SC

USC-Upstate Targeted By Social Conservatives

While this website has consistently supported gay rights, we oppose using taxpayer funding to propagandize for their advancement.  Of course we oppose the use of tax dollars to advance any ideology. That’s why we’ve been calling out the University of South Carolina Upstate and other government-run institutions of higher learning…

While this website has consistently supported gay rights, we oppose using taxpayer funding to propagandize for their advancement.  Of course we oppose the use of tax dollars to advance any ideology.

That’s why we’ve been calling out the University of South Carolina Upstate and other government-run institutions of higher learning in the Palmetto State – which continue to spend public funds on such propaganda.

Now one prominent religious leader – pastor Mike Hamlet of the First Baptist Church of North Spartanburg (a.k.a. “First North“) – has apparently had enough. Hamlet wants USC-Upstate to develop alternative programs for incoming freshmen based on Christian values, and he’s enlisted the support of several social conservative “Republican” lawmakers to assist him.

Among them? Opportunistic S.C. Reps. Rita Allison, Mike Forrester and Eddie Tallon.

USC-Upstate leaders are pushing back against this pressure, effectively telling these lawmakers to butt out of the school’s operations.

Great …

This is going to wind up being just like the “abstinence versus safe sex” debate … in which government subsidizes propaganda for both sides of the issue.

Frankly, all of this nonsense could be avoided if lawmakers simply got out of the higher education business – a market they never should have entered in the first place. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, but if government-funded institutions were permitted to pursue their destinies in the private sector – it would be up to the marketplace to determine the appropriateness (or inappropriateness) of their offerings.

Forcing taxpayers to pay for pro-gay propaganda – or pro-Christian propaganda – is just wrong.

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43 comments

Smirks December 30, 2013 at 11:28 am

So much for separation of church and state.

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Jackie Chiles December 30, 2013 at 11:51 am

“Forcing taxpayers to pay for pro-gay propaganda – or pro-Christian propaganda – is just wrong.”

Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for any propaganda they disagree with. That’s why we should ban the teaching of the Civil War from a Yankee perspective. For now on, I demand it be named “The War of Northern Aggression” and all references to slavery as being a motivator for the South to secede be erased from the textbooks. It’s just wrong to force me or any other taxpayer to pay for propaganda.

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a face in the crowd December 30, 2013 at 11:59 am

Could not agree more. Let’s get the Confederate battle flag — the ultimate piece of rebel propaganda — off state grounds maintained with public money!

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 12:41 pm

TBG thinks that if you don’t like the results of the capitulation compromise, maybe we should run ‘er back up the staff atop the Statehouse and have another go round, Chief.

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a face in the crowd December 30, 2013 at 1:02 pm

I don’t argue with people who refer to themselves in the third-person.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 1:40 pm

Fair enough, El Jefe.

Roberto December 30, 2013 at 3:24 pm

The loser usually strikes their flag, not the winner.

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Jackie Chiles December 30, 2013 at 2:10 pm

Amen brother. I say we go a step further and demolish the statehouse entirely. I’m pretty sure it was built partially by slaves. I’m also sure it was fired upon by the glorious union troops, meaning that it probably should’ve been destroyed in the first place. Why should you have to pay for any propaganda you disagree with? Blow it up, and we’ll have no state funding for propaganda.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 12:37 pm

Small correction.

Slavery WAS a primary motivation behind the South’s secession. The erroneous Yankee perspective that is foisted upon us is that the WAR was fought over slavery. Even Lincoln admitted as much.

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

–The Great Emancipator, himself

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Frank Pytel December 30, 2013 at 12:40 pm

Also a wonderful tidbit left out of the history books by revisionists. Good catch TBG!!

Rock on Brotha

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Roberto December 30, 2013 at 3:14 pm

So there is a difference in perceptions of North and South. This is from an address by Alexander Stephans, VP of the Confederacy:

“Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.”

He makes it VERY clear that the South WAS fighting for slavery,

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 7:14 pm

The South seceded (in part) because of slavery.

The South fought because they were invaded.

The North did NOT invade the South to end slavery.

Is any of this really that difficult for you to understand?

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Slartibartfast December 31, 2013 at 7:36 pm

People who wish to wrap themselves in a mantle of moral superiority have a bad tendency to forget the history of the events they wish to enlist in their cause.

We say involuntary servitude is slavery and therefore wrong, yet we enslave suspected criminals every day, prior to adjudication. Yet, this chink in our civil history does not justify the existence of slavery.

Some anti-caucasians want to forget that, had it not been for the North’s victory at Gettysburg, Lincoln would have lost his re-election and slavery would have ended in the South due to the natural inertia of the bad economics of slavery and the necessity of soldiers to fight for the South.

In any case, slavery is still wrong, and God, in his inexplicable way, used a very bad President Lincoln to end a very wrong practice. Nevertheless, the end did not justify the means, nor the bastardization of history by those who think the North was any more moral than the South.

Comrade1917 December 30, 2013 at 7:38 pm

“I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.” — Abe Lincoln

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Frank Pytel December 30, 2013 at 12:38 pm

I also could not agree more Jackie. It’s time to stop allowing the government revisionist historians from hiding the truth. The one that pisses me off the most is that tidbit left from the history books about Lincoln’s lack of caring for the negro intelligence

Abraham Lincoln Quote

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

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vicupstate December 30, 2013 at 1:08 pm

What year did he say that? My guess would be before his election, and it certainly was not in 1865. Talk about revising history. He evolved on race over time, as most did. Why don’t you tell the whole story. He also said if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 1:37 pm

1858.

