Kevin Donnelly, and the urge to discriminate, like John Brown's body, keeps marching on ...

Meanwhile, on another planet, fondly known as the punch-soused Punch, valiant Kevin Donnelly battles on for the right of the deluded to maintain their delusions at the expense of the tax payer dollar.

Yep, it's all there, at great and tedious length in Green with class envy and bent on change, as Donnelly explains how schools based on the principles of scientology, fundamentalist Christianity, fundie Islam, fundie Exclusive Brethren, fundie Calathumpian, fundie "insert your own fundie in your fundament" obsession here, deserve a free kick and a free pass.

What, no 'flying spaghetti monster' school? Give it time, give it time ...

Surveys show that one of the reasons parents choose non-government schools is because, overwhelmingly, such schools are religious in nature. Catholic schools, which make up the lion’s share of the non-government sector, for example, are dedicated to providing a Christian education based on the teachings of the Church.

Yes and some are dedicated to providing a Scientology approved education based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, and some the teachings of Muhammed and some the teachings derived from the Book of Mormon, and some the science derived from creationism and the book of Genesis ...

And how does Connelly answer these concerns? Well by getting agitated about government intervention in private school behaviour. Sign the cheque, just make sure it's blank, and please no conditions, because conditions are in error, and possibly a mortal sin.

Such a policy not only flies in the face of international and local human rights agreements and conventions protecting religious freedom and the right of parents to educate their children according to their beliefs, it also represents yet another example of government intrusion and centralised control over schools.

Yes, it's the right to be stupid, and to ensure your children are stupid, and at the end of it all, to make sure this stupidity is funded by the taxpayer in the interests of freedom and rights ...

Naturally the freedom to discriminate is the most precious freedom of all.

Freedoms that were once allowed in terms of slavery or preventing miscegenation must now be maintained in other areas, because discrimination must never be allowed to die:

Instead of respecting the right of faith-based schools to operate according to religious beliefs, especially in areas like staffing and enrolments, the Greens argue that such schools must accept its polices in areas like sexuality and gender identity. Point 63 of its policy states that non-government schools must not be allowed to “discriminate in hiring of staff or selection of students”.

Even more outrageous is the proposal by some of these wretched secularists that theologies like creationism should be left out of the science classroom.

Of course hidden by all this rhetoric is the true nature of some fundie schools, always waiting cap in hand and paw extended for cash, until they suddenly bob to the surface, as happened recently in the matter of Pauline Hanson and Sydney schoolteacher Sean Castle, which suddenly shone an unexpected light on Toongabbie Christian School (Bearing 'Christian witness' in the state elections).

Toongabbie is relentlessly Baptist in its outlook, and inclined to hellfire and brimstone:

Rewards and Punishments In A Future State
We believe God has appointed a day of final judgment for the world. At that time Jesus Christ will judge every person and each will receive reward or punishment according to their deeds. Those judged righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment.

But Toongabbie is just one of dozens of such schools, as this handy free 2010 guide to Christian schools explains, providing details of over 150 schools, and advice for resilient Christian parents (in pdf form here).

But to be fair and balanced, we should also note that some 18,000 students now attend some 31 Islamic schools (according to muslimvillage.com), and they too have cap in hand and paws held out for cash.

And who can forget Brendan Nelson's notion that intelligent design was a worthy candidate for the syllabus, while at the same time providing schools run by the Exclusive Brethren with exemptions from testing computer literacy for year 6 and year students - even though this was a condition of Federal government independent school funding (Nelson and the Exclusive Brethren)?

Meanwhile, back to Donnelly, and it doesn't take long for it all to spill out, and with it the fear and loathing of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex folk.

Given that all Australian schools, under the banner of the ALP’s education revolution, will be made to teach a national curriculum after 2012, it should not surprise if the Greens pressure the Gillard Government to incorporate a positive view of LGBTI lifestyles in the new curriculum.

Put it another way:

Given that all Australian schools, under the banner of the ALP’s education revolution, will be made to teach a national curriculum after 2012, it should not surprise if the pressure of Christians, Islamics, Donnellys and the like will see the Gillard Government wilt, and allow the negative, hateful, demeaning discriminatory view of LGBTI lifestyles to continue in some independent schools.

Uh huh. But why should LGBTI tax dollars go to support such offal?

Come to think of it, why should any federal tax government dollars go to support any independent schools with a negative, biased, discriminatory or creationist view of the world?

Isn't that carrying socialist interventions and big brother government a tad too far?

Well on the upside, they managed to get rid of anti-miscegenist attitudes in the United States, such that marriage is now free of the taint legally, if not socially in some backwards parts, as its birth and tortured history still litter the landscape (and why not start here with The Miscegenation Hoax before moving on to the wiki Interracial marriage in the United States, which provides a handy map of the United States by date of repeal of anti-miscegenation laws).

Why even the Mormons discovered that discrimination was a bad look, as you might either discover by watching the musical The Book of Mormon, or reading the wiki Black people and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But no matter how you cut it, the desire to maintain discrimination and discriminatory practices will march forward to the end of time (or at least until hell opens for the wicked), and we must thank the punch-addled Punch and Kevin Donnelly for maintaining the rage ...

Sing it again:

I believe that Satan has ahold of you
I believe that the Lord God has sent me here
And I believe that in 1978 God changed His mind about black people
You can be a Mormon
A Mormon who just believes

Oh and I almost forgot to mention the tag on the cartoon accompanying the piece, under a greenie yellowy demonic photo of Bob Brown: the school motto will be Diversitas, Sexualitas, Genderitas. That's what passes for editorial wit in the hallowed halls of the sozzled Punchitas, a bunch of donkitas.