A new California public school curriculum that directs students to offer pagan prayers and chants to five Aztec gods and a “divine force” of the Yoruba religion violates the California Constitution, the Thomas More Society says in a lawsuit filed against the state and its Board of Education.
The lawsuit was filed Sept. 3 in Superior Court of California in San Diego, on behalf of three California parents and the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation. The suit alleges the state’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, approved by the State Board of Education on March 18, contravenes the free exercise and no-aid clauses of the California Constitution. The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction forcing removal of the pagan prayers and affirmations.
Janet Weeks, director of communications for the California State Board of Education, said the department has not seen or reviewed the suit and would have no comment.
The model curriculum is provided to the nearly 10,600 public schools in the state that serve nearly 6.2 million students in grades K-12. Chapter 5 of the nearly 900-page curriculum offers nine pages of “affirmations, chants and energizers” meant to “bring the class together, build unity around ethnic studies principles and values, and reinvigorate the class following a lesson…”
The “In Lak Ech Affirmation” is an Aztec prayer invoking the names of Tezkatlipoka, Quetzalkoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe Totek and Hunab Ku — five beings worshipped by the Aztecs as gods or demi-gods, the suit says. The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people who lived in what is now central Mexico in the 14th through early 16th centuries….
On Aug. 26, Thomas More Society attorneys sent a letter to Tony Thurmond, state superintendent of public instruction at the California Department of Education, asking for removal of the prayers and affirmations. When no reply was received by Sept. 2, the lawsuit was filed.
Paul Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More Society and a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, said the case “is about as clear cut of a violation as I’ve ever seen.”
The suit says the student activities are a violation of the California Constitution, including Article I Section 4 — The Legislature shall make no law respecting establishment of religion — and Article 16 Section 5, which states government aid of religion is prohibited. Further, the U.S. Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court have held that prayer in public schools is prohibited, the suit says, and prayers drafted by public school officials “are doubly prohibited….”
Jonna said despite the “feel-good phrases” in the chants, there is a deeper agenda at work that is anti-Christian.
“The people behind this are obviously anti-Christian,” he said. “I don’t think we need to prove that to win our case. All we need to prove is this is a prayer and they’ve endorsed this religion. Do I personally think these people are anti-Catholic? Absolutely. Is there evidence supporting that? I think so, yes. But it’s not really an issue we’re going to need to prove….”
The above comes from a Sept. 7 story in Catholic World Report.
The Thomas More Society always fights on the right side. Without their talent and tenacity, just think what other abominations would continue.
Wha…..? No Pachmama? RACIST! DISCRIMINTION!!!
Seriously tho, some one once said, if you remove God from your altars (culture, life, etc), demons will rush to take their place.
pachamama was Incan, foisted on the amazonians called to the vatican set-up, PR stunt, in what could be termed papal colonization. the aztecs colonized the far more peaceful mayan territories ,not arriving in central mexico until the fourteenth century. for aztec deities and lore to be foisted on californians by american elites is one more act of colonialism. Cortes work among the aztecs destroyed the most incredible city of the hemisphere,but in the process stopped the brutal human sacrifice machinery cold. let us invoke fr Serra for the continued protection of California
Your are mostly right, drewlow, but the Mayans might have been as blood thirsty as the Aztecs. Many, many years ago I and some relatives climbed one of the Aztec pyramids near Mexico City, nearly to the top. That is probably not allowed now.
Anyway the steps were so narrow that I had to come down crablike, sideways. They were narrow so the bodies could easily roll down after the sacrifices. It was just history to me then. I did not realize how demonic the area really had been.
true,Anne, on the bloodthirstiness of the Mayans. enough in – depth work over the last 40 years has caused them to be re-assessed in a darker . more realistic way. but it too a lot of work to find the skeletons in the closets, while the aztec barbarism leftl evidence out in the open. anticolonial anthropologists used to relish contrasting the innocent Mayans living in an unfallen new world with the invading armored Spanish of warlike Europe
There are theories that the Carthaginians sailed to Latin America and perhaps taught the natives human sacrifice as the Carthaginians were said to have practiced human sacrifice at that time. There was also a legend about a light haired man who stopped human sacrifice in some areas, who then sailed away and promised to return. Whether all that is true, what IS true is that we all learn from each other both good and bad things.
In the past children could pray privately (such as table grace during lunch), or in small groups on the campus as long as others were not forced to participate, and it was not disruptive. Teachers and employees were not allowed to teach other people’s children any prayers. The use of the name of God, etc. was allowed in the teaching of history, such as what is in the Preamble, Gettysburg Address and the salute to the flag. Children were not forced to salute the flag if their parent’s objected. I assume it is the same now.
I have said it before and I will continue to say it, this country is over it has been for a long time. The left controls everything, academia, the arts, politics, sports, the movie and television industry, and yes now even the military is completely woke. Our southern borders if you can call them that are wide-open hundreds of thousands of people with COVID-19 pouring in yet we are told to mask up and get vaccinated, and now Biden brings in over 100,000 afghans, unvetted people, terrorists unvaccinated into our country roaming free to do whatever they want on lifelong welfare, free education, free healthcare, and $200,000 to start a business, we on the other hand born and raised Americans are tossed into the streets like garbage absolutely disgusting. The left has succeeded in destroying this country it can never recover.
It’s all part of the plan: the New World Order:
https://www.complicitclergy.com/2021/09/01/vigano-considerations-on-the-great-reset-and-the-new-world-order/
That is not hard to believe if one has seen the video of the opening of the tunnel in Switzerland that many of the world leaders attended. It was truly demonic. How any decent person could have sat through it is beyond me.
BTW, I did not sit through the whole video either. Just saw glimpses of it to know it was seriously evil. I suppose their were some who had to go there and take pictures, so others could know how bad it really was.
What difference does it make to a Catholic? We have a better home. We are in the world but not of the world.
I am a lot more concerned about the rampant sin and the effects it is having.
RA, I want to commend you for commenting without making everything about the NO Mass! Good job!
Peggy you are 100% correct.
Romulus, yes, this is all painfully true. Yet, even in a good culture, it is also true, that a devout Christian believer, and their spouse and children, all must live an entirely different life, dedicated to Christ. Even good cultures will be too “worldly,” and you will find corruptions in it. A devout Catholic has always had to quietly practice their faith, stand for what they believe, and go on a different pathway. What is heartbreaking, is a post-Conciliar Church that has so much corruption and offers little support. But we must stand strong with Christ, and ask Him to just make us stronger, and persevere. The early Christians had it much harder, and then Rome fell, and the Roman Catholic Church was established, in very hard times. I know how hard it is for us all– Catholics are supposed to be guided and led rightly, by the Pope and our clergy. We are not supposed to just “go it on our own,” carrying on with the Faith, when our clerics have failed. But maybe this is also a Cross to help perfect us, and will bring much good in the end. We are walking in His pathway, and He is silently walking with us– and it is not on our own terms, but His– and the way is dark, and miserable for us. But in the end, if we stand strong, increase daily in strength, and persevere, all will turn out right. In the end, our true home is in Christ– not the world, even if the world and its culture change to become “Christianized” and excellent.
Romulus, we do have a handful of good churches, and good priests and good bishops! We are blessed to have that! Though the world falls to pieces, Christ and His Blessed Mother are waiting there in Heaven for us all, with open arms! Things are pretty dark and miserable for devout Catholics, in today’s world — but we do have it a lot better than the situation in the days of Ancient Rome. Everything is in God’s hands.