former administrative employee at the FBI and a conspiracy theorist who
wrote a number of books expounding on his beliefs that the United States
is playing a providential role in world history.
The first principle, for example, states that "Natural
Law" is the only solid basis for government. This is defined as
"laws which the Supreme Creator has already established."
The lawsuit is being litigated by Americans United Legal Director
Richard B. Katskee and AU Madison Fellow Carmen Green. Joining them are
John Nadolenco and Kristin Silverman of Mayer Brown LLP, a national law
firm, and Roopali Desai and D. Andy Gaona of Coppersmith Brockelman PLC
in Phoenix.
The American Government course looks to be drenched in religion.
It's based on 28 principles that supposedly are required for sound
government. Many of them are religious in nature.
A strident anti-Communist in the 1950s, Skousen, Salon reported in
2009, gave lectures for the John Birch Society. He later began peddling
wild-eyed conspiracies about a "New World Order" laced with
attacks on the United Nations. In 2007, even the archly conservative
National Review called him an "all-around nut-job."
Skousen, who died in 2006, was a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and believed that the U.S.
Constitution had been divinely inspired. He felt that America had a role
to play in religious prophecy and also believed that the Anglo-Saxons
who eventually settled the North American continent were descendants of
the 10 lost tribes of ancient Israel.
Sometimes Skousen simply got things wrong. In The 5000 Year Leap,
Skousen asserts, "From all this it will be seen that the Founders
were not indulging in any idle gesture when they adopted the motto
'In God We Trust.'" In fact, the Founders had nothing to
do with the adoption of "In God We Trust" as a national motto.
The U.S. Congress chose it in 1956.
Despite these intolerant views, Skousen's fans remain
undeterred. According to his acolytes, Skousen is a kind of unsung hero
who dared to tell the real story of America's origins.
Skousen's version of things, heavily intertwined with his own
peculiar theology, holds that America's founders were guided by
God.
Beck, who in 2007 wrote a new forward to The 5000 Year Leap, made
Skousen's works popular in Tea Party circles. Right-wing activists
then began turning to a group based in Idaho called the National Center
for Constitutional Studies [NCCS) that promotes Skousen's ideas
through literature sales and seminars.
Such concepts would raise few eyebrows in a private, sectarian
school. But Heritage Academy, which has campuses in Mesa, Queen Creek
and Laveen, isn't private. It's a charter school, an arm of
the public education system that is funded by taxpayer dollars.
Officials at the board refused to take the issue seriously,
insisting that the textbooks were appropriate for use.
In the column, Taylor claims that the passage from the
Constitution's preamble stating "In order to form a more
perfect union ..." comes from Genesis 2:24, which states,
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
To mainstream scholars, Skousen's ideas are only so much
bunkum.
The day the suit was filed, AU's Green penned a post for
AU's "Wall of Separation" blog taking a closer look at
the Academy's curriculum.
Caption: Heritage Academy in Mesa: Preaching religion?
Members of the LGBTQ community don't fare well in
Skousen's worldview either. Gays are accused of taking part in
"unnatural sexual practices." Being gay, Skousen asserts, is a
type of "insanity" that has "shattered twenty mighty
civilizations in the past. " Skousen favorably cites ancient legal
codes that made homosexual acts a capital offense.
How did things get to this point? Part of the problem may lie in
the nature of charter schools. The concept, which came into vogue a few
decades ago, was designed to allow for experimentation in education by
encouraging community groups, businesses and groups of parents to form
schools that explore non-traditional approaches to learning.
In June of 2014, AU tried again. Attorneys wrote to the board once
more, citing specific passages from two books, The 5000 Year Leap and
The Making of America.
The letter pointed out that The 5000 Year Leap asserts that
non-believers are "irrational" and that parts of it read like
a religious tract. One section of the book is titled "How Can One
Know There Is a God?"
NCCS has ties to Heritage Academy. The school's principal,
Earl Taylor Jr., who also teaches classes at the school, serves as
president of NCCS. On its website, NCCS refers to Heritage Academy as
"our charter high school." The group has produced a commentary
on The 5000 Year Leap titled Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land
that is also used in the school.
Added Beck, "Teach it to your children. Read it to them at
night. Bring it to the dinner table. It will be the only chance they
have to actually learn American history."
Asserts the lawsuit, "By teaching religious beliefs in a
public charter school, which is subject to the U.S. Constitution just
like all other public schools, Heritage Academy has violated the First
Amendment."
Epps added, "Any student taught from these materials in a
public institution is being subjected to religious indoctrination [and]
is also being crippled educationally and will be ill-prepared to take
part in any serious program of instruction of American government and
law."
In many states, charter schools have been implemented without
presenting church-state problems. But in a handful cases, religion has
infiltrated the curriculum of these institutions. Heritage Academy
appears to be one of those cases.
After AU's original protest two years ago, Garrett Epps, a law
professor at the University of Baltimore who has studied Skousen's
books, told the Arizona Republic, "Skousen's account of the
growth and meaning of the Constitution is quite inaccurate. "
The 5000 Year Leap also promotes rigid gender roles from days gone
by. It calls for wives to submit to their husbands. The book asserts
that a man is to "protect and provide" while a woman's
role is to "strengthen the family solidarity in the home and
provide a wholesome environment for her husband and children." Men
are to make all decisions, and Skousen even implies that women
shouldn't have the right to vote. He asserts that in ancient
biblical societies, men voted on behalf of the entire family.
