turin!
What I'm proposing is that the Shroud, the Ark, and the other Temple
treasures were taken from Israel and hidden in southern France by the
Knights Templar. If so, many of the treasures and the Ark may still be
there, hidden away. In fact, there is a secret society in France called
the Prieure de Sion, which traces its origins to the Knights Templar. The
head of the society has been quoted as saying that he knows where the
Temple treasures are and that they will be returned to Jerusalem "when the
time is right."9
So there you have it - my theory. The rope is in your hands.
To order "In His Image, Book One of the Christ Clone Trilogy," call toll free
1-888-CLONE-99. TELL THE OPERATOR you found out about the book from
PropheZine and the publisher will take $3.00 off the cover price ($12.95 -
you pay $9.95 plus shipping & handling) AND THE BOOK WILL BE AUTOGRAPHED to
you personally (so make sure the operator gets your first name the way you
want it in the book.)
About the author: James BeauSeigneur's published works include technical
manuals on strategic defense and military avionics; newspaper articles;
speeches for U.S. Congressional and Senatorial candidates; and lyrics for
several songs written with Timothy J. Ripley and Mark Ford. Formerly
involved in politics on a full-time basis, Mr. BeauSeigneur has managed
several campaigns and in 1980 ran for U.S. Congress against Al Gore, now
the Vice President. He has four years of experience in military
intelligence including two and a half years as a linguist and analyst with
the National Security Agency.
Footnotes:
1. Ezra 1:7
2. II Maccabees 2:408
3. Jerome, on Eph 5:4 (Migne PL26, cols, 552 C-D), cited by J.K. Elliot in
The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon Press, Oxford University Prss,
1993).
4. Matthew 26:50-52; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:50-51; John 18;10
5. Matthew 27:51
6. 1 Corinthians 15:6
7 See example, Dan Bahat , "Jerusalem Down Under: Tunneling Along Herod's
Temple Mount Wall," Biblical Archaeology Review, Nov / Dec 1995; vol 21: no.
6:30-47
8. Hebrews 9:4
9. Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, "Holy Blood, Holy
Grail," (New York, Delacorte Press, 1982), p.200
***********************
CHARACTER TRAINING FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
by Berit Kjos
"Encourage an understanding of others, a sense of responsibility, empathy
and readiness to cooperate.... Introduce an international or global
perspective in primary schools.... to be incorporated into existing
curricula, wherever possible."1 (UNESCO, 1983)
"There are many Americans...who are skeptical about any expert or federal
official, including the US Secretary of Education, having a role in
informing them how they should mold their children's characters. Yet, they
are deeply concerned about characters and ethics."2 (Richard Riley, U.S.
Education Secretary)
* * *
When fifteen-year-old Kevin walked into his American History class at
Cupertino High School in California, he was given a handout. He glanced at
the title: "Heterosexuality: Can It be Cured?" "Weird," he thought and
looked around. Some of his friends were studying it, too. He read on:
"Heterosexuality is a condition characterized by a sexual attraction to
members of the opposite gender. Many persons, in all cultures, at all
times, have been heterosexual....
"Whatever the cause of this phenomenon, we can state without doubt that
there are many problems associated with heterosexuality, both for the
individual and society at large."
Curious, Kevin scanned the list of problems. Women were especially
vulnerable, it said. They could face sexually transmitted diseases and
unplanned pregnancy as well as mental and psychological "hazards" such as "a
state of homophobia." The suggested treatments included psychotherapy and
wide-spread sterilization of the heterosexual population. Was this a joke?
The next page gave the source of this bizarre "research." It came from the
American Public Health Association Caucus of Gay and Public Health Workers.
UNDERMINE TRADITIONAL VALUES. It's no secret that the gay and lesbian
coalition have waged an intense campaign to draw young students into their
lifestyle. Their demand for laws mandating classroom sensitivity training
designed to build "respect" for their values has opened classrooms to
unspeakable propaganda. And they are not alone in the battle against
concerned parents who would block their "right" to indoctrinate captive
young audiences from coast to coast.
Planned Parenthood and its partners around the world also demand that
children must be set free to indulge in sexual adventures-and without fear
of pregnancy. So does SIECUS (The Sex Information and Education Council of
the United States). Together they have prepared a titillating display of
films, textbooks, props, and promotional material. Most of it is designed
to encourage rather than deter sexual activity-and, more subtly,
earth-centered spirituality. The two go together.
It's not surprising that "Sexuality and Man," a collection of articles
compiled by SIECUS board members, sports a yin-yang symbol on the cover.
One of its authors, Dr. Lester Kirkendall unveiled the SIECUS philosophy:
"The purpose of sex education is not... to control and suppress sex
expression, as in the past, but to indicate the immense possibilities for
human fulfillment that human sexuality offers. The individual must be given
sufficient understanding to incorporate sex most fruitfully and most
responsibly into his present and future life."3
The primary goal, however, is to change values. The first steps are:
"challenging the students' fixed beliefs"4, shaking their moral
convictions, and breaking down modesty and inhibitions. The titillating
sex-ed films, suggestive classroom discussions, and provocative literature
serve the purpose well. Children are forced to think the unthinkable and
visualize the forbidden-until sensuality has replaced Christianity in minds
and hearts. Before long, sin looks cool; and what God calls good seems
boring.
A shocked father described some of sex education programs in his home
state, Massachusetts:
"A 14-year-old Beverly High School girl came home and told her father that
he was a 'homophobe.' She had just returned from 'Homophobia Week' sessions
at the school.
"At Silver Lake High School, the ninth-grade health text teaches: ''Testing
your ability to function sexually and to give pleasure to another person
may be less threatening in the early teens with people of your own sex.'
Also, 'You may come to the conclusion that growing up means rejecting the
values of your parents.' Students were told to keep the book in their
lockers and not take it home.
"In Brookline, a transsexual had been invited to explain to a class of
first-graders how a sex change can take place. Parents had not been
notified or prepared to counsel their frightened, confused children.
"In Westford, thirteen-year-olds were asked on a quiz: 'What is the best
method against pregnancy?' The choice of 'abstinence' was deemed incorrect.
"In Falmouth, a mother asked school officials why her son was being shown
R-rated movies in school without her permission. The English Department
head told her that it was OK because it went along with the themes that
were being presented that quarter, and that 'the message of the films
transcend the language and violence.'"5
What do students gain from these lessons? They learn to question
home-taught values and look with "open minds" at dangerous alternatives.
Many educators know that when children are trapped in sensuous lifestyles,
they can no longer delight in God.
It makes sense. Remember, "the whole world lies under the sway of the
wicked one." (1 John 5:19, NKJV) Satan has always distorted truth, twisted
facts, and seduced people with enticing counterfeits of God's promises. His
latest argument is persuasive: Peace and unity are good. War and conflict
are bad. Religions that stir guilt and bring division are dangerous. And
Christianity, the biggest culprit, blocks progress toward a more evolved
set of values based on all the world's religions.
DISCUSS ALTERNATIVE VALUES. To understand this planned rebellion against
biblical values, look back to 1970. Education psychologist Dr. William
Glasser had just pioneered a "daring new program" for changing attitudes.
His book, "Schools Without Failure," introduced a manipulative strategy for
turning the class into an encounter and counseling group. Children would
share their feelings and air their complaints under the guidance of a
trained facilitator with a politically correct answer. They learned to
empathize with another's lust and respect each other's feelings. Soon they
had traded God's moral standards for self-made choices. No longer would
authoritarian parents and churches impose their values on submissive
children. They would write their own rules!
Or so it seemed. Actually Glasser's tactics manipulated students into
yielding individual choice-along with privacy and family loyalty. Consider
the effect of the following suggestion:
"Children will often become very personal, talking about subjects that
ordinarily are considered private... A child who discusses drunken brawls
at home might quietly be asked to talk about something that has more
relationship to school. Changing the subject in this way is sometimes
unwise, however, because it is just those drunken brawls at home that have
the most relationship to his school progress."6
Today, we know that those private "brawls" become part of a student's
computerized portfolio. A child's "honest" sharing about family activities
gives school officials the needed data about family values. It enables them
to monitor every family member--not just the kids in the classroom.
Professor Sidney Simon went a step further. His book, "Values
Clarification-A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students,"
added a more intrusive note to the vast selections of manipulative
values-changing strategies used to speed the social transformation. Among
the classroom exercises which soon filtered into textbooks and schools
everywhere was a tactic called "values voting."
The teacher simply asks questions dealing with personal values. The
students say "yes" by raising their hands. They answer "no" by pointing
their thumbs down. They discuss their answers. Consider some of the
questions. For example, "How many of you....
* think there are times when cheating is justified?
* regularly attend religious services and enjoy it?
* think that women should stay home and be primary wives and mothers?
* would like to have a secret lover?
* would choose to die and go to heaven, if it meant playing a harp
all day?"7
For middle and high schools students, Simon added questions such as: "How
many of you think sex education instruction in the schools should include
techniques for lovemaking and contraception?" and "How many of you think
you will continue to practice religions, just like your parents?"8
You may recognize some of these questions. They have become standard fare
in classrooms across the country. Whether teachers or school counselors
lead the encounter groups, children are urged to share intimate details of
family life. The parents are usually kept in the dark.
During this directed dialogue, verbal and written responses are carefully
monitored by watchful teachers, who are required to assess each child's
individual "progress" toward the new attitudinal goals. Intrusive classroom
surveys, "private" journal entries, and classroom writing projects all help
expose personal beliefs and values.
If teachers and school counselors see anything that might hinder a student
from meeting the new affective standards for politically correct attitudes,
the child could be labeled "at risk"-meaning more monitoring, state
control, and possible removal of a child "whose home environment was felt
to have a malignant influence."9
ESTABLISH TARGET VALUES. The rejection of traditional values happened with
the approval of our political leaders. Remember what President Bush said in
1992 when he announced America 2000: "Nations that stick to stale old
notions and ideologies will falter and fail. So I'm here to say, America
will move forward... New Schools for a new world."10
Actually, George Bush endorsed values clarification long before he became
president. In 1974, he helped write a report titled, "Man, Education, and
Society in the Year 2000." Funded by HEW's Office of Education, it
concluded that "the 50 states should organize a commission to establish the
values that are significant in approaching problems (e.g., population) that
must be faced in the future." The summary explained that
"The traditional cluster of knowledge, skills, values and concepts
will not help our young face the future in their private life, the
international situation.... Perhaps there is a need for the clarification
of new values needed to solve future problems."11
George Bush is not the only president who proved his loyalty to global
education before winning the White House. In 1987, (then) Governor Bill
Clinton served on The Study Commission on Global Education with other
education, business, and New Age leaders. Together they prepared a report
entitled "The United States Prepares for Its Future: Global Perspectives in
Education." Its Foreword stated that "It now seems almost conventional to
speak of American citizenship in the same breath with international
interdependence and the planetary environment."12
These leaders envisioned a world without war--a global village where young
and old would share a common set of values, fulfill their government
prescribed civic responsibility, and consent to what Al Gore called "a
wrenching transformation of society."13 In this new world, sexual
experimentation would be okay, but dissent and resistance would not be
tolerated. Group consensus and continued change would be essential. All
would live in peace and unity.
Their vision of the new world order is not unlike the managed society
described by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 futuristic fantasy, "Brave New World":
* Children are raised collectively according to the needs of the global
labor market.
* Group thinking has replaced individual views.
* Communal "Feelies" or sensory experiences are encouraged.
* Casual sex is obligatory.
* Mandatory pills prevent pregnancy.
* People are kept too busy with work and trivia to think or complain.
* All must participate in mystical group rituals invoking a universal god.
* Peer pressure and constant surveillance ensure compliance.
The similarities between our schools and Huxley's "Brave New World" is not as
strange as it might seem. Aldous Huxley's brother was Julian Huxley, the
first Secretary-General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization). Promoting the same socialist and humanist
values as John Dewey, Julian Huxley brought his brother's vision into
UNESCO and laid the foundations for the new international education system.
Our Goals 2000 is little more than the American branch of what UNESCO, in
1973, called a "continuous and integrated process" of "lifelong
learning."14
Dewey, the Huxley brothers, and their utopian followers didn't understood
human nature, did they? Peace and goodness comes only through Christ, not
through behavior modification or psychological indoctrination. Yes, they
gained control over education. Yes, values have changed, and each crisis
has persuaded the public to submit to increasing controls. But people are
not getting better--and the results are devastating.
