The Fourth R - keeping religion in Queensland State schools within the Law

Welcome to The Fourth R Hall of (Extreme) Shame

The Hall of Shame is where The Fourth R posts all communications to Education Queensland, the Premier, DEEWR — the 'downpour of cash' provider for the NSCP school chaplaincy scheme, Scripture Union, the various 'peak' bodies that purport to support parents and students needs in state schools, such as the QCPCA and ACSSO, the teachers unions who have policies on secular schooling but make no effort to implement their policies, like the AEU and the QTU and assorted politicians that we feel are hiding behind the 'feel good' factor of supporting 'decent people'; all those Hillsong touting, in-tongues-talking evangelical converters of vulnerable youth that Minister Welford and Premier Bligh have welcomed into our once secular state schools with open arms and closed ears. All responses will be posted underneath our enquiries.

September 15th 2008 Update:

Following the Tony Jones led exposé on ABC TV's Q&A programme last week of a sexist gendered religious instruction programme at Toowoomba State High School, sometime late last Friday 12th September, Education Queensland chose to alter at least the outward appearance of what is offered at that particular school. We suspect, as with all 'changes' EQ make under pressure, exactly the same RI programme will continue unabated—the same old nod-nod wink-wink game to which we are so well accustomed. This action confirms claims made by The Fourth R that Education Queensland was running, encouraging and endorsing a sexist RI programme.

This revelation must come as no surprise to anyone in Ed Qld, because The Fourth R has emailed the information through to the Premier Anna Bligh; her minister for women Margaret Keach; Education Minister Rod Welford; EQ Director General Rachel Hunter; Julia Gillard and her officials from DEEWR who oversee the NSCP funding that pays 'chaplains'; various Senators from all sides of politics as well as numerous other EQ factotums and go-furs down at the Mary Street Education Queensland palace-of-dreams in Brisbane.

Unfortunately, Ed Qld has kept the gendered Hillsong programmes, Shine for girls and Strength for boys running at Toowoomba State High School as well as at numerous State primary and high schools within the district and across the State. So—half a lesson learned following Q&A but clearly Ed Qld are only going to move, as always, if and when they feel public humiliation would be worse than sticking to their pentecostal guns—or in this case—extremist artillery.

Of course, there is a clear link between the very poor 'test' performance in Ed Qld schools last week, and the inordinate amount of time school principals pay to encouraging their school 'chaplains' to organise prayers at assembly; prayers at the flag poles; prayers and Bible study at lunch time, before school and after school; the running of Shine, Strength and scores of Hillsong and other Charismatic/Pentecostal 'clubs' and programmes—all designed to churn 'unchurched' (Scripture Union term) children into a bizarre range of loopy Christian boot camps and off-campus high-pressure programmes of Pentecostal Christian indoctrination which the 'chaplains' and their multitudes of Christian mentors and 'volunteer' assistants will 'make a connection' (Pentecostal terminology for 'conversion') with hapless, helpless students. Alarmingly, we have on record chaplaincy reports which clearly indicate that these 'friends in the playground' consider 'unchurched', un-converted or non-Christian children to be 'at risk'. It's an extremely broad demographic—over 80% of Queensland State school students.

With all the prayers and Bible reading there is no time to undertake any other form of education in our once secular schools, is there? It's well past time for Welford to retire to the backbench, where he can do little harm, and for a new Minister of Education to give the stable (manger?) a desperately required hosing-out for the sake of mental hygiene. After all, Kevin O'Heaven has promised to sack under-performing school principals already, so this suggestion should come as no shock. Maybe Anna Bligh could set the ball rolling, by sacking her advisor who informed The Fourth R that he deleted all email information regarding schools and religion. If only he had warned the Premier what was going on, the Q&A affair could have been avoided.

