Pastor Tells Students 'Take an F' to Protest Against Islam 'Indoctrination'
A Tennessee pastor is encouraging Christian parents to tell their children to "take an F" in their world history classes as a way to stand up against what he claims is the school district's attempt at indoctrinating and brainwashing students with Islam.
The Tennessean reports that Pastor Greg Locke, of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, posted a video on Facebook last week that he recorded on the grounds of West Wilson Middle School where he explains that there's growing concern within his congregation that Wilson County Schools' middle school world studies curriculum unfairly favors Islam.
Locke asserted that the history book includes roughly 28 pages on Islam, while it includes only about "a half-page of watered down Christianity."
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"We have a number of our families at our church that are really upset and up and arms over all of this new Islamic indoctrination in our public school system," Locke proclaimed. "That is nothing more than absolute brainwashing of religion and we're not going to stand for it."
In light of Locke's claims that the school system is indoctrinating middle school students with Islam, Wilson County Schools Director Donna Wright posted a statement on the Wilson County School District's Facebook page chastising Locke's comments for being uninformed and an attempt to incite the community.
She added that there's no state required length of time to be devoted to any history topic.
"No one in any Wilson County School is teaching any indoctrination of Islam or of any world religion for that matter," Wright stated. "To imply or state otherwise shows a lack of knowledge about the standards used in our schools."
"You cannot teach world history without talking about the influence of a religion on a country's or region's people, government, economy, etc.," Wright continued. "It would be like trying to teach the history of the United States without talking about Christianity and the early settlers' desire to escape religious persecution."
Locke also pointed out the fact that the school had scheduled a test on the Islamic unit for Friday, Sept. 11 — the 14th anniversary of the the infamous terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — and labeled such scheduling a "slap in the face."
"You need to tell your kids take an F for the class because I'd rather fail in man's class and get an A-plus in God's class," Locke told parents. "We need some kids that have some character and stand up."
Wright admitted that it was "unfortunate timing" for the test that was scheduled for Sept. 11, but stated that it was not done "deliberately as part of some plan to indoctrinate students."
"It is not unusual for teachers to test on the last day of the week the material covered the week before," Wright explained.
Furthermore, Wilson County Schools Deputy Director of Academics, Monty Wilson, added in the Facebook post that a multitude of religions — Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Shinto — are covered in sixth and seventh grade history classes, and again in high school.
"Although these religions will be taught at some point in these three courses, the focus on each religion will depend on the context and influence of the time period," Wilson stated.
Despite the school district's defense, Locke stood by his comments in an interview with the Tennessean last Friday and again stated that the history curriculum is "straight up indoctrination."