For the moment, the pressure is on the Church. Faced with shocking
suggestions, peer pressure, persuasive arguments, and constant challenges
to Christian faith, most children are following peers into the new paradigm
where bad is good and good is global.
Resistance is costly. A girl who refuses to endorse the gay lifestyle is
labeled homophobic. A boy who appreciates traditional gender roles will
score low in the new affective (feeling-based) assessments. They simply
don't measure up to the new standard for tolerance.
TEACH TOLERANCE---PUNISH INTOLERANCE. Seven-year old Sallie loved her
school and her classmates. But she felt sad when a teacher at her
elementary school in Los Altos, California, told her not to talk about her
Christian beliefs on school grounds.
"What's church and state," she asked her mother later that day.
"Why do you ask?" answered the mother.
"My teacher told me to keep them apart and not talk about Jesus. She said I
should save that talk for Sundays."
The rule made no sense to Sallie. Jesus was special to her every day--not
just on Sundays. And she knew God wanted her to tell others. Yet she didn't
want to break the rules. So when she wanted to bring her Bible for "sharing
day," she hesitated. In the end, she decided not to bring it--even though
one of her classmates had brought a small Buddha statue for the sharing
time. The teacher didn't seem to mind the Buddhist religion.
Sallie's mother was in the classroom for a Thanksgiving celebration when
the teacher asked all the students to say in one word what they were
thankful for. Sallie raised her hand right away. She knew what she was
thankful for: Jesus. But the teacher ignored her hand and called on all the
others. Finally, at the very end, she let Sallie say her special word. The
teacher squinted, showing her displeasure. Sallie felt shamed.
One day, when Sallie was talking about Jesus with a classmate who had
come to her Vacation Bible School, the principal came by and heard some of
their
conversation.
"Don't talk about Jesus so much," he told her.
Sallie felt confused. "But Kara needs to hear about Jesus," she said. She
knew that her friend was hurting.
As one might expect, Sallie didn't do well on the new assessments that
emphasize the "right" values and attitudes rather than traditional
academics. She was assigned to a "Child Study Team" where she would be
remediated. Her IEP (Individual Education Plan) would be managed and
monitored by the Resource Specialist.
"She doesn't smile, Mommy," said Sallie, who felt uncomfortable in her
counselor's presence.
Her parents asked a lawyer what rights they had as parents to protect
Sallie from religious intolerance. The lawyer warned them that the school
might consider Sallie "overly religious" and refer her to Child Protection
Services (CPS). At that point, Sallie's parents quickly transferred her
from the local public school to a Christian school. Sallie misses her
friends, but at least she is no longer under the watchful eye of the
school-based "thought police."4
Perhaps you are wondering how this could be happening in America. What
happened to free speech? To religious freedom? To kindness?
Remember the paradigm shift. The new paradigm changed all the rules. The
globalist meaning for tolerance permits no tolerance for Christianity. An
international "Declaration on Tolerance," prepared by UNESCO and signed by
"member nations," defined the new global standard. All nations would be
responsible for fulfilling this international contract by teaching the
"right" kind of tolerance. Though America didn't sign, our schools are
leading the way.
As you read UNESCO's international contract on tolerance, ask yourself,
"Can Christian children really 'appreciate' what God forbids?" Look up
Deuteronomy 18:9-13, Romans 1:18-32 and I Corinthians 10:11, then follow
its twisted logic below:
* "Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity
of our world's cultures.... It is not only a moral duty, it is also a
political and legal requirement.
* "Tolerance involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism....
[Biblical truth?]
* "Tolerance... means that one's views are not to be imposed on others.
[Would this end freedom to share the gospel with others? Could the UN still
share its views?]
* "Intolerance... is a global threat.
* "Scientific studies and networking should be undertaken to coordinate the
international community's response to this global challenge, including
analysis... of root causes and effective countermeasures, as well as
research and monitoring....
* "Tolerance promotion and the shaping of attitudes of openness, mutual
listening and solidarity should take place in schools and universities, and
through non-formal education... at home and in the workplace.
* "Promote rational tolerance teaching methods that will address the
cultural, social, economic, political and religious sources of
intolerance--major roots of violence and exclusion."15
This anti-Christian standard for right and wrong has permeated teacher's
colleges, educational laboratories, and curricula for decades. It has torn
down God's boundaries, and allowed immorality and deception to flood our
land. No wonder children are adrift in a tumultuous current of inner
conflict and moral confusion. God warned us long ago that this would
happen: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil... Woe to those who
are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight." (Isaiah 5:20)
HIDE NEW VALUES BEHIND OLD LABELS. Having created the crisis, education
leaders have a ready solution. President Clinton summarized it well in his
1997 State of the Union speech: "Character education must be taught in our
schools. We must teach our children to be good citizens."
What kind of character for tomorrow's citizens? In 1976, NEA leader Harold
Shane spoke for a long line of education leaders when he wrote "...we will
educate our young for planetary service and eventually for some form of
world citizenship." Shane had been working with Terrel Bell (who became
President Reagan's first Education Secretary) on a NEA committee exploring
a change in "the cardinal principles of education."16
With support from President Clinton, Richard Riley, William Bennett, Marian
Wright Edelman, and global ethicists such as Rushmore Kidder who founded
the Institute for Global Ethics, "Character Education" has become a smoke
screen for teaching global citizenship. Educators simply decide on the
values needed for the managed communities of the 21st century, then market
them to schools, parents, and community leaders with nice-sounding labels
such as "respect" and "responsibility."
It works. Christian parents have always taught their children good
character qualities, so the idea appeals to us. We want to believe that the
educational establishment still upholds the values that we treasure. And we
forget that words take on new meanings when moved from the familiar
Christian context into the new global paradigm.
Remember North Carolina School Superintendent Causby's words: "We have
learned to put the best spin on things."17 Character Education, as touted
by the educational establishment and the White House, has put the best of
spins on a most alarming plan.
Let's see what happens when Christian words are plunged into the New Age
context. But first, remember that teaching character began as God's idea.
Long after He first told parents to train their children to follow His
ways, He gave us this list of godly qualities: diligence, faith, virtue,
knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love. (2
Peter 1:2-8, NKJV)
You know what those words mean. The context of the whole Bible makes it
clear to us. Only by His life in us, can His character qualities be
demonstrated through us. Only by faith in Him and all He has promised us,
can we be "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust...."
When globalist leaders use similar words, the focus changes. The
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD-the curriculum
arm of the mighty NEA) has given schools a nice-sounding set of character
qualities, but its leaders had no intention of promoting the Christian
values they have fought so hard to ban. Their list--justice, altruism,
diligence, and respect--may sound biblical, but its intent fits the NEA
vision of social control.
A broad-based coalition called Character Counts! promotes another
impressive list. Its "Six Pillars of Character" include respect,
responsibility, justice, trustworthiness, civic virtue, and citizenship.
These "consensus ethical values" were chosen in 1992, when a group of
psychiatrists, international ethicist, political leaders, school
superintendents, and members of state boards of education met in Aspen,
Colorado, to share "ideas about character development" and seek "consensus
on the ethical values that could be taught at home, in the classroom and at
the office."18
The Aspen Conference which birthed Character Counts was organized by the
Josephson Institute of Ethics. Its chairman is Frances Hesselbein, chief
executive of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.19 Do
you see the link to Total Quality Management (TQM) and the global
workplace?
The Council of Advisors for Character Counts includes Hillary Clinton's
friend Marian Wright Edelman, head of Childrens Defense Funds and a
plenary speaker at Mikhail Gorbachev's 1996 State of the World Forum. This
is significant, for the CC leaders give us a clue into the values behind
the lists of character qualities. They have little to do with God's plan
for His people. They has everything to do with a global and political
agenda.
Take the word respect. Used in a global context, respect--like
tolerance--means appreciation for people and lifestyles that fit the
globalist plan. Does your child's teacher promote "respect" for paganism
and promiscuous lifestyles by commending Planned
Parenthood or by organizing "fun" earth-centered rituals in the classroom?
In most schools today, "respect" rules out respect for Christian children
and parents who refuse to compromise God's truth and moral standard. The
biblical standard simply doesn't fit the new goals. But what the world
condemns, God rewards:
"Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, and does not respect the
proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. (Psalm 40:4)
Their second Pillar of Character, "responsibility," is as misleading as
"respect." According to the Character Education Partnership, it prepares
students to "guard the fundamental rights of all citizens and carry out the
obligations of citizenship by working toward a common vision of the common
good."20
That sounds good until we consider what that "common vision" might be--and
what kinds of obligations it might demand--now and in the future. And what
does "common good" imply? A socialist state where individual goals must
yield to collective interests?
Knowing what strange bedfellows make up the Character Education Partnership
gives us another clue. Two of its powerful partners are the NEA and its
curriculum branch, the ASCD. Look again at their philosophy.
NEA leader Willard Givens summarized it well back in 1934. "...all of us,
including the 'owners', must be subjected to a large degree of social
control.... The major function of the school is the social orientation of
the individual. It must seek to give him understanding of the transition to
a new social order." 21
The "new social order" would emphasize duties instead of rights. Community
or collective rights would count far more than individual rights. That's an
old totalitarian idea re-packaged for today. More than fifty years ago, NEA
Journal editor J. Elmer Morgan envisioned "a world Bill of Rights and
Duties". Today his dream is nearing reality.
Hard to believe? Not for those who are familiar with NEA and UNESCO
plans--or those who has been following President Clinton's speeches. Just review
my April 16 (PropheZine #39) article on "Zero Tolerance" and see how the
evolving new system sacrifices individual justice for "the common good."
"Civic Virtue" and "Citizenship" fit hand-in-glove with "Responsibility." All
three are open-ended. Compliant citizens must be ready to conform to
changing rules and evolving duties. All three imply obedience to a new
"civic framework of rights, responsibilities and respect."22
"Honesty" and "Cooperation" are good Christian qualities. But in the hands of
"change agents" they, too, can be used for ungodly purposes. In classroom
dialogues led by facilitators trained to draw private information from
dutiful children, they persuade children to "be open" and "tell the truth"
about church, discipline, and family activities the schools have no right
to know or monitor.
Don't forget, most of the character qualities were good when used in a
biblical context. But when moved into the global paradigm, they became
tools for transformation. Notice how the focus changes with the paradigm
shift:
CHRISTIAN CONTEXT GLOBAL CONTEXT
respect - for what God calls good / for earth-centered values
responsibility - to God first / to the collective
community
understanding - from God's perspective / from global perspective
co-operation - according to God's plan / according to changing rules
citizenship - obey God's guidelines / serve and conform to group
altruism - God's love through us to others / mandatory "voluntary" service
empathy - compassion for the needy / oneness with all
justice - fair trial, compensation / socialist equality, redistribution
FOLLOW SUCCESSFUL MODELS. Unlike other experimental teaching programs,
character education has been tested. It works. Nazi educators traded
academics for character education--and created arrogant, tough, and
obedient citizens--ready for unquestioning service to the state. As Hitler
wrote in Mein Kampf:
"The folkish state must not adjust its entire educational work primarily to
the inoculation of mere knowledge.... The training of mental abilities is
only secondary.... First place must be taken by the development of
character, especially promotion of will-power and determination, combined
with the training of joy in responsibility....
"A man with little scientific education but... with a good, firm
character... is more valuable for the national community than a clever
weakling.... In the hard struggle of destiny, the man who knows least
seldom succumbs...."23
Hitler had been watching Russia, where education was "harnessed to the
goals of the Communist party." Schools were "drastically changed.... Pupils
took part in soviets [local appointed councils] which were responsible for
running schools and communities. Teachers were told to eradicate all traces
of the old philosophies and instill Communist ideas of education."24
Factual learning was replaced by ideology, and teachers were trained to
modify behavior and build the character required of Soviet youth. Homework
and exams were forbidden--until chaos forced a change. Using the same
propaganda we hear today, Lenin said, "Our schools must give our youth the
foundations of knowledge, of ability to work out themselves the Communist
outlook. It must make educated people of them." Yet, only a compliant elite
would rise above the working classes, for "free secondary education was
allowed only to students of exceptional ability."25
>From a Christian perspective, character education both in Soviet Russia
and Nazi Germany was a dismal failure. But to globalist "change agents" it
accomplished its purpose: it turned children into compliant citizens and
zealous activists for the state. Less than a decade after Hitler showed
the true colors of Nazi character, the United Nations and its US partners
were writing a similar script for America. Its vision for world education
would use both Nazi and Soviet-style behavior modification to mold global
citizens with world-class character.
