The state of Florida is pushing some sort of twisted agenda with its Character First! training of state employees in DCF and some county positions, I'm just not sure what it is.
Some are convinced that the training is designed to push conservative Christian beliefs in what should be a secular setting. I'm not sure about that, because I didn't catch any explicit references to God in the Orlando Sentinel article about it. What I did see was a push toward docility, passivity, and unquestioning aceptance of those in positions of authority.
The claims that this is rooted in a religious setting are based on two things:
1. The Character Training Institute's provide a program is patterned after one by conservative Christian evangelist Bill Gothard.
2. DCF's secretary Jerry Regier argued the Bible supports "smiting" children to discipline them and that women should be "workers at home" to be near their children.
I'm not sure you can directly correlate this into a government pushing religion, but there are supposedly direct correlations between all of the 49 points each uses.
I think some of the points may be a problem, though. The Sentinel had three examples:
* Meekness versus Anger -- Yielding my personal rights and expectations with a desire to serve.
* Obedience versus Willfulness -- Quickly and cheerfully carrying out the direction of those who are responsible for me.
*Flexibility versus Resistance -- Willingness to change plans or ideas according to the direction of my authorities.
Sounds authoritarian to me, or at least a value system designed to undermine Democracy and keep people in power. Maybe I'm reding things that aren't there into it, but these days I'm very suspicious when government agencies start telling people to shut-up and just go along.
Posted by Chris at September 5, 2003 12:10 PM