"In a transparent attempt to proselytize the school's
religious views, Heritage Academy students are further taught that they
are duty-bound to implement and instruct others about these religious
and religiously based principles in order to restore the United States
to 'freedom, prosperity, and peace,'" reads the legal
complaint.
But once again, state education officials refused to deal with the
issue. In response, Americans United's attorneys began gathering
evidence for a lawsuit. That case, Doe v. Heritage Academy, Inc., is now
under way and could have national implications as charters continue to
spread.
AU's new lawsuit aims to compel Heritage Academy to do just
that.
Public schools can't push religion like this, and Americans
United intends to put a stop to it. The organization filed a federal
lawsuit Sept. 7 that seeks to end the religious indoctrination going on
at Heritage Academy.
Skousen's writings are soaked with inaccurate--and
offensive--views about American history. A fan of the neo-Confederate
version of history, he once favorably cited an article arguing that
slaves in the Deep South were well cared for and often envied by whites.
He also argued that Native Americans lost their land because of
God's judgment, and once even asserted that the United States made
a mistake by entering World War II.
"Students should learn about government in government class;
they shouldn't be learning their teacher's preferred
theology," Green observed. "Public charter schools, like all
public schools, should respect the religious freedom of students and
their families to make decisions about religious belief for
themselves."
Although an obscure figure to most people, Skousen began gaining
popularity among the far right after television personality Glenn Beck
started promoting his works, especially The 5000 Year Leap.
In an American Government class and other courses, students are
taught that non-believers are mentally unfit, the Constitution was
inspired by the Bible and evolution is an unsound theory.
AU's complaint also details several instances of Heritage
teachers working to undermine instruction on evolution. A science
teacher told students that while they must learn about evolutionary
theory, they don't have to believe it. After a student made a
presentation on Charles Darwin, a history teacher spent several minutes
attacking evolution.
The suit also points out that Heritage required students to
actively spread its unusual views.
"Because the two books clearly promote and endorse specific
religious views and ideologies, we ask you to remove The 5000 Year Leap
and The Making of America from Heritage Academy's curriculum,"
wrote AU to Arizona education officials. "We further request that
you ensure that Heritage Academy's history and government classes
not be taught in a manner that is similar to the instruction in the two
books or that otherwise promotes or endorses religion."
Green noted that Skousen's book, The Making of America, which
is also required reading at Heritage Academy, came under scrutiny in
1987 when California's Bicentennial Commission approved its sale
for a fund-raising project. Commission officials were embarrassed when
mainstream historians pointed out that the book contained errors and
racist content.
Although officials with the Mormon church in the late 1970s made it
clear that they did not endorse Skousen's teachings, he remained
popular with some ; church members and eventually began gaining notice
outside of Mormon circles. Beck, a fellow Mormon, was apparently
entranced by Skousen's novel theories.
Other sections of the tome, AU's letter noted, are titled
"Concerning God's Revealed Law Distinguishing Right from
Wrong" and "The Nearness of God."
The fourth principle states, "Without religion the government
of a free people cannot be maintained," while the fifth principle
maintains, "All things were created by God, therefore upon Him all
mankind are equally dependent and to Him they are equally
responsible." The ninth principle holds that "To protect
man's rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine
law."
Ideas like this run throughout the American Government course at
Heritage Academy. AU's legal complaint asserts that much of the
course is based on the 28 principles outlined in Skousen's book.
Students are required to memorize the principles and recite them in
class. They're also told to analyze news stories and explain how
current events do or do not align with the principles.
Students attending Heritage Academy, a string of charter schools in
three Arizona cities, are learning some unusual things.
The two defendants in the case include an anonymous "John
Doe" plaintiff who has at least one child who attends Heritage. The
other plaintiff, the Rev. David Felten, is head pastor of The Fountains,
a United Methodist church in Fountain Hills, Ariz. Felten, who has a
child who attends another charter school, said he objects to the use of
his tax dollars paying for religious instruction.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Taylor writes regularly for NCOS's website. Many of his
columns dwell on his belief that the United States was founded on the
Bible. One of them, dated Jan. 1, 2014, is titled "Parallel
Concepts between the U.S. Constitution & the Bible." It
attempts to prove that the Bible inspired the Constitution, but the
links exist mainly in Taylor's mind.
Americans United first became aware of problems at Heritage Academy
more than two years ago, when parents raised concerns and alerted the
group. In December of 2013, AU attorneys attempted to resolve the matter
outside of court. They sent a letter to officials at the Arizona State
Board for Charter Schools, alerting them to the problems at the school
and pointing out that some textbooks used there were clearly religious
in nature.
Students are also required to proselytize for Skousen. To pass the
class, each student must tell five people who don't attend
Heritage, or who don't live with them, something they learned about
the Constitution during the class.
"That book is absolutely right," Beck said in 2014.
"That book, The 5000 Year Leap, changed my understanding of the
United States government and our founders. It is the clearest, simplest,
most direct way to teach what happened and why we were founded the way
we were. "