Like the Clintons today, the first UN leaders used "science" to validate a
supposed "need" for government control over families. Soon after the UN was
founded, its leaders presented "new discoveries" in mental health research
"showing" that children must be protected against traditional values. To
raise awareness of the dangers and bring public consensus, the 1948
International Congress on Mental Health produced a statement called "Mental
Health and World Citizenship." It declared that,
"Social institutions such as family and school impose their imprint early
in the personality development of their members, who in turn tend to
perpetuate the traditional patterns... It is the man and woman in whom
these patterns of attitude and behavior have been incorporated who present
the immediate resistance to social, economic and political changes. Thus
prejudice, hostility, or excessive nationalism may become deeply embedded
in the developing personality without awareness on the part of the
individual concerned, and often at great human cost."
Does that sound familiar? Remember UNESCO's Declaration on Tolerance. It
declared intolerance to be "a global threat." A danger to all humanity!
Tom Hanks used the same argument last April 28, during the President's
Summit on America's Future. Perhaps you watched as he moderated "I Am Your
Child"-a televised film designed to prepare the public to accept state
control over child-raising. He began with a familiar script:
"...according to startling new scientific discoveries about brain
development, the emotional and intellectual environment [the newborn baby]
is exposed to during those critical first three years will have a profound
effect on what kind of person he will turn out to be. And the kind of
person he turns out to be will impact either positively or negatively
every other person in the world. That's right."
Sounds like another global crisis, doesn't it? But don't worry. Our
government has planned a rescue. With an army of trained mentors, monitors,
and parent-teachers, it will direct child-raising along the right path. In
fact, early childhood training is simply the first part of "lifelong
learning"--another UNESCO idea. This "cradle-to-grave" program must involve
young and old in the new "seamless human resource" management system
based on consensus. Everyone must embrace the right values, demonstrate the
right character, and become the right kind of citizen--or lose the social
benefits only awarded those who comply.
This new citizen will freely offer his or her time to state-organized
"voluntary" service--or "service learning." [This origin and dangers of this
program are illustrated and explained in "Brave New Schools"] During his
Summit on America's Future, President Clinton called for thousands of
volunteers to participate in the process. With his typical flair for spin
control, he announced,
"The era of big government may be over, but the era of big challenges for
our country is not. And so we need an era of big citizenship. That's why
we're here."26
REVIVE EARTH-CENTERED VALUES. "Big citizenship" refers to the new
"democratic" or "civil government" envisioned by globalist leaders.
Political decisions would be made by the bureaucratic "councils" which
resemble Lenin's "soviets" and--so we are told--represent the views of an
entity called "the people." Since the public will be trained in politically
correct citizenship and consensus, they will have learned not to oppose
this process.
Few globalists have advanced the new image of citizenship more zealously
than Robert Muller, the Chancellor of the University of Peace in Costa
Rico. The former Assistant Secretary-General of the UN led the design team
for UNESCO's Global Education Project and helped lay the groundwork for
lifelong learning. His own World Core Curriculum--inspired by Alice Bailey's
spirit guide "the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul"-- became a shining model for
teaching values in the US and around the world. Outlining basic assumptions
of the global paradigm, it calls for schooling in planetary citizenship long
before a child learns his or her national or local identity.
In April 4-6, 1997, Muller hosted a Youth Congress in Vancouver titled
"Global Citizenship 2000." Sponsored by the International Foundation of
Learning, it challenged 14 teams of student leaders to design Millennium
projects that would be used to inspire students, teachers, mentors and
politicians around the world.
Carl Teichrib, who publishes the insightful news letter, Zero Ground,
attended, taped and transcribed the sessions. Ponder the following list of
Millennium Projects proposed by the students. Do you wonder where their
ideas came from?
* Develop a Global Citizenship theme park with exhibitions such as an
"imagination market" and a ride where people discover what it would be like
to be cut down as a tree. It would teach environmental servant-hood and
encourage the use of hemp instead of trees.
* Develop a Ministry of Water for world wide water management.
* Create a Global Citizenship Club in the school, making sure the students
get involved in saving the environment. An additional bonus: "We can
influence the parents..."
* Eliminate prejudice based on race, ethnicity, religion, culture, social
status, sex and age...
* Create a Global Citizenry Charter of Rights.... Give the kids some morals
to live by.
* Plan a school course on planetary preservation...
* Develop an Inter-Faith Council. "...which could have many different
religions...representatives from all the different religions in the school
coming together to promote peace and...get rid of tensions.
A group of young women performed a skit to dramatize the new meaning of
citizenship. One member sat on a round table and held pine branches in her
hands. "Welcome to the Council of Human Beings," she began. "I represent
Mother Earth."
In turn, the other women laid their hands on her and confessed their
environmental sins:
"I am guilty of wasting water when I'm brushing my teeth, letting the water
run, and having long showers."
"I am guilty of killing animals by buying and wearing leather sandals."
"I am guilty of polluting the environment when I'm fully aware of the oil
leak in my dad's car."
"I am guilty of supporting the destruction of East Timor by buying jewelry
and blankets made in Indonesia."
Mother Earth (ME) acknowledged each confession with a brief, "I hear you,"
then posed the next challenge: "How can you heal me?"
"I can stop wasting water by only taking what I need," said the first
repentant sinner.
"I forgive you," said ME.
Each woman proved her repentance by sharing her good intentions. At the
end, the group received a hearty applause.
Robert Muller must have been pleased. Young activists around the world are
joining his campaign for a global code of ethics based on earth-centered
values. At a 1995 UN celebration in San Francisco Bay Area, he stressed the
need for a such a standard:
"Our spirituality is being reborn.... We need a universal Declaration of
Ethics.... The first period took up human rights. Now, we must deal with
rights of the planet....
"We need... universal Declarations of Duties and Responsibilities.... I
would recommend:
1. "A science of ethics. The great religions lead us to discern what
is right and what is wrong.... We need a science to define what is good and
bad....
2. "A strategy of ethics: Teach that all are interconnected from
infinitely large to infinitely small....
Muller then listed some of the most urgent duties. They dealt with
environmental violations such as large families, over-consumption, too much
garbage, and religious differences. The World Court would punish
violations.
"We must start debate in the UN for ethical behavior," he announced, then
suggested that the UN "create independent commissions" on spirituality ["I
told the Dalai Lama to do it"] and on communication ["I told Ted
Turner..."]". He concluded,
"Create a new UN office on ethics -- in duties and responsibilities....The
world government [must establish ethics] to condemn people who come up with
nuclear weapons.... The next millennium must heal what is wrong!"
GOD'S ETERNAL VALUES. From Muller's perspective, the biggest wrong is the
Christian view of man and nature. He may never have read the passages in
the Bible that shows God's special concern for His creation--trees, flowers,
wild and domestic animals.... It wouldn't matter if he did.
What matters to Muller and other globalists are the deceptive strategies
persuasive needed to persuade the public to submit to their international
system of oppressive rules and laws--a system not unlike the Huxleys' vision
of a tightly managed world. You saw it earlier. It would own each child and
control each person. But it would sanction the sexual sins God forbids.
Today, this twist on freedom serves a purpose. As in recent totalitarian
regimes, well-chosen compensations distract the masses from the anguish of
tyranny. "In Brave New World," Aldous Huxley describes the seductive
"feelies" that compensate for the loss of freedom. First among them is
sexual license :
"As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends
compensatingly to increase. And the dictator... will do well to encourage
that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the
influence of dope, movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his
subjects to the servitude which is their fate."27
Sensual, earth-centered values are anything but new to the human race.
Pagan cultures have indulged in sexual promiscuity along with spiritual
rituals since the beginning of time. And whenever God's Old Testament
people turned away from their Shepherd, it wasn't long before they were
caught up in the same deadly lusts that corrupted their pagan neighbors.
Your children are not immune to the world's seductive messages. They hear
the same tempting promises and the same alluring voices that others hear
and follow. They, too, want peace and safety, friends and fun. So when the
counterfeit answers rings out again and again, week after week, they start
to sound both true and natural.
Concerned about their spiritual safety, our Shepherd reminds them: "Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God." (Romans 12:2-3, NKJV)
Unless we help our children build a mental framework and filter based on
biblical truth, the world's philosophies will probably squeeze them into
its mold. It takes discernment, diligence, and delight in God to stand firm
in His truth when friends choose the tempting counterfeits. But those who
have chosen to stand firm, wear His armor, trust His promises, an
d follow
Him no matter what, will be led by the Shepherd in a peace and triumph the
world can never understand.
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has
prepared for those who love Him," but God has revealed it to us by his
Spirit." (1 Cor. 2:9-10) Therefore we can sing with David,
"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength,
in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So
shall I be saved from my enemies." (Psalm 18:2-3, NKJV)
* * *
To understand the manipulative strategies used to change our children and
persuade the public to accept a global education system, read Brave New
Schools (Harvest House Publishers). Available through Christian bookstores,
or call 800-929-5646.
* * *
Endnotes:
1 Education for International Co-operation and Peace at the Primary-School
Level (Switzerland: UNESCO, 1983), 9.
2 Richard Riley, White House, Washington DC, July 29, 1994. Internet:
http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/07-1994/charactr.html
3 Lester Kirkendall, Sexuality and Man (SIECUS). (I bought this book, but
have misplaced it. Contact me for more information.)
4 David Krathwohl, Benjamin Bloom and Bertram Massia, Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives, The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook
II: Affective Domain, (McKay Publishers, 1956), 55.
5 Mark E. Howerter, "The Other Side of the News."
http://www.prairienet.org/otherside.
6 William Glasser, M.D., Schools Without Failure (NY: Harper & Row, 1969), 161.
7 Sidney B. Simon, Leland W. Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum, Values
Clarification--A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students
(New York: Hart Publishing Co., 1972), 38-39, 41-46.
8 Ibid., 49, 54.
9 Harold Shane, Today's Education (January 1969). Shane worked with Terrel
Bell (later President Reagan's Education Secretary) on a NEA Bicentennial
Report on "Cardinal Principles" that would "bring about a harmoniously
interdependent global community." Cited by Dennis Cuddy, 59-60.
10 George Bush, White House, April 18, 1991. "America 2000: An Education
Strategy."
11 Man, Education and Society in the Year 2000, a report issued by the
Institute for Chief State School Officers, 1974. Summary written by Dr.
Grant Venn, CSSO Institute Director. Cited by Dr. Dennis Cuddy, 55-56
12 The United States Prepares for Its Future: Global Perspectives in
Education, Report of the Study Commission on Global Education," 1987. The
report is financed by the Rockefeller, Ford and Exxon Foundations. Cited by
Dr. Dennis Cuddy, 80.
13 Al Gore, Earth in the Balance (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company,
1992), p. 274.
14 George W. Parkyn, Towards a Conceptual Model of Life-long Education
(Paris: UNESCO, 1973), 8.
15 The Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, adopted and signed by the
Member States of the UNESCO on 16 November, 1995.
16 Harold Shane, "America's Next 25 Years: Some Implications for
Education," Phi Delta Kappan (September 1976). Cuddy, 59-60.
17 Cynthia Weatherly, "The Second Annual Model School Conference," The
Christian Conscience (January 1995); 36.
18 Character Counts! Internet: http://www.charactercounts.org/
"Background."
19 Ibid.
20 Character Education Partnership, Internet: http://web2010.com/cepweb/
21 Willard Givens presented a report titled "Education for the New America"
at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the NEA, held in Washington, D.C. in July
1934. Cuddy, 20.
22 Charles C. Haynes, "Character Education in the Public Schools,"
Character Education Partnership, Internet:
http://www.fac.org/publicat/cground/ch14_1.html
23 Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1791), 408.
24 Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 22 (Chicago: William Benton, 1968), 538,
537.
