Pen-Elayne on the Web

Faith-Based and Faithless Parks

I was intrigued by Atrios' link to the article from 365gay.com that reports the following:

All images of gay gatherings at national sites, including the Millennium March on the Washington Mall have been ordered removed from videotapes that have been shown at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995...Also ordered cut from the tape were scenes of abortion rights demonstrations at the memorial, and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations "because it implies that Lincoln would have supported homosexual and abortion rights as well as feminism." In their place, the Park Service is inserting scenes of the Christian group Promise Keepers and pro-Gulf War demonstrators though these events did not take place at the Memorial...

So I searched on what else Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (website currently down or I'd link to 'em) turned up, and found this very frightening press release about Christian fundie influence on the National Park Service: "In a series of recent decisions, the National Park Service has approved the display of religious symbols and Bible verses, as well as the sale of creationist books giving a non-evolutionary explanation for the Grand Canyon and other natural wonders within national parks..." Together with Teresa Nielsen Hayden's must-read The Dinosaurs of Eden, all of this really creeps me out. If The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. thinks they're having trouble getting folks to support the reopening of the Statue to tourism now (and come on, now, (1) if it's closed due to security concerns it's not like giving money's going to help re-open it, and (2) shouldn't the upkeep of infrastructure at national treasures like the Statue be the responsibility of the federal government anyway?) it wouldn't surprise me, after these latest shenanigans have come to light, if thinking folks would be that much less inclined to help out a partner of the obviously-much-compromised NPS (which has also been, in my opinion, justifiably maligned by Julia for their actions against Theresa Chambers).