Not sure how Lincoln “evolved on race over time”.

As far as TBG knows Lincoln believed this until his death. Lincoln’s personal opposition to slavery is in no way contradictory to the statement that FP quoted.

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Frank Pytel December 30, 2013 at 2:05 pm

Your generosity abounds.

vicupstate December 31, 2013 at 9:54 am

Lincoln supported full voting rights and citizenship for emancipated slaves at the end of the war. That quote was from his race for Senate, which he lost to

TontoBubbaGoldstein January 1, 2014 at 11:49 am

That quote was from his race for Senate, which he lost to a pro slavery opponent. Politics no doubt impacted his statements of that time.

TBG is the same way about Rand Paul. When he says something TBG disagrees with it is attributed to “politics”; wheras when we are in agreement it is attributed to his expressing his “true feelings” on the issue. : )
Lincoln advocated citizenship and voting rights for black Union soldiers. Not sure about all the rest.
Pretty sure he would have “disenfranchised” about half of the adult black population, though!

ShooFlyCulbertson December 30, 2013 at 12:40 pm

so you think we ought to buy a few old step-and-fetch movies to show how happy the slaves were on the plantation ?? Let’s plan for this in our History of Racism in South Carolina 101. You, Sir, can be the kind and gentle overseer int he movie who never beat the slaves with a whip.

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Jackie Chiles December 30, 2013 at 2:15 pm

Tell you what, since neither of us can agree on the propaganda that will be taught by our public schools, why don’t we just agree to have public schools not teach the civil war at all? Maybe we should cut funding for all civil war related textbooks/chapters/classes. You teach a class on the civil war, you don’t get paid for that days work.

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notLindaBurke December 31, 2013 at 8:54 am

Or we could just present the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans died on their own soil and allow students to do their own investigation as to why.

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Jackie Chiles December 31, 2013 at 9:23 am

Allowing students to think for themselves?!? Blasphemy.

nitrat December 30, 2013 at 3:53 pm

Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry’s stage name was Stepin Fetchit.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 9:09 pm

Obligatory post of a lyric from Charlie Daniel’s “Uneasy Rider”:

“Well I had them all out there steppin’ and fetchin’
Like their heads was on fire and their asses was catchin’
but I figgered I’d better go ahead and split before the cops got there.”

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Frank Pytel December 30, 2013 at 12:29 pm

Excellent article. Spot on. Government should never be used to force ideology on anyone for any reason.

Further, and I know FITS agrees, Government should not be in the business of any education of any type. Period. If you want your child to learn some subject matter, hire a tutor. Can’t afford it on your own, get with your friends and hire someone to teach the subject to your community. Who knows, your kids might actually learn something :)

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TyroneDaddyRibs December 30, 2013 at 12:37 pm

This is a violation of the separation of church and state. Why are Republicans so thick-headed that they cannot see this? Over and over the GOP keeps making the same mistakes.

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Baker December 30, 2013 at 2:51 pm

Wasn’t Will Folks formerly a taxpayer funded employee who worked to advance an ideology?

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Jesus H. Christ! December 30, 2013 at 3:05 pm

Yep.

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jimlewisowb December 30, 2013 at 3:06 pm

Sort of – true he was an employee paid with tax dollars –

However I don’t think sucking liquor bottles dry or licking pussy qualified as “work:” or an ideology

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TontoBubbaGoldstein December 30, 2013 at 9:13 pm

However I don’t think sucking liquor bottles dry or licking pussy qualified as “work:”

*snort*

Just on the off chance, TBG would still like to submit an application….

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Fits Aint No Republican December 30, 2013 at 3:10 pm

Yes under a REPUBLICAN administration,but he aint no Republican.He says So!!

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ThePalms December 30, 2013 at 3:26 pm

Perhaps Hamlin can run a church in Spartanburg county, but what makes him believe that he can operate a University? The arrogance. Besides, doesn’t the upstate of SC already have a Sunday School institution in Bob Jones University?

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Blue364a December 30, 2013 at 5:12 pm

If they want a ‘religious’ college there is always North Greenville, Furman, PC, and a couple of others. State run colleges and schools should not be controlled by the religious right.

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Jackie Chiles December 31, 2013 at 1:37 pm

Nor should they be controlled by the extreme left.

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9" December 30, 2013 at 6:21 pm

Could you post pics of these pastors? I think I remember Rev Hamlet from Rumours( he’s an obvious ‘bottom’).That way,I can remember which ones I did,and didn’t do…

If you can’t show their faces,pics from behind will be OK.

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BrigidBernadette December 31, 2013 at 10:20 am

Ahh, Rumours. Hadn’t thought about that place in a long time. Have we met?

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9" December 31, 2013 at 2:21 pm

probably.those were good times.happy new year

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Torch December 30, 2013 at 6:27 pm

Yep, government shouldn’t be in the education business. No USC, Clemson, Citadel, etc. But we would have Newberry, PC, Bob Jones, etc. What a wonderful world we would live in.

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Manray December 31, 2013 at 11:26 am

Sometimes the planets align and the moon moves into the proper quadrant and I agree with Sic!

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euwe max January 1, 2014 at 10:11 am

If the government doesn’t compete with Satan, Jesus Christ will be totally forgotten.

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fatalbert2013 January 2, 2014 at 5:33 pm

That’s it, Sic: I’m done. Disgusting.

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