25 Ibid., 538.
26 James Bennet, "Presidents Call for Big Citizenship, Not Big Government,"
New York Times, April 29, 1997.
27 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (New York: Harper Perennial, 1932), xvii.
Canadian researcher Carl Teichrib can be reached at: C.T. Communication,
Box 612, Gladstone, Manitoba, Canada, R0J 0T0 (204-385-3084).
**************************
- P O I N T -
WHAT IS OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION?
By William Bonville
There is widespread public awareness that our public schools have failed to
educate our children. There is an equally widespread clamor for change. The
people want schools to be good again. This was the excuse for introducing
Outcome Based Education. OBE will cure all our problems by restructuring
the schools to meet the desires of the people and the needs of children.
OBE is the white knight to the rescue. Or is it?
Since in recent decades our schools have been run more and more
bureaucratically, adopting more and more new and experimental programs,
engaging more and more in social engineering instead of traditional
education, one might conclude that public schools over the past three
decades have been systematically weaned away from their function of
education. Indeed, when one looks into the history of educational policy
management at all levels, one can argue convincingly that the educational
effectiveness of our public schools has been systematically destroyed in
order that something like Outcome Based Education, OBE, could be brought in
to "save" the schools.
While such a notion is alarmingly consistent with the theories of the
experts who developed and implemented OBE (to achieve change, first
introduce" dissonance" to produce confusion and the consequent desire for
change, they advise), there is little appearance of that when OBE first
arrives on the scene. OBE has the appearance of being "local" in origin, a
system devised uniquely by people on the actual site of the schools to
solve the immediate problems of each individual school. But that is mere
appearance. OBE is a cleverly packaged system of schooling handed down
through federal and state educational bureaucracies which skilled experts,
called facilitators and change agents, implant into each school district.
On the surface it looks good to pupils, teachers and parents. They like it
because, if nothing else, it feels good. Its initial phase of
implementation is designed to be easy to swallow, smoothing things out in
preparation for the changes to come.
The first thing that leads one to question OBE is discovery that it is not
a system invented by experienced educators. Instead it was developed and is
managed and guided by a fanatical group of sociologists and psychologists
originally funded and directed by an assortment of tax-exempt foundations.
Principal among them is the Carnegie Corporation, which has sponsored and
led the key organizations that have developed and implemented OBE; and the
Rockefeller Foundation, which funds several key organizations involved in
the school restructuring movement, organizations which are guided by
regents or boards of directors on which a man named David Rockefeller holds
membership and calls the shots personally or through his representatives.
And David Rockefeller, whatever else he may be, is not an educator.
Taking a deeper look at OBE, we discover that it is not about education at
all. At least, not in terms of traditional academically-based,
teacher-directed instruction that once was the foundation of American
education until the social engineers began whittling away at it back in the
1960s.
The fundamental strategy of the restructuring movement known as Outcome
Based Education is elimination of all moral and psychological barriers to
social change. Why social change? Because the political, industrial and
banking leaders who lead our society have concluded that, the way the world
is going, it will be politically and economically unmanageable in the very
near future. OBE is a crucial part of the solution to their management
problem.
The ultimate objective is to gain socio-political control over all present
and future generations of children, conditioning them to be cooperative and
pliable workers and citizens who will go along with the New World Order.
OBE will be the tool by which those children will be conditioned to operate
cooperatively in the New World Order. That "Order" will be an egalitarian
society (run by a small elite) marked by total conformity to, and control by,
the ideas of those in charge of the state, in accordance with
state-specified values and attitudes. This is the classic notion of Fabian
Socialism carried to its logical extreme.
OBE is thus global in concept, socialistic in philosophy, and
anti-patriotic. It's design is based on a comprehensive view of the future
a generation or two on out into the twenty first century. The sociologists
work back from that concept to determine what education must be today to
accommodate that presumed future.
The outcomes of OBE are thus designed to produce an educational product (a
student) who will function appropriately in that future. THIS IS THE KEY TO
OBE. Those outcomes, these experts have determined, are only incidentally
and at best secondarily what we would call academic. Instead, they are
fundamentally associated with what one might call a view of the world, what
the philosophers call a weltanschauung. And that is less an intellectual
grasp of what the world is all about than it is felt understanding, a nexus
of attitudes and dispositional feelings about the world and our place in
it. And that is what the "outcomes" of OBE would restructure.
The crucial point is that the educational outcomes that a graduate must
possess to matriculate from the OBE system are attitudinal and relate to
values, not to academic skills. Paramount above everything is that the
student's outcome must include a high level of self esteem. He must believe
and feel that he is the nicest, best, or whatever positive feeling is
appropriate to the learning situation, no matter what the reality is due to
his basic possession or lack of talent or intelligence. No matter what his
capabilities and capacities, no matter where they place him in the order of
things, he must feel good about himself so that he will be satisfied first
of all with OBE itself, and then with where he finds himself in the social,
economic and political order that the experts in world governments are
creating for him to live in. OBE will produce this sort of satisfied, happy
person because he or she will be able to succeed in mastering everything
the system has to offer. That it isn't very much academically, is not
beside the point. For if you educate children too well, at least some of
them will be apt to challenge the new order of things.
The masters of OBE have gained control of the educational system virtually
everywhere in the nation, and have established legislation, implementation
plans, schedules, and educational goals that are identical from state to
state. In each instance they are instituting a system that is:
1. Brainwashing, not education. It uses Skinnerian techniques of
psychological conditioning to obtain politically correct and compliant,
dumbed-down workers who feel good about themselves.
2. Challenges traditional family values and religiously-based
Judeo-Christian moral absolutes by developing a morality of relativism
based on what feels good in situations. The objective is destruction of the
Judeo-Christian culture and the conceptual and attitudinal anchors that
underlie the ideals of individualism and freedom that dominate our
prevailing world view.
3. Undermines academic excellence by de-emphasizing, eliminating or
lowering academic standards such that all students can meet all
requirements. Meanwhile it adds other standards which are attitudinal and
affective, politically correct, verified by behaviors having nothing to do
with academics. OBE focuses on changing behavior, attitudes, values, and
feelings. These outcomes drive the system; where core academic subjects are
taught, they are treated as processes only, used to achieve the real
attitudinal goals. The system uses illegal psychological tests to assess
those behaviors.
4. Makes a permanent record of the compliance of each child with these
outcomes and, under that part of the law called "Parents as Teachers,"
intervenes in the family if necessary to obtain those outcomes. The laws
are written so that families who object and resist the brain washing of
their children can be prosecuted, lose jurisdiction over their children,
and be forced into psychological counseling (at their own expense) until
they have come around to the government's way of seeing things.
5. Makes that record on each child available to other agencies of the
government and to prospective employers. Intends by law that a child who
does not comply with outcomes will not get employed or be able to advance
educationally.
6. Eliminates Carnegie Units (class hour credits in subjects) as a
criterion for graduation; eliminates grading in favor of psychological
testing of desired attitudinal outcomes.
7. Supplants the diploma with Certificates of Mastery (CIM and CAM),
intermediate and advanced, at 10th and 12th grade equivalents. Forces
fifteen- and sixteen-year-old students to make career decisions which
become difficult for them to change, and reintroduces fixed "tracks" into
the educational process. Keeps your children from receiving certificates if
they disagree with the values taught in school, no matter how
intellectually gifted or academically excellent they may be.
8. Increases length of school year and class length, in part to make
possible the "remediation" of children who resist or reject the desired
outcomes.
9. Makes the teacher into a "facilitator" or coach in place of conducting a
directed learning environment.
10. Introduces "whole word" reading in place of phonics, and employs group,
cooperative and coercive learning strategies in place of motivating
individual initiative. The approach de-emphasizes individual choices and
decisions or the learning of self reliance. Replaces math drills with
calculators, vocabulary building with feel-good choices, etc., as it takes
the work out of academic learning.
11. Gives control of the system to educators (site based management) in
place of school boards and school committees, and thus breaks the last bit
of local community control over the educational process. It also assures
control of the educators by the system, because teachers and administrators
are mandated to learn and utilize the new system, and they will remain
dependent upon it for their professional advancement and livelihood.
12. Holds top achievers back by making them teach slower students until all
have met the
behavioral standards. This allows most members of a group or class to
achieve only a small fraction of the academic progress gained under the
existing system, bad as it is. For greater detail than above, you are urged
to read Ron Sunseri's book: OBE, Understanding the Truth about Education
Reform, Publishers, PO Box 1720, Sisters, OR 97759.
But how exactly does OBE work?
In OBE, a student must demonstrate an approved behavior defined by the
state as the required outcome of the educational process. The state:
1. Sets a standard for "mastery" of a specified goal.
2. Tests to verify that the goal has been achieved.
3. Remediates a student who fails to meet the standard until he does.
The required outcomes are attitudinal, not academically based. They set
outcome attitudes towards and behavioral capacity for adaptability to
change, ethical judgment, family living, environment, understanding and
appreciating others, and good citizenship (defined as active participation
in and support of civic government).
The rhetoric of OBE says that children will proceed at their own pace and
not be judged by "seat time." In practice, because of emphasis upon group
learning strategies, all children in a group must achieve the goals before
the group may move on, which puts tremendous pressure on a non-conformist
to conform. This group orientation makes OBE a system for education of the
group, not the individual. It is "collective" education in which
competition is discouraged and the individual learns that the group is more
important than the individual.
Each school district must develop a plan to meet OBE requirements, submit
it to the state and, if state does not approve, or if the district will not
fall into line, the state will take over the district. In practice, the
state provides the plan to the district, so that the plan is essentially
the same in all districts and in all states. A carrot and stick approach is
used. If the district cooperates, it gets an open conduit to state and
federal money. If it doesn't, it gets taken over at worst, doesn't get
money at best.
Public Law 103-382, dated October 20 1994, provides $8 billion (yes, that
is a B for billion) of grant money for spreading out to those states and
school districts who accept the federal mandate to implement OBE in their
schools.
OBE thus is being implemented as a national curriculum that is to be worked
into the system in stages. The following explanation is condensed from
Ron Sunseri's book, page 23ff, a book that every parent should buy and read
from cover to cover, for we only touch on all that the book covers about OBE.
There are four stages in implementing outcome-based education. As you read
you will begin to see a pattern that you may be experiencing in your own
district. The transition from one stage of OBE to the next is accomplished
through gradualism. Bill Spady, the "father of OBE," defines the stages as
follows:
STAGE 1: TRADITIONAL OBE
Here OBE retains its traditional focus on traditional subject area
knowledge (math, science, reading, etc.), outcome-based instruction is
applied to the traditional disciplines. Shift is made to A,B,I grading
(eighty percent = mastery; incomplete (I) doesn't count on grade point
average).
Teacher takes the role of coach or facilitator.
STAGE 2: LOW TRANSITIONAL OBE
The focus remains on academic subject areas with some OBE processes such as
group collaboration, self assessment on performance terms using open-ended
tests and demonstrations with scoring (rubrics) developed by teacher. A,B,I
grading continues.
STAGE 3: HIGH TRANSITIONAL OBE
The instructional focus now shifts entirely to processes and competencies,
using subject matter in hands-on, real-life experience situations.
Future-driven competence outcomes from spheres of the
psychological, sociological, political, using authentic, exit outcome-based
performance assessments (portfolios, projects, etc.) Curriculum now becomes
interdisciplinary (thematic, traditional disciplines integrated).
STAGE 4: TRANSFORMATIONAL OBE
Here the educational focus points to functioning in life-roles (knowledge,
competence, and orientation towards the community as school, with it
defining what we want the student to be like-values). What we now have are
future conditions-driven life-role performance outcomes
(psycho-socio-political focus) involving authentic role performances
(apprenticeship, community service, working in community), with academic
subject matters fully integrated into and effectively downgraded, emptied
of much content (content is estimated by OBE authorities to be
approximately 10 percent of traditional content), and submerged within
thematic future-driven curriculum. The outcomes are scored by student- and
expert-created rubrics (business and industry will assess and validate
competencies through authentic life-role performances), awarding
certificates of mastery leading to entry into workforce. Carnegie units are
abandoned and criterion validation replaces grading with descriptions of
competencies at each level.