Education Queensland religion policy writers

Writers of the shifting whispering Ed Qld religious policy blog prepare for another day at the palace

Sept 11th 2008: ABC Television Programme 'Q&A' hands Tanya Plibersek
a question from the Fourth R regarding the deplorable circumstances at Toowoomba State High

The Fourth R question to Tanya Pliberseck on ABC Q&A 11th September 2008

Access the segment via the link below
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/video.htm?pres=20080911&story=1 (story at 35')
Comment can be made to Tanya Pliberseck tanya.plibersek@fahcsia.gov.au

It relates to this recent post at the Hall of Shame..

Welford takes women back to 19th Century 'values'.. Bligh condones it

In 2005 Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford vowed to get rid of "postmodern mumbo-jumbo" in year 12 English after seeing sample student responses, including a "feminist" analysis of the fairytale Rapunzel, in which the student argued that Rapunzel was in fact a name for a vegetable also known as corn salad, and thus reinforced the notion of woman as a vegetable and being enslaved to routines such as cooking.

He has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

GIRLS 21ST CENTURY VALUES	BOYS 21ST CENTURY VALUES
GRATEFULNESS	GRATEFULNESS
GENEROSITY	GENEROSITY
LOYALTY	LOYALTY
TOLERANCE	TOLERANCE
PATIENCE	Not required for boys
FLEXIBILITY	Not required for boys
OBEDIENCE	Not required for boys
GENTLENESS	Not required for boys
PUNCTUALITY	Not required for boys
DEPENDABILITY	Not required for boys
SELF-CONTROL	Not required for boys
SINCERITY	Not required for boys
ORDERLINESS	Not required for boys
INITIATIVE	Not required for boys
RESOURCEFULNESS	Not required for boys
RESPONSIBILITY	Not required for boys
Not required for girls	CHARACTER-HUMILITY
Not required for girls	JUSTICE
Not required for girls	TRUTHFULNESS
Not required for girls	COMPASSION
Not required for girls	DILIGENCE
THE SWEET SIXTEEN FOR GIRLS	THE BARE ESSENTIALS FOR BOYS

Source: Chaplaincy Services & Religious Instruction in School hours Education Queensland State High School Religious Instruction programme Toowoomba 2008.

Education Minister Rod Welford and Premier Anna Bligh support this 21st Century gendered list of essential values, as approved by the school principal and more senior Toowoomba Education Queensland managers to be taught in one of Toowoomba’s state high schools.

Education Minister Rod Welford and Premier Anna Bligh support the Hillsong programs Shine for girls and Strength for boys being taught in all the Toowoomba state high schools by ‘non-evangelising’ school chaplains assisted at times by Pentecostal Toowoomba Church volunteer missionaries.

Education Minister Rod Welford and Premier Anna Bligh pay no heed to the recent reports on Australia’s obesity epidemic and have sanctioned the sexist and very gendered Shine for girls and Strength for boys Pentecostal Hillsong Church programs as Education Queensland approved alternatives to sport at all the state high schools in Toowoomba.

We are so lucky we live in the Smart State.

August 31st, 2008

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd describes himself as a creationist and claims proof of the existence of God. Enter "Kevin O'Heaven".

Mr Rudd said in his entire political life he had never been asked in a media interview to prove the existence of God. "You have a world first.''

Kevin in Heaven

Also, to celebrate Kevin's outing of himself as a creationist, the Labor party will soon be distributing the "Intelligent Mind at Work" warning sticker depicted below. It will systematically be placed on the cover and in any dangerously enlightened sections of each and every state school and tertiary text book which relates in any way to the Evolutionary Sciences (faith schools will be exempt because they probably have none). No doubt in the case of Queensland, REAC will be fully supportive—in fact, ecstatic—even rapturous (whilst awaiting the rapture). We can only hope Kevin will soon retreat from his reflection upon 'the creation' and begin pondering the extreme possibility of "an intelligent mind at work" in Canberra.

Intelligent Mind at Work

August 24th, 2008

We have to hand it to Education Queensland's exclusive religious, spiritual, ethical and values consultants/suppliers: the Pentecostals—they’re creative. If Pastor Michael Guglielmucci really needed a fake disability to use as a defence for his 16 years of porn addiction he should have chosen blindness. The righteous would never have questioned that.

We would suggest that Michael’s only path to redemption is to re-invent himself as the world’s very first ‘porn again’ Christian.

