Pastor: Wilson students being brainwashed with Islam
Andy Humbles, ahumbles@tennessean.com 8:28 p.m. CDT September 11, 2015
A Mt. Juliet pastor went on video with concerns Wilson County Schools is indoctrinating and brainwashing students with Islam through its curriculum, which generated a denial by the district on its Facebook page.
Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church filmed the video in front of West Wilson Middle School, which was posted on his Facebook page. The video was also on the Parents of Wilson County Schools page.
Locke said church families were concerned and upset about middle school students being taught “a half-page of watered down Christianity,” in sixth grade and then are taught 28 pages of Islamic curriculum.
“We have a number of our families at our church that are really upset and up and arms over all of this new Islamic indoctrination in our public school system,” Locke said early in the video. Later he states: "That is nothing more than absolute brainwashing of religion and we're not going to stand for it."
Wilson County Schools Director Donna Wright responded on the district’s Facebook page and called Locke’s claims blatantly false and stated his video was done to intentionally incite parents and the community.
“No one in any Wilson County School is teaching any indoctrination of Islam or of any world religion for that matter,” Wright said. “To imply or state otherwise shows a lack of knowledge about the standards used in our schools.”
Greg Locke
Locke, contacted Friday, did not back off statements in the video and felt curriculum has gone too far teaching fundamentals of Islam while Christianity is glossed over. He also stated students are being taught different religions worship the same God.
"It's straight up indoctrination, I'm not backing off that," he said Friday.
Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Shinto, are covered in grades six and seven, and again in high school, according to Wilson County Schools Deputy Director of Academics Monty Wilson in the Facebook response.
“Although these religions will be taught at some point in these three courses, the focus on each religion will depend on the context and influence of the time period,” Wilson said. “World History is taught at three different times in a student’s K-12 education. First in grades six and seven and again in high school. The courses cover World History from the beginning of time to the present.”
Donna Wright
Donna Wright (Photo: File/Knoxville News Sentinel)
The response also states the content of religion Tennessee social studies standards isn’t new, but the sequence has been revised with State Board of Education approval in July 2013.
Locke also called a scheduled test on Islamic curriculum for Friday, Sept. 11, as a “slap in the face,” and said in the video he told parents "you need to tell your kids take an F for the class because I’d rather fail in man’s class and get an A plus in God’s class and we need some kids that have some character and stand up.”
The test ultimately was not administered Friday, district officials said. Wright said it isn’t unusual for teachers to test the last day of the week, and stated in the Facebook post it was unfortunate timing that testing was scheduled Sept. 11, “but in no way was this done deliberately as part of some plan to indoctrinate students.”
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/wilson/2015/09/11/pastor-wilson-students-being-brainwashed-islam/72074178/