In 1990: Dept. of Labor formed the Secretary's Commission on Achieving
Necessary Skills. Headed by Arnold Packer, author of 1987 report,
"Workforce 2000: Workers for the 21st Century." What it spells out are
OBE objectives, pure and simple. This led to the School to Work Bill,
which requires that states adapt their educational system to facilitate
transition from schools into the workplace, and do it as stipulated by the
Federal Government. If not, Federal money is cut off. Again, this is a setup
for OBE, which is designed to create a flow of compliant, dumb, attitudinally
correct cheap labor force.
Outcome-based education has a supporting strategy known as developmentally
appropriate practices or DAP. While DAP is not technically connected to
outcome-based education, proponents of OBE consider DAP imperative to the
education of young children, which is why it accompanies the implementation
of OBE everywhere. The National Association for the Education of Young
Children has described DAP as follows: (again taken from Ron Sunseri's
book, p 66ff)
Practice: There is an integrated curriculum where learning in all
traditional subject areas occurs primarily through projects, learning
centers, and play activities.
Meaning: No more directive teaching. No more content teaching. Young
students will learn on their own by doing fun activities. In this model
learning simply occurs, students don't strive to acquire knowledge.
Practice: Children learn through active involvement with each other, with
adults and older children serving as informal tutors.
Meaning: Children learn from each other, not the teacher. The new role for
the teacher is a passive tutor or facilitator. Older students are used as
passive tutors as well.
Practice: Individual children or small groups work and play cooperatively
or alone in learning centers on projects that they usually select
themselves.
Meaning: Children self-direct their "learning." They are not directed by a
teacher to do anything they don't want to do. Generally it is inappropriate
for the teacher to select work for the student to accomplish. The child
decides what is relevant.
Practice: The math and science programs enable children to use math and
science through exploration, discovery, and solving relevant problems.
Meaning: No direct teaching and no rote learning of how to do sums or
requiring the memorization of multiplication tables. Children will
"explore" these subjects at learning centers.
Practice: Social studies themes are identified as the focus of work for
extended periods of time and are learned through a variety of projects and
playful activities involving independent research through reading,
excursions, discussions, relevant use of language, etc.
Meaning: No directive teaching of content.
Practice: Art, music, movement, and drama are integrated activities in the
learning process.
Meaning: Obvious
Practice: Teachers promote socialization behavior, perseverance, industry,
and independence by providing many stimulating and motivational activities.
Teachers promote the development of children's conscience and self-control
through positive guidance techniques, including setting clear limits in a
positive manner and involving children in establishing rules for their
class and social living.
Meaning: Students begin to learn how to exhibit the behaviors required of
them by outcomes.
Practice: Teachers view and accept parents as partners.
Meaning: The primary responsibility for the children lies with the school.
Parents are only one part of a multi-faceted process. "Viewing" and
"accepting" parents as partners establishes the teacher and school as the
center of control. Parents must fit into the system and know their proper
place.
Criticisms of OBE on the basis of external criteria are argumentative and
arbitrary as far as supporters of OBE are concerned. But internal
criticisms are telling. Ask: How do you measure outcomes? For example, the
desired outcome of self esteem. How do you score it? How much self esteem
is enough? Too much?
The only way of measuring such things is by psychological tests, which are
illegal. Yet the government has set a standard which a student must meet in
attitudes, values and beliefs.
Examples: On assessment test the pupil is asked:
What is your least favorite country? What is your least favorite religious
denomination?
Such questions expose a pupil's attitudes and feelings about other people,
and tell nothing of his knowledge about the world.
The real goal of OBE, it thus becomes clear, is just what the experts say
it is in their research journals. It is to condition the populace to rapid
adaptability to change without protest. The outcome sought is a compliant,
willing, unquestioning worker used to and desiring to cooperate with his
fellows as a not too smart drone working in the global industrial complex
managed by the global elite. These compliant drones include parents and
teachers as well as pupils.
This is not education designed to make a child the best he can be; but one
that makes him the best the social elite wants him to be. It is a method
for implementing a Fabian-like socialistic New World Order and a
globalistic viewpoint. This outcome, visited upon a generation or two of
functional illiterates dumbed down to where they don't know any better,
will be to the advantage of the "controller" of the new society.
In the end, government schools using OBE cannot allow competing schools to
survive, since they would produce better educated children and reveal the
failure of OBE as a true educational system. They would also be breeding
grounds for unreconstructed independent thinkers who might lead the drones
in opposition to the new order of things. Therefore, the new laws provide
that, when the experts deem the time is ripe, private and religious schools
will be brought into the OBE system, and home schooling will be outlawed,
all by the simple device that the teacher of any child must be certificated
in the OBE technology and use it.
To make this happen, the Federal government and states are waiving or
ignoring all sorts of laws. This includes the Hatch Amendment, which outlaws psychological testing in the schools. Indeed, the federal Education Act, H.R.
6, has provisions specifically allowing the educational establishment to
disregard laws which may interfere with implementation of OBE.
The National Education Association has been a leader in the transformation
process, enthusiastically hopping on board what the sociologists and
psychologists have devised in the name of educational reform. In fact, the
NEA not only supports the Federal Goals 2000 legislation now being
implemented; the Ten Cardinal Principles of the NEA were virtually a
blueprint for Goals 2000, which was no accident. David Rockefeller was an
active participant in the NEA's development of those principles.
Goals 2000 is a federal blueprint for education, over-riding local control
and establishing a mandatory curriculum from the top down. It has no
concern for academics. It was developed by Chester Finn. The Goals 2000,
Educate America Act, signed by Bill Clinton, is legislation specifying:
1. School based clinics. The ultimate goal is to provide life-long services
to the child and his family, making the data developed by these clinics
part of the total package of information on pupils and families.
2. OBE, with computer data tracking ultimately extending from birth to death.
3. Parents as teachers, requiring "experts" to come into the home to show
parents how to bring up their children with the approved attitudes and
values. Those who object or fail to cooperate will be labeled as child
abusers and be liable for prosecution and loss of their children to the
state. This is part of the guideline that "all kids will arrive at school
ready to learn." This gives "experts" an entry into home from birth to
graduation of child. If parents refuse to let the experts into the home,
they are labeled "at risk" and may be penalized.
4. Race norming of testing. Those of different race, color or income status
will be scored differently, recognizing that (at least at the outset) they
cannot score as well as middle-class Anglos.
5. No parental privacy, no parental input to the schools. The child belongs
to the state and the family is an open book to the state.
6. Establishes a new National School Board, which will:
a. Install uniform national curriculum and testing.
b. Develop mandatory national outcome standards.
c. Implement data tracking on an individual basis, with that data made
available to other agencies and employers.
7. Mandatory school standards relative to the number of teachers and their
salaries, computers, etc.
8. National Educational Goals Panel, which will issue reports on how well
each district is meeting the above 7 goals.
Bill Jasper writes, "Twisting through the confusing maze of Federal
education agencies, bureaus,
programs, grants and contracts runs a unifying thread, all leading toward
the institution of a centrally controlled computer-based system of
schooling employing the operant conditioning techniques of Behavioral
Psychologist B. F. Skinner."
He continues, "Deceptive and psychologically manipulative courses,
curricula, teaching methods and textbooks, running under the label of
Mastery Learning Competency Based Learning, or OBE, are replacing the
traditional academic curriculum and causing havoc
throughout the country as millions of students are purposefully being
dumbed down."
Nancy Stable, a former high school teacher in Pennsylvania schools,
describes the "values clarification" technique used in OBE. It is a method
for teaching decision making that teaches a child to abandon all the
traditional values and standards taught at home and church, teaches that
there is no absolute right or wrong, but that each individual can choose
for himself based on what is good for himself.
B. K. Eakman, in Educating for the New World Order (Halcyon House,
Portland, OR 1991, pp 258-9), quotes William Bonner, Attorney for the
Rutherford Institute:
"While the public has assumed it retains its historic input into education
on a local school district level, in fact education has been progressively
federalized, with the bold new America 2000 as the ultimate expression of
the consolidation of power over education directed from Washington. The
revised Chapters 3, 5, and 6 respond to Washington's demand that the states
effect strict compliance with federal regulation in exchange for federal
dollars. Freedom, diversity and local control are being increasingly
sacrificed in that exchange.
"Undergirding this federalization of education has been a massive invasion
of the family and the rights of individual students through curricula
utilizing psychological programming and experimentation, as well as a broad
spectrum of behavior modification techniques. Data periodically gathered
through invasive testing within the affective domain has then, through the
illegal demand for students' social security numbers...been compiled on
computer systems storing vast amounts of intimate and private information
on our children and youth, in violation of their constitutional rights...
"The traditional interests and rights of parents have been trampled upon,
as educators have proceeded on the proposition that professionals know
better than parents how to raise children...."
About the Author: Bill Bonville is a school board member helping undo the
damage to our children resulting from the unproved, experimental nonsense
foisted on them by OBE enthusiasts (dupes) and hired guns (consultants). He
is not a Christian evangelical, not a right-wing conservative, but is a
former military flight engineer with wartime service who made his career in
the aerospace industry managing training and documentation services related
to high-tech ground, sea and space systems. In the recent election he was a
Reform Party candidate for Congress.
William J. Bonville
6030 Tunnel Loop Rd.
Grants Pass, OR 97526
tel/fax 541-476-5533
mailto: bonville@cdsnet.net
http://home.cdsnet.net/~bonville
-----------------------------------------------
- C O U N T E R - P O I N T -
OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION
By G. Edwin Lint
Some Real Facts About Outcome-Based Education
Much has been written and said against outcome-based education from the
political and theological perspectives. Now, consider the facts:
OBE Fact 1: Outcome-Based Education is a method for organizing how we run
our schools. There
is no inherent evil in it, contrary to the beliefs of many evangelicals.
The concept of OBE doesn't promote homosexuality, secular humanism, occult
practices, immorality, the new age, or a new world order. Not by itself, it
doesn't.
OBE Fact 2: Outcome-Based Education is nothing but a wheelbarrow. You can
use a wheelbarrow to haul fresh fruits and vegetables. Or, you can use a
wheelbarrow to haul garbage. Outcome-Based Education can provide good
education if the outcomes, methods, and materials are good.
Or-- Outcome-Based Education can provide rotten education if the content of
the curriculum is poor (or evil).
OBE Fact 3: Just exactly what is OBE?
Outcome-Based Education is just what the name implies. Instead of being
time-based, it is outcome-based. Students get credit for learning specific
things-- which are known as learning-outcomes-- not just for putting in
their time. For example, if a child can read at the third grade
level on the first day of kindergarten, true Outcome-Based Education says
that instruction should start at the third or fourth grade level-- not way
down at the Fun with Dick and Jane level.
OBE Fact 4: With time-based education, WHEN a student learns a skill or
fact is more important than WHETHER or not he or she learns it.
OBE Fact 5: With Outcome-Based Education, time is irrelevant. WHETHER a
skill is learned is the important thing.
OBE Fact 6: If Outcome-Based Education is new, what is it replacing? For
over 100 years, public schools in the United States have been organized
according to calendar-based and clock-based education. Most public schools
are in session 180 days a year, five and one half hours a day, for 13
years, counting kindergarten. So, Outcome-Based Education is replacing
Time-Based Education.
OBE Fact 7: Outcome-Based Education is driven by three cardinal laws of
learning:
A. Don't teach a skill which has already been learned. This annoys students.
B. Don't teach a skill which will never be used. This bores students.
C. Don't teach a skill until the student is ready. This frustrates students.
Most children come to school loving it. What makes them start to dislike
it? Being bored. Being annoyed. Being frustrated. We adults hate anything
which bores, annoys, and frustrates us, too.
OBE Fact 8: Outcome-Based Education can be of particular value to students
who attend private day schools or who are being schooled at home. Since the
critical issues are what is known, not when it is learned, students can
move into or out of an OBE program without experiencing gaps or overlaps in
their education.
OBE Fact 9: Gifted students may stand to gain the most from Outcome-Based
Education. The converse is true; gifted students may lose the most if it is
not fully implemented. Consider the TV sitcom Doogie Howser, a story of a
teenager who became a physician while still in his early teens. With
Outcome-Based Education, any child could be a real-life Doogie Howser if he
or she has the mental ability to learn-- while still in the elementary
grades-- the things a fledgling doctor needs to know in order to enter med
school.
