From the DesMoinesRegister.com:
A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.
Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks in a western civilization class Tuesday. He said he was fired Thursday.
“I’m just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master’s degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job,” Bitterman said.
Sarah Smith, director of the school’s Red Oak campus, declined to comment Friday on Bitterman’s employment status. The school’s president, Barbara Crittenden, said Bitterman taught one course at Southwest. She would not comment, however, on his claim that he was fired over the Bible reference, saying it was a personnel issue.
“I can assure you that the college understands our employees’ free-speech rights,” she said. “There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment.”
Well, of course it’s a violation of the First Amendment. If a teacher is fired from a public institution because he suggested that the Bible is not the literal truth, then that is a textbook 1st Amendment violation.
It gets worse though. Not only are teachers being ousted for suggesting that the Bible is not the literal scientific truth, but tax dollars are being earmarked to go toward the promotion of religion — to the detriment of science — at public colleges and institutions:
Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter earmarked $100,000 for a group, headed by former political associates, that opposes teaching evolution in schools.
The money is set aside for the Louisiana Family Forum in the labor, health and education financing bill for fiscal 2008, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Sunday. The group is being paid “to develop a plan to promote better science education.”
The forum is slated to use the funds to write a report on ways to improve science education in Louisiana, but critics say support for the group — which once produced a “battle plan” to fight the idea of evolution — is really support for religious teaching in public schools.
Two of the group’s leaders were also paid as consultants to Vitter’s 2005 Senate campaign, the newspaper said, and the group has been one of the senator’s strongest proponents in Louisiana, supporting him even when he admitted recently he was the customer of a call-girl service.
Vitter defended the move, saying it will help teachers offer students a variety of views on “controversial topics” like life science and global warming.
The bill is still pending in the Senate.
And yes, that’s the same pro-life, pro-family Senator Vitter who frequented hookers.