Home-schooling special: Preach your children well (11 Nov 06)
TO THE unsuspecting visitor, Patrick Henry College looks like a typical American liberal-arts college tucked away amidst the rolling green farmlands of Virginia. Its curriculum is far from typical, however, and anything but liberal. Witness this lecture on faith and reason in an idyllic red-brick college building reminiscent of colonial America.
God's Next Army (Channel 4, Monday 5 June, 8pm)
A frightening documentary looking at the fanatical new breed of Christians coming up into American politics. Patrick Henry College is only five years old; its 300 students are smart, focused and well-connected and, despite its size, it has provided the current White House administration with more interns than any other college in the USA. But Patick Henry is very different all of its courses, from biology to political science, are taught from a `biblical perspective'. The students combine breathtaking naivety with a ruthless single-mindedness. Even ordinary Christians find them stormtrooper-like as they pound the corridors of the Capitol, lobbying to abolish estate taxes because they are unbiblical on the grounds that "The Earth is the Lord's". But they're well-organised, well-connected and in the ascendant. They are all thorough-going creationists, and quite soon they will run America. Be afraid, be very afraid.
5 Professors Quit Religious School (19 May 06)
Nearly a third of the faculty members at Patrick Henry College in Loudoun County are leaving the school because of what they described as limitations on their academic freedom, causing unusual introspection at the politically connected Christian liberal arts college.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Henry_College
The school is actively seeking school accreditation with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, but suffered a setback in the spring of 2002 when it was refused accreditation by the American Academy for Liberal Education because of its requirement that faculty sign agreements affirming that they adhere to and will teach in favor of creationist beliefs.
More: Patrick Henry College has been criticized for what some see as extreme conservatism and its evangelical Christian ethos, including creationism, pro-gun rights and its pro-life stance. more: Students are required to sign a statement of faith before they arrive, confirming, among other things, that "Satan exists as a personal, malevolent being who acts as tempter and accuser, for whom Hell, the place of eternal punishment, was prepared, where all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.
More: All teaching faculty must also sign a statement of faith and "Biblical Worldview"[12] stating that they share a belief that the Bible and its account of a six day creation is literally true.