OBE Fact 10: Concerned parents can do some useful things to help a child's
education, with or
without OBE in place. First, keep a close eye on WHAT is being taught in
terms of the planned courses and the outcomes. Make sure that wheelbarrow
is hauling fresh fruits and vegetables and not hauling garbage. And
second-- get involved in what the school is doing. Go to PTA meetings.
Don't miss parent-teacher conferences. Even offer to volunteer to serve as
an unpaid teacher aid.
And if you smell garbage, yell loud and long.
Behind the Scenes at a State Department of Education The revised curriculum
regulations spelled out in Chapter 5 of the Regulations of the
[Pennsylvania, USA] State Board of Education made it possible to implement
outcome-based education. When these regulations were published in the
Pennsylvania Bulletin, July 24, 1993, it caused quite a bit of
consternation among many evangelicals. At this time, my duties at the
Pennsylvania Department of Education included attending many of the
training and implementation seminars designed to help put OBE into place.
In addition, I was a member of a work group which drafted a section of the
original required outcomes.
I emphasize the importance of getting involved with the local strategic
planning groups as well as the curriculum development committees working on
school district planned courses. [In Pa., all curriculum must be in
"planned course" format, including lists of outcomes and means to achieve
those outcomes]. I didn't change everyone's mind but the fire left their
eyes and we were able to talk rationally. I had a subsequent meeting with
the education subcommittee of this God and Country Committee and that was
positive also. At that time, they asked me for a list of districts in the
region by strategic planning wave so they could start getting involved in
the process.
Let me move on to some comments about evangelicals and their concerns about
public education.
1. Evangelicals include blue-collar workers or professionals in some field
unrelated to education. They tend to favor stressing the 3 Rs and are not
interested in affective areas, as a rule.
2. There is a concern that values-free sex education will be more prevalent
under OBE, including condom distribution.
3. The use of the term "lifestyle" is a lightening rod. To an evangelical,
this term conjures up visions of alternative lifestyles which are not
consistent with traditional family values. The solution: we should stop
using this term.
4. There is fear of the occult. This probably comes from other states ...
which have had tinges of the occult creeping into the curriculum. This
spring, I heard Chuck Colson on the radio trashing
Pennsylvania's OBE thrust. He may be an excellent lawyer and an effective
minister in prisons, but he clearly lacked facts on OBE. He seemed to be
influenced by things which are happening in other states where there is
evidence of supernatural powers such as witchcraft in curricular materials
.... With many nationally-syndicated radio and TV programs aimed at
evangelicals, the thinking and philosophies by people like Chuck Colson are
evident in their own philosophies.
5. There is fear of the New Age movement. For the last 2,000 years, we have
been in the Age of Pisces, the dispensation of Jesus Christ. The "new age"
is the dispensation of man (secular humanism) where there are no moral
absolutes. This is the true meaning of the song, "This is the Dawning of
the Age of Aquarius." Evangelicals are opposed to anything which hints of
New Age or secular humanism. The bottom line of all this: Although there is
no real evidence to support it in Pennsylvania, evangelicals feel there's a
real link among OBE and New Age, Secular Humanism, and the occult. Some
states with so-called progressive education ideas have had hints of these
elements. Therefore, some people have extrapolated this to mean that
because OBE is new, it will lead directly to contamination by these things
which are feared.
When I speak to groups of concerned parents, here's what I say:
If you fear unwanted intrusions into your schools' curriculum, you should
look to planned courses. This is the community's real line of defense. In
Pennsylvania with it's commitment to local control,
nothing can be taught legally unless it is supported by a planned course.
If it's not in the planned course, it shouldn't be in a lesson plan. And if
it's not in a lesson plan, it shouldn't be taught. OBE or no OBE
Since then, I have been alert to what's going on in the community in this
regard. On January 16, I picked up a copy of an open letter in the foyer of
our church (Christian Life Assembly in Camp Hill). This letter talked about
the church's concerns pertaining to revising Chapter 5, specifically in the
area of the Learning Outcomes. I scheduled an "unofficial" meeting with two
of the Associate Pastors in an attempt to learn more about the nature of
their concerns. At this meeting, I told them:
A. Chapter 5 with its emphasis on outcome-based education rather than
traditional clock-hours and credits was at the cutting edge of what is good
about the national concern for improving our schools.
B. The language of Goal 11 (Appreciating and understanding others) was as
close to the teachings of Jesus Christ regarding interpersonal
relationships as a public education document could come.
C. The local school district, through its Strategic Plan and the subsequent
planned courses, had total control of the actual instruction which would be
presented to the students.
D. A complete education for a student of any age includes the affective as
well as the cognitive domain. At first, one of the associate pastors took a
strong position that the school had no business teaching in the affective
domain and that this was the sole responsibility of the home and church.
Later, his opposition seemed to boil down to concerns about such terms as
"lifestyle".
Let me suggest that during the revision of the learning outcomes which
relate to the affective domain, we include recognized representatives of
the evangelical movement, in general, and of the Christian day school and
home-school movements in particular. It's better to have these people in on
the discussions from the ground up than to have them seeing words like
"lifestyle" as an issue of contention later on.
OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION (OBE) VIA WILLIAM G. SPADY
This is a summary of the OBE workshop which Spady [a national OBE author]
and company presented at Hatboro-Horsham School District May 14-15, 1992:
1. Spady's OBE stresses two key concepts: WHETHER is more important than
WHEN, and education is the process of preparing persons for adult life.
2. This version of OBE is consistent with what good ... educators have been
talking about for years.
3. Spady uses three key terms to describe "curriculum". In descending order
of value, they are:
A. Traditional, based on subject matter content.
B. Transitional, based on higher-order competencies
C. Transformational, based on complex role performance in authentic
contexts (preparation for adult life).
4 Spady emphasizes the importance of designing curriculum from the top down
and delivering it from the bottom up.
About the Author: G. Edwin Lint has served as education adviser for the
Pennsylvania Department of Education . Presently retired from public
education, and works as an educational consultant.
You may reach G. Edwin Lint at
edlint@ezonline.com
For more info by G. Edwin Lint see
http://www.opendoor.com/Higher.Ground/gelec.html
http://www.opendoor.com/Higher.Ground/pstar.html
"1996 G. Edwin Lint; used with the permission of the copyright owner"
For more GREAT Point - Counterpoint opinions go to
http:// www.monroeweekly.com
Let them know you read it in PropheZine
***************************
PropheZine News Bytes
F.Y.I. - Israel In The News
Week Ending: May 31, 1997/24 Iyar, 5757
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His
servants, and render vengeance on His adversaries, and will atone for His
land and for His people" Deuteronomy 32.43
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PALESTINIAN SECURITY AGENTS DETAINED: 76 security agents from the
Palestinian Authority (PA) have been detained by the Israeli police for
illegal activity in Jerusalem in the past fifteen months. The Israel
Government Press Office announced Sunday that despite the fact that under
the terms of the Oslo agreement, the PA is barred from exercising any
authority or conducting any activity in Jerusalem, plainclothesmen from
four Palestinian security forces are currently active in Jerusalem. They
conduct a wide range of activities in Jerusalem, including detentions,
intelligence-gathering, criminal investigations and enforcing orders and
instructions issued by PA Chairman Arafat. Of the 76 Palestinian security
agents arrested by Israel, 66 were detained for kidnapping Palestinians in
Jerusalem and forcibly taking them to the autonomous areas. There have been
more than 120 other crimes perpetrated in Jerusalem in which Palestinian
security men were involved. The Palestinian security agents' activities,
including frequent patrols, center around the Temple Mount, Orient House,
and other locations. (Arutz Sheva)
IN THE NORTH: Hizb'Allah guerrillas fired rockets and machine guns at
Israeli and South Lebanese Army (SLA) troops in southern Lebanon on
Saturday. Israel Defense Force (IDF) and SLA forces responded with barrages
of 155-mm howitzer shells at suspected guerrilla hideouts on the highlands
of Iqlim al-Tuffah, a suspected Hizb'Allah stronghold. Security officials
could not confirm any injuries or deaths. One IDF soldier was wounded on
Friday in heavy fighting with Hizb'Allah in south Lebanon. The soldier
later died. Meanwhile, Israeli commandos killed two Hizb'Allah guerrillas
before dawn Friday. Hizb'Allah denied any of its fighters were killed. On
Thursday members of the Islamic Resistance movement, the military arm of
the Iranian-backed Hizb'Allah, fired rocket-propelled grenades at an SLA
patrol. Israeli warplanes attacked suspected Hizb'Allah guerrilla bases in
southeastern Lebanon Monday to retaliate for an ambush, security officials
said. There was no word on casualties. The raid came an hour after two SLA
soldiers were wounded by a remote controlled bomb on a road near the SLA-
controlled Christian city of Jezzine. One terrorist was killed and three
were injured in a clash Sunday with an elite IDF unit north of the Security
Zone in southern Lebanon. The soldiers were engaged on a mission when they
met up with the Hizb'Allah guerrillas. There were no casualties among the
IDF troops.
In a related story, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has reported a
pattern of harassment of United Nations peacekeepers by Hizb'Allah.
According to the UN Spokesman there were incidents on Thursday in which
five Hizb'Allah gunmen harassed and shot at three Irish soldiers in a
UNIFIL truck and demanded to see their identities. On Friday, two vehicles
of the Irish battalion were forced to stop by seven Hizb'Allah gunmen near
the southern port city of Tyre. Meanwhile, two Austrian peacekeepers from
the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights were
killed inside the area of separation that is patrolled by the Force, a UN
Spokesman said on Friday. UNDOF suspected that the action against the
peacekeepers was criminal rather than political. However, it was
investigating the incident in cooperation with the Syrian authorities, the
Spokesman said.
After it has been learned that Hizb'Allah terrorists operating in the
Security Zone of southern Lebanon are equipped with Stinger anti-aircraft
shoulder held missiles, Israeli Air Force (IAF) officials are preparing its
combat pilots to deal with the new weapon being used against them. The
American-made missile is considered among the better in its class and it
uses infra-red to track down low flying planes and helicopters. The
missile, which was incorporated into the IAF arsenal in 1989 has a maximum
range of 5 kilometers (3 miles). (AP, UPI, Arutz Sheva, UN Daily
Highlights, SNS)
JERUSALEM DAY: Wednesday is 'Jerusalem Day', marking the 30th anniversary
of the reunification of Jerusalem. President Ezer Weizman proclaimed last
Monday night the beginning of celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of
the reunification of Jerusalem. The ceremony, held at Beit HaNassi was
attended by former officers and soldiers who participated in the liberation
of the Old City during the 1967 Six Day War. Following the ceremony,
Maj.-Gen. Uzi Narkiss, who headed the Central Command during the Six Day
War said he is saddened by fact that the younger generation takes the
reunification of the city for granted. The Temple Mount and Land of Israel
Faithful Movement is planning a march Wednesday from Ammunition Hill to the
Temple Mount. They will then blow the shofar in the south eastern corner of
the Temple Mount. In the First and Second Temples this was called the
"corner of the Jubilee". The Zo Artzeinu movement has announced that it
will conduct visits to the Temple Mount this coming Wednesday. The
announcement reads, "We will stand up for our right to go up to the Mount
and to pray for the survival of the people of Israel in their land."
In a related story, a committee of rabbis from Judea and Samaria have
decided to encourage people to ascend to the Temple Mount to pray, the
first time such a decision has been made other than by groups such as the
Temple Mount Faithful and in opposition to the position of Israel's
official rabbinate, which prohibits this, reports Ma'ariv. (Kol Yisrael,
MED, TMF, VJ, Arutz Sheva)
ARAB LAND DEALER MURDERED: A Palestinian who had been questioned by Yasser
Arafat's security forces about land sales to Israelis was found dead
Saturday with two bullet wounds to the head on a back road leading to the
PA-controlled city of Ram'Allah in an area where two other land dealers
were found dead. Israeli police set up a special investigation team
together with the Shin Bet internal security agency to handle the death.
This brings to three the number of suspected land dealers killed since the
PA announced the death sentence to anyone engaged in real estate
transactions with Jews. On Tuesday, an Arab land dealer from the Hevron
area was under PA guard in the hospital after allegedly being tortured by
PA security officials who suspect him of selling land to Jews.