Oh yes.. and don't be surprised if Pastor Mick surfaces in South East Queensland soon working in a State school as a chaplain.. or maybe a mentor.. or conducting a Hillsong 'Strength' programme for little boys.. or.. or.. (etc.).. Pastor Les may even restore his sight—for a donation of course.

Porn Again Christians

Does Ed Qld regard this sort of stuff as 'armless?..

Les the limb re-grower

Les Holmes is 'senior pastor' at Toowoomba's sizeable Pentecostal Christian Outreach Centre (COC). In May 2007, Les Holmes was one of a mere 18 persons present at a bizarre 'public meeting' held at a Toowoomba State primary school for the purpose of examining the prospect of applying for Federal chaplaincy funding. Only four people at the meeting were non-staff parents of children at the over 600 student school. This sham would eventually be considered adequate 'broad community consultation' by DEEWR to award the school over $50,000 from John Howard's pork barrel under the everyone's-a-winner NSCP handout. During the evening, the 'meeting' was to magically morph into a kangaroo committee empowering anyone who had wandered in from the street to cast a 'vote' in favour of a chaplaincy programme at the school. Not one executive member of the school's P&C committee attended this 'meeting'.

During the 'meeting', one hopelessly outnumbered parent on the side of reason (15:2) led the in-your-face dialogue towards extracting from the assembled pastors a definition of the 'spiritual guidance' that John Howard and Julie Bishop claimed our state school children were being educated in a 'moral vacuum' without. A transcript reveals that beyond someone mumbling 'discipline', nothing whatsoever could be offered. This begged the question, so the parent asked it of Les Holmes: "if you can't define it.. how do you know our children need it?..". The question was was to evoke from this little congregation of the moralistic minority peals of derisive guffaws led by the limb re-growing pastor Les. Les then offered the parent personal counseling at his office during which he would reveal the esoteric answer. Someone from a local AOG Pentecostal church can be heard admonishing the parent with a stern "where have your been?..". Regardless of where the parent had been, the meaning of 'spiritual guidance' remained, and continues to remain a mystery.

The venue for Les's amputation reversal miracles on Sunday 10th and 17th of August is the happily, clappily, in-tongues-talking Pentecostal Toowoomba City Church—Education Queensland's local provider of below-legislative-radar Pentecostal one-on-one (why does that sound creepy?) 'mentors', Hillsong church's SHINE programme and assorted intensive Jesus boot camps to teacher-identified 'at risk', 'vulnerable' and 'unchurched' state school children of Toowoomba. 'Volunteers' from TCC and all of the local Pentecostal churches also provide the majority of EQ's religious instruction 'teachers'. Such is the calibre and credibility of Education Queensland's toad-stooling official 'spiritual guidance' purveyors. But don't panic folks, they all have blue cards—don't they?

"Bring someone that needs healing" implores Les on the flyer. The Fourth R would encourage all of the amputees of South East Queensland and beyond to converge upon Toowoomba City Church, 10 Neil Street Toowoomba on Sunday 10th and 17th of August for instant prosthesis-free limb replacement. Oh—and a word of warning for any attendees—don't ask for a description of 'spiritual guidance' unless you are trying out a stand-up routine.

Update: August 20, 2008

Now it's over we suppose Centrelink will be puzzled by the vast number of South East Queenslanders who have disappeared from the disability pension recipient list.

THE FOURTH R DISCOVERS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL
Which explains all—except who decides who is 'at risk' or 'vulnerable'.
(although it's probably the same EQ teachers who 'identify' targets for Christian mentoring)

CLICK HERE

We will:

Support students with a disability with better qualified specialist support staff.
Support vulnerable and at-risk students through chaplaincy and pastoral care services.
..and now, presumably, we can add EQ Pentecostal Christian mentoring to the above [T4thR]
Encourage greater student participation in physical activity.
Unless participating in SHINE or STRENGTH [T4thR]

THE SWEET SIXTEEN FOR GIRLS

THE BARE ESSENTIALS FOR BOYS