Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

Search

Search

1. 

   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

2. 

   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

3. 

   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

4. 

   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

5. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

WITHIN weeks of being appointed head of a “lovely little Catholic school” in Tennessee, father of 15 Doug Darnowski, pictured above with his wife Adele, incurred the wrath of parents by removing “pornographic” and “spiritually dangerous” books from the library. These included Harry Potter and 1001 Arabian Nights.

Such was the anger over his arbitary action that Darnowski himself was removed after parents of kids decided at a July meeting they wouldn’t tolerate heavy-handed censorship.

Darnowski’s sacking, according to this fundraiser, has put the family “in a rough spot” and they are now hoping to raise $50,000.

Nine of the family’s children are biologically theirs; the remainder are adopted.

Image via LifeFunder

The fundraiser doesn’t specify what the money is needed for, but says;

If you are in Catholic Higher Education and can help Doug find a wonderful position teaching full-time in the Biological Sciences field or in Administration our family would be greatly appreciative! Thank you so much.

A victim of bullying

This is the second time Darnowski, a biology professor, has found himself at odds with a Catholic institution. According to Lifefunder, in 2022, Darnowski was “bullied out of his position” at Indiana University Southeast after opposing its diversity, equity, and Inclusion policies. He been in job for 20 years.

The fundraiser says:

One year later he was hired as principal of a lovely little Catholic school in Tennessee, started by nuns, and open since the 1800’s. Doug was summarily terminated and cancelled after 17 days for removing (with the stated support of the pastor) books promoting witchcraft from the library and classrooms and LGBTQ-promoting material from the curriculum.

Lifefunder said he worked for free for the first three weeks, greatly desiring to bring the “wonderful system of Catholic education” to help “form little souls as saints” at the unnamed school.

His mission included the removal of Harry Potter books, the 1001 Arabian Nights which “contained pornographic passages,” as well as LGBT+ publications that were “fully accessible to pupils.”

Parents were having none of this shit, and at the July 17 meeting they gave the principal “a two-hour drubbing”, saying that they wanted Harry Potter and other” witchcraft-based books” for their kids since they would see them eventually anyway.

Futhermore they didn’t think that the “pornographic passages” in 1001 Arabian Nights were a problem.

At a time when more and more books are being targeted and removed from school libraries at the behest of christofascists, it’s heartening to see that some parents are refusing to follow this increasingly dangerous trend.

Please help me keep The Angry Atheist going with a donation.