The PA Justice Minister found it timely Wednesday to reiterate the law
applies to Israeli Arabs as well as residents of the PA Autonomous areas.
Abu-Meddien's statement means that even Arabs with Israeli citizenship,
living within the boundaries of "Israel proper", face a death sentence for
selling any land to Jews. The PA has no jurisdiction over Palestinians with
Israeli identity cards. This past week PA Attorney General Khaled Al-Qidreh
said 12 Arabs had been arrested on suspicion of selling land to Jews.
Investigations were expected to be completed within two weeks, at which
time "heavy sentences will be handed out to those found guilty."
Meanwhile, in protest of the PA land-sales law, US Senator Jesse Helms and
US Congressman Benjamin Gilman have pledged to work to block additional
financial aid to the PA until the law is retracted. Senator Helms and
Congressman Gilman are the Chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations and
House International Relations Committees, respectively. The two powerful
Capital Hill personalities have already sent a letter to Secretary of State
Albright, informing her they intend to work towards blocking future aid to
the PA. "Daily reports of extrajudicial killings, torture and repression of
the free press provide ample proof that respect is sorely lacking among
officials of the PA," they wrote. "The US cannot be in the business of
subsidizing such a regime. According to the two, despite a five year aid
package that was signed, committing $500 million annually to the PA, they
stated the new law is contradictory to accepted international norms and the
aid cannot continue. (AP, SNS, ICEJ, Kol Yisrael)
PA AUDIT REVEALS SQUANDERED MONEY: Donor countries to the PA will convene
in Washington next week to discuss reported misuse of funds. An internal
Palestinian audit disclosed that about $326 million, comprising 37 per cent
of the PA's annual budget, have been squandered by top PA officials. In a
letter to his council, Arafat admitted that public funds had been
squandered but he vowed to wipe out corruption. He set up a committee to
examine the findings of the 600 page report which he distributed to his
88-member council. Denmark has ordered an investigation into what the PA
has done with funds it received from Copenhagen. Norway, which heads the
ad-hoc Committee Of Donor Countries, has also ordered an audit of how its
money is being spent by the PA. (Kol Yisrael, MED, ICEJ)
ARABS MAKE CONTINGENCY PLANS FOR WAR: The Arab states, in particular Syria,
had decided to pursue peace with Israel, but in light of the current crisis
in the process, they "pulled their plans for war out of the drawer" the
head of research in the IDF intelligence branch has said. In a closed
address to senior army officers, Brigadier-General Amos Gilad said that
Syrian President Hafez Assad is determined to obtain the Golan Heights
back. While Assad prefers to do this through peace, he is also ready for
war, Gilad said. According to Gilad, Syria has prepared three options for
this objective: 1) A surprise military attack on the Golan Heights. 2)
Indirect pressure on Israel through fighting in Lebanon with Hizb'Allah
and, 3) Investment in the development of missiles armed with chemical and
biological warheads, capable of hitting any target in Israel. On the
Palestinian track, Gilad said that Arafat is openly using violence to
attain political goals. He noted that every time the political process gets
stuck, Arafat resorts to terror, which he has found is the only way to
influence Israel. He said it is highly likely that non-conventional weapons
would be used in the next total war, and stressed that Iraq, Iran and Syria
are all developing long-range non- conventional weaponry capable of hitting
Israel. (Ha'Aretz, MED)
IRAN'S NEW PRESIDENT ON ISRAEL: Iran's president-elect Mohammed Khatami
called Israel an "occupying and racist regime" which he said had "imposed
its illegitimate domination on the people of Palestine, whether Muslims,
Palestinians, Jews or Christians." As for the "so- called peace process",
Khatami said Iran would "leave it to the people of Palestine and the people
and governments of the region" but added that he did "not believe the
current process will come to any conclusion." With Israel, there would be
no recognition and no negotiation, he said.
In another development, according to a report appearing in the Jerusalem
Post, Germany's chief of counter- terrorism Peter Frisch stated Iran
already has ballistic missiles that can penetrate deep into Europe. In
addition, Iran is working diligently to develop its nuclear armaments.
"They are getting missiles that can reach 3,000 km (1,800 miles), and they
can reach not only Israel, but Germany," said Frisch, president of the
Cologne-based Office for the Protection of the Constitution. "If they can
build atomic bombs and put them in their missiles, this is dangerous for
us." (ICEJ, SNS)
EGYPT MEDIATES OSLO: The Egyptians are taking their new role as peace
mediator seriously. Special Egyptian envoy Osama El-Baz came to Israel,
carrying the latest from Arafat who El-Baz met with on Wednesday. But Egypt
faced new challenges Thursday when two Israeli newspapers published
articles claiming to reveal two Israeli plans for a final division of Judea
and Samaria. PM Netanyahu denied having any such plan. Earlier in the week,
PM Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mubarak met in Sharm el-Sheikh. They
defined the meeting as a good start for further discussion during the next
few weeks, although they reached no breakthroughs during their two hours of
talks. (VOA, Israel Line)
CHRISTIAN ARABS ATTACKED IN GALILEE: Christian Arabs in the northern
Galilee village of Tur'an were attacked by Islamists last Friday
(05-23-97), according to a Mideast Newswire report from Haifa. A
correspondent witnessed the burning of two houses and several cars, and the
destruction of propriety in Christian quarters. He described the
perpetrators as supporters of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO. An official
of the Middle East Christian Committee in Jerusalem stated, "If Islamist
terrorists can burn our houses and kill our youth under Israeli
sovereignty, we can imagine what will happen under Islamist rule?" (ICEJ)
YESHA REPORT: MK Tzvi Hendel of the National Religious Party, a resident of
Gush Katif, took the surprising step Wednesday of attempting to hold up the
transfer of NIS 15 million ($5.1 million) to the Yesha communities. The
government had promised to transfer the sum a while ago. Hendel learned
that clerks in the Finance Ministry had decided to take the money from the
welfare budget, in order to discredit the Yesha residents. Hendel demanded
that the 15 million shekels be taken from a different clause in the budget.
After a delay of several years, the first residents of the new community of
N'vei Ziv began to move in this week. The western Galilee town, some nine
kilometers (5.4 miles) east of Karmiel, is scheduled to absorb English and
Western European immigrants, as well as native Israelis. Some 150 homes are
to be built at first, followed by a second stage of 100 additional homes.
Minister of National
Infrastructures Ariel Sharon, who was instrumental in the establishment of
the new town, said that he sees this as the beginning of a renewal of
Jewish settlement activity in the Galilee.
According to Col. Yitzchak Aviram, head of Regional Defense in the Central
Command, the IDF has spent NIS 250 million ($85 million) to provide
additional security in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) since 1994, the
implementation of the Oslo Accords signed by the previous Labor-led
administration. Since the peace accords have been signed, the IDF, together
with the government has been required to erect security fences, bypass
roads, provide special alarms and early warning devices, armored buses for
the transportation of children and public transportation in certain areas
and more.
It is now being reported that Defense Minister Mordechai has not approved
80% of building plans for projects in Yesha and the Golan Heights submitted
to him by Housing Ministry officials. Housing Ministry officials accuse the
Defense Ministry of purposely halting the building while creating an
appearance that a great deal of construction is taking place. The housing
officials explained that units have been approved in scattered areas and
this leads the public to believe there is building taking place. (Arutz
Sheva, SNS)
UN UPDATE: The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting
Human Rights of the Palestinian and Other Arabs of the Occupied
Territories, responsible for investigating the human rights situation in
the 'occupied territories' began on Friday an 11-day field mission to
Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Since its establishment in 1968, the Special
Committee has not been able to gain access to the occupied territories.
During the current mission, the Special Committee will hold hearings to
gather testimony from persons having first-hand and recent experience of
the human rights situation in the occupied territories. During the visit to
Jordan, for instance, the Committee plans to interview persons from Judea
and Samaria at the King Hussein Bridge.
The Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Mr. Federico Mayor, has called for urgent
action in favor of the Palestinian people and the peace process. In a
meeting with Arafat, the UNESCO chief declared that "the peace process must
progress" and that the agreements of Oslo and Washington must be
implemented.
The UN Security Council has extended the mandate of its peace force in the
Golan Heights for another six months after agreeing that the situation
there remains "potentially dangerous." Council President Park Soo Gil says
in a statement that "the situation in the Middle East continues to be
potentially dangerous and is likely to remain so, unless and until a
comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East can be
reached." The force has more than 1,000 troops from Austria, Canada, Japan
and Poland. It was sent to the Golan in 1974 to police a cease-fire between
Israel and Syria. (UN Daily Highlights, UPI)
RED HEIFER DISPATCH: Two months ago, the birth of a red calf at Kfar
Hassidim, a small religious kibbutz near Haifa, caught the attention not
only of the local media, but of news organizations worldwide. Rabbi
Mordechai Shmaryahu, a Kfar Hassidim resident and keeper of the newborn
heifer, bemoans the media's response. "It's ridiculous to assume that the
next step for us is to conquer the Temple Mount," says Shmaryahu. "We're
looking at this as an opportunity to teach our kids about the Holy Temple."
Although some Orthodox groups have been organizing trips to Kfar Hassidim
to see the heifer, Shmaryahu plays down its significance as a miracle, and
now even calls into doubt the authenticity of the calf as a halachically
kosher red heifer. "When the cow was born, rabbis from Jerusalem came here
with members of the press and immediately declared it a kosher red heifer,"
Shmaryahu says. "But after cleaning it we found a few white hairs in its
tail, so we're not even sure it's the real thing." The ashes of a red
heifer are mixed with spring water to purify high priests before they
entered the Temple. Even though mainstream religious groups have not
rallied around the cow, some secular Israelis see her as a threat. "The
potential harm from this heifer is far greater than the destructive
properties of a terrorist bomb," the liberal Ha'Aretz newspaper wrote
recently. Menachem Friedman, an expert on religious affairs at Bar-Ilan
University, said the birth created "a very delicate situation." (Jerusalem
Post, AP)
JOURNALIST RELEASED: After spending over one week in PA detention, US
citizen Daoud Kuttab was freed by PA security officials. Daoud was arrested
for broadcasting sessions of the PA-elected council on the radio. His
broadcasts were also jammed by the PA. John Dinger of the US State
Department stated his government applied pressure to obtain Daoud's
release. However, PA officials arrested another Arab journalist, on Sunday.
Muchmad Zukika was arrested by PA security officials on his way to covering
a story of the PA arrest of Daoud. Zukika is employed by CBS. (SNS)
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: "Despite all the conspiracies, Jerusalem and Palestine
from the River to the Sea will remain Islamic until judgment day...."
Ikrama Sabri, Palestinian Authority mufti for Jerusalem, in his weekly
sermon at the Temple Mount's Al-Aksa Mosque. Reference is to the Jordan
River and
the Mediterranean Sea, an area including all of the State of
Israel. (Voice of Palestine Radio, 9 May 1997)
"The Zionist entity exists on seized land. The Jews remain enemies because
they expropriate lands, build settlements and pay high sums to buy
properties. They are the greatest enemies of us Muslims." Ikrama Sabri,
Palestinian Authority mufti for Jerusalem. "The Zionist entity" is a common
euphemism used by those who do not recognize the legitimacy of the State of
Israel. (The New York Times, 18 May 1997)
"We shall always stand against them, threaten their future, and not permit
them to expand. We shall stand with all our might against any attempted
settlement effort. If they do not implement the agreement, we shall
determine what the essential locations are in each settlement, and we will
turn the lives of the settlers into hell." Imad Mazen Izz al-Din, the PA's
Political Instructor for National Guidance (Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, April 30,
1997) (IRIS, Israel Government Press Office)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FYI - Israel In The News
"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not keep quiet" Isaiah 62:1
'F.Y.I.' may be reproduced & distributed in any form. Please give proper
credit. Send comments and subscription requests to Lee Underwood at:
fellowship@inet-images.com
Web site: http://www.inet-images.com/fellowship/fyi.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
++++++++++++++++++++++
AUSTRALIA - GREAT SOUTH LAND OF THE NWO?
By: Wendy B. Howard
The Australia we have known as children and young adults is rapidly
changing. The New World Order [NWO] agenda of globalisation is being
implemented across the land, under the very noses of a naive and uninformed
citizenry, few realise what is happening. Some of the main areas of this
agenda will be addressed here. In reality, I can hardly present more than
the tip of the iceberg, so much is happening now.
