Calvary's ad lacks understanding of the separation of church and state

I take issue with the ad appearing in the Acorn on Oct. 26 from Calvary Chapel of Thousand Oaks and its inappropriate attempt to get involved in the election of Conejo Valley Unified School District public school board members.

What exactly about "separation of church and state" does Calvary not understand? If its members "expressed interest" in learning more about the candidates and their stance on pertinent educational issues, they should have attended the school board candidates open forum at Thousand Oaks High School.

How arrogant of this church to presume that it is so important that these candidates with their busy schedules should show up to one of its religious services to address this one particular group.

Are they that special?

Additionally, I was offended by the manipulative scare tactics in the ad as well: "Kids spend 1,000 hours per year in a classroom. . . . Are they teaching them your values?" Yes, what are these evil-doers teaching our kids?

With all the pressure on high test scores, what teacher even has time to "teach values"? And again, how self-righteous to imply that they should be Christian values; would Judaic or Buddhist values be as acceptable to Calvary? Doubtful.

As far as the specific educational issues in which Calvary members are "interested," the silliest one mentioned is that concerning the "controversial textbook." This is the same high school health textbook which every state in the country uses, except Texas. To call it "controversial" is simply ridiculous.

I also found it interesting in this ad how many times the term "alternative lifestyles" was used; hmmm, an imaginary textbook issue and obsessing over "alternative lifestyles"--I'm starting to wonder if Calvary isn't a bit homophobic.

The most laughable aspect of the ad was the suggestion of "teaching alternatives to evolution theory, like intelligent design." First of all, evolution is as much of a "theory" as gravity is, and "intelligent design" is as "intelligent" as Creationism. Even with a different name, it is still religion.

If this is what one wants his/her child to learn in school, he/she ought to be attending a private one.

In conclusion, the Calvary ad and its attempt to get involved in the election process of our public school officials are totally inappropriate. Furthermore, I cannot even imagine a Buddhist temple or an Islamic mosque displaying the type of presumptuous arrogance which Calvary has shown with its ad; imagine the outcry if a Jewish temple invited our public school board members to one of its services to challenge them to see if they met Jewish standards. How bizarre a scenario would that be?

As bizarre as this one.

Calvary needs to remember that despite the blurring of the separation of church and state in the last few years of right-wing Christian evangelical-influenced politics at the national level, the federal law is still alive and well and is a founding principle of the U.S. and should be honored as such. Tina Aschenbrenner Thousand Oaks