*Confiscation of private weaponry;
*Troop activity, and soldier training in home and town search;
*Native title claims to our land being used to steal properties;
*Multiculturalism claims, as a cover for the implementation of Global
Ethics of the One World Religious System;
*The Pauline Hanson phenomenon.
SEIZURE OF WEAPONS.
The banning and collecting of guns is proceeding in Australia, with all
rebellion seeming to have fizzled out! The gun clubs, and other gun owners'
groups, demonstrated fervently during the early days of the planned
seizure. Not so now, there have even been public statements from the gun
owners' representatives that they were wrong to protest, and that they had
a "knee-jerk" reaction at first, which will not be repeated again. The
whole protest business seems to have died a natural death in the media -
but the guns are being collected and destroyed. Approximately 160,000 have
been surrendered in Victoria, 60,000 in New South Wales, and 60,000 in
Queensland. The other States have lower figures. ALL States are now
collecting and destroying weapons. Some comments from the media about the
response being too slow in some states. There are hardly any adverse
comments on gun grabbing to be heard. Air pistols, small hand-gun Japanese
replicas, which fire pellets, were even banned recently.
Internet Extracts:
This extract from the Australian Christian Coalition Newsletter, 3 June,
1996, gives a positive stand towards gun control.
"The commitment of State and Federal Governments to gun control announced
on 10 May is very encouraging, but we should not be lulled into thinking
that the battle is over. The Gun Lobby has signalled its intent to have
that decision modified and is obviously prepared to spend a considerable
sum to do so. Those hard core elements of the lobby that harbour conspiracy
theories and American style views of citizens rights, will obviously try to
manipulate any genuine concern by legitimate groups such as the farm lobby."
"Cry from Australia to the USA," Wednesday, May 7, 1997.
"Gun owners who did not comply with new regulations in Australia are now
faced with the fact that their name is flagged on Govt. computers, they
are liable to four (4) years imprisonment and a fine that is about the cost
of an average house. Those with firearms licences and those who did not
hand in their weapons are liable to search of person or premises without
warrant. People cannot organise because what the Govt. has done is now
legislated, enacted law. Therefore any attempt to communicate or organise
is liable to the charge of subversion. If an individual says to another 'I
would suggest that you do not hand in your firearm ' the speaker may be
charged with subverting another to commit a criminal act. They have started
mounting raids to retrieve firearms and this is likely to intensify."
(C.Dillon).
TROOPS AND SOLDIER TRAINING. There are thousands of foreign troops in
Australia, including troops from the United States of America. These are
involved in "war games", often secret. It is all alarming, as those who are
investigating the New World Order sense that we are being manipulated by
global forces in order to bring our nation under the full control of the
international elitists. The training of soldiers for rural and urban search
of towns and homes is equally intriguing, sinister and most odd! I quote
from "The Australian", April 17, 1997:
"A $4 million township built especially to train soldiers in urban warfare
was christened yesterday with a noisy exercise featuring the clatter of
machine gun and rifle fire, lurid pink and purple smoke grenades and troops
falling dead in the streets like actors in a theme-park performance.
Built in an army training area in rugged, mountainous country 60km
south-west of Townsville, the township, known in army jargon as the
Military Operations in Urban Terrain training facility, has 37 solid
concrete buildings. It even boasts a sewerage system which allows training
soldiers to disappear down tunnels under the streets. As senior army
officers watched from the verandah of the Drover's Dog Hotel - a pub that
has no beer - infantry soldiers from 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian
Regiment, were dropped on the town's Beersheba Oval by Black Hawk
helicopters and recaptured Line Creek Junction, building by building, from
'enemy' troops. During an official opening ceremony, held appropriately in
the town's Anzac Park, the commander of the 1st Division, Major-General Tim
Ford, said development of the facility has been inspired by the army's
experience with the UN forces in Somalia and Rwanda and the potential for
Australian troops to face future urban operations.... Major Withycombe said
most future UN operations or any other overseas deployments by Australian
forces were likely to involve urban environments. (The Major, of Delta
Company, commented). 'We need to have the skills to deal with any kind of
enemy scenario within a built-up area.'"
A subscriber to our magazine, Despatch, wrote to inform us that persons in
her area have had their homes "raided" by troops as an exercise, without
prior warning or agreement! She said, amazingly, no one seemed to have
complained about this intrusion. We have also verbal info. That some
American troops who arrived at Amberley Airbase, Queensland, came in black
Russian aircraft. There is no media coverage of these matters, only
Christian individuals who have made statements.
NATIVE TITLE RIGHTS.
The aboriginals of Australia are, it appears to us, being used as a cover
to confiscate large areas of lands in all states. The government is
honouring Native Title claims, some of which involve mines, oil-yielding
areas, pastoral lands, beaches and beauty spots. Yet to be finalised, many
native title sites sit, awaiting their fate. Other non-aboriginal people
here are contesting these indigenous peoples' title rights vigorously! The
racial unrest seems to have been created deliberately. Many of the
"aboriginals" seeking to have title over prime pockets of land are whiter
than we are! Some protests are heard from full-blood, tribal elders at
times, who declare that they are not greedy for "sacred sites" and titles
to large parcels of Australia at all. They say that extremists are acting
without their consent.
MULTICULTURALISM.
This ambiguous term is being used to change Australian society in readiness
for globalisation. Hans Kung and Leonard Swindler's "Global Ethos" will
soon appear here in Australia under our own New Age religious and
"multicultural" banner. A conference hosted by the Australian Multicultural
Foundation and the World Conference of Religion and Peace, will be held on
28-30 July, 1997. Public policy making and religious diversity is one of
the topics on the conference agenda. The conference attendees, which
includes political and religious leaders from across the world, will
"search for a common ethic and assert shared values" for Australia as a
whole. Official papers will be handed out to the delegates. This will most
likely set the stage for religious freedom to witness and evangelise, to
expose error, and to preach Christ Jesus as the Only Saviour, to be
curtailed. A report on the events that take place will be given in Despatch
magazine, Vol.9:3., September. 1997.
THE PAULINE HANSON PHENOMENON.
Overseas readers may not have heard of Pauline Hanson. There is not a
single person in Australia who hasn't heard of her! We are witnessing a
virtual Joan of Arc style figure, who arose out of obscurity, to cut a
swathe through the recognised politicians (and their policies) in our South
Land of the NWO. Pauline of many perils is a fish and chip shop owner from
Ipswich, near Brisbane. She is an independent member of Parliament who has
very bravely risen up to confront the powers-that-be, telling the truth for
once. Hanson has begun a new political party called "One Nation", which
stands for all the political measures we, as investigators of the NWO,
would champion. She is against the native title right scams; insists there
is something "fishy" going on globally; wants to end the attempt to stir up
this land into a multicultural stew; demands that the gun banning
legislation be destroyed and so on.
Hanson has won a large following after just a short time of campaigning for
support for her One Nation party. Her meetings around Australia have been
packed to overflow everywhere she goes. John Howard, the Prime minister,
and other politicians, have criticised Hanson mercilessly. The media gives
her such wide coverage that not one newspaper or television news does not
feature Pauline, every day, every week. Those who oppose her freedom march
from town to town, have twisted everything she has said until it is
unrecognisable. Cries of "Nazi fascist", "Right Wing fanatic", "racist",
"hater of the Asians" and much more, follow her around the continent. She
is pelted with tomatoes and rubbish, pushed and shoved, as she rushes along
in high heels and glamorous dresses, surrounded by a bodyguard of uniformed
police. "Rent a crowd" activists swarm into the political meetings now,
shouting "Heil Hitler", waving placards with swastikas on them, and giving
the Nazi salute to Pauline.
I cannot say that Despatch magazine staff is encouraged by this Pauline
Hanson rebellion. It seems very suspicious that the NWO-controlled media is
giving her such an immense coverage, for one thing. She is being used, we
believe, to stir up racial hatred and unrest. If this
beautiful, young, red-haired woman was assassinated the whites would blame
the blacks, and racial tensions could become serious civil unrest. This
could "necessitate" the UN peace-keeping forces' intervention in our
federal affairs. Paranoid statement? Perhaps, we certainly hope and pray
that that is all it is.
Texe Marrs reported in Flashpoint, May 1997, that Rockefeller puppet and
New World Order clone, Henry Kissinger, held a private, two hour meeting
with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to insiders,
Netanyahu emerged from the meeting ashen and pale. Comments Texe, Kissinger
read him the riot act, warning him to go along with the Illuminati's plan -
or else. This reminded us so much of the effect that Bill Clinton, also a
NWO clone, had on our Prime Minister, John Howard, on Clinton's visit to
Australia, late 1996. Howard, and his senior ministers, looked
down-mouthed, over-awed, intimidated in almost every photo or video we saw.
After that Howard visited China, and, great coincidence, Newt Gingrich was
there as well. Was discussion entered into re. Australia's current orders
from the Internationalists for our bioregion?
All this makes one realise afresh that GOD is the One in whom we must put
our trust, not guns and political insurrection. After all, we dissenters,
in every country, are struggling against a whole emerging Unity of One Mind
One World - and this unity has weaponry, surveillance techniques, and
wealth beyond our wildest dreams. It is too late to find answers in the
might of freedom-loving men and women. Jesus Christ is the only answer. Do
you know Him as Saviour and Lord? If not, it is high time you did! The Lord
Jesus Christ will bring in His own One World government, with Himself
reigning from Jerusalem. Then we will see true unity under a perfect
governmental system - Isaiah 9:2-7. There will never be real justice,
peace, harmony or righteousness until then, in His Millennial Reign!
Wendy B. Howard...Editor of Despatch
http://www.closer.brisnet.org.au/corp/despatch/
despatch@closer.brisnet.org.au
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PRIVACY STANDARDS FOR "SMART CARDS"
The Smart Card Forum, representing 200 companies in the smart card
industry, is urging standards to restrict the use of data stored on such
cards, which can include financial, medical and other personal information.
Columbia University professor Alan F. Westin thinks the Forum's guidelines
don't go far enough; he says they should stipulate that all smart card
information must be encrypted and should make use of electronic
fingerprinting or digital signature verification. (AP 9 May 97)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reservation System for National Parks
From: kepi58@telapex.com (Kepi)
. . . and what criteria will the "state" use to determine who among the
bourgeois/proletariat is decreed worthy of a "reservation" to enjoy the
scenic views of his/her taxpayer dollar properties?
H-mmm, a "mass transit system" . . . I'm sure everyone will be thrilled
knowing that they will be safeguarded against potential "terrorists." Check
your handguns, rifles, shotguns, archery equipment, knives, tent stakes,
baseball bats, etc., at the ATF desk, comrades.
Talk about an oxymoron! Yosemite National Park is "closed" because of
"overcrowding" . . . sounds familiar: "mandated volunteerism." The novel,
"A Confederacy of Dunces" says it all...
Kepi
==========================<snip>=====================
Babbitt says American parks will have booking plan soon
WASHINGTON (May 19, 1997 09:19 a.m. EDT) - Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt
predicted on Monday there would be a reservation system as early as next
year to get into the country's national parks, to combat overcrowding.
"In the next two, three, four years we're going to need to implement a
reservation system," Babbitt said in an interview from Yosemite National
Park on NBC's "Today" show.
"Because otherwise you drive all the way up here and you find it's closed
(due to overcrowding). That makes no sense. So I would say next year this
time it's pretty likely there'll be a reservation system."
An estimated four million people annually visit California's Yosemite,
which was closed 11 times in 1995 because of overcrowding.
But Babbitt said the problem was not too many people but too many cars, and
he said he would like to see a mass transit system as one way of
alleviating the congestion.
"The problem's not too many people. The problem's too many cars. The plan
for Yosemite specifically is to see if we can't rebuild this park in a way
that encourages most of those four million people to get out of their
cars...and ride on buses," Babbitt said.
"They'll have a much better experience and we'll be able to have more
people and not have to shut the place down. This park, on the Fourth of
July and Memorial Day, can look and sound like Times Square. It's a mess."
Copyright (c) 1997 Nando.net
Copyright (c) 1997 Reuter Information Service
************************************************************
