One would have thought the administration had learned its lesson. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, was forced to resign because of his incompetence in dealing with the consequences of the storm. Soon afterward, President George W. Bush named While House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Her lack of qualifications, and a Republican revolt against the nomination, forced her to withdraw.
Like Brown and Miers, Bonicelli has little experience in the field he has been tapped to supervise. The closest he comes to democracy-promotion or good governance is having worked as a staffer for the Republican Party in the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives.
More significant to the administration, perhaps, is the fact that Bonicelli is dean of academic affairs at tiny
Faculty members, too, must sign a pledge stating they share a generally literalist belief in the Bible. Revealingly, only biology and theology teachers are required to hold a literal view specifically of the Bible’s six-day creation story. Bonicelli has stated, “I think the most important thing is our academic excellence, [and the fact that we] combine it with a serious statement about our faith and values … I believe in six literal days, but I remain open to someone persuading me otherwise.”
Patrick Henry was founded in 2000 for home-schooled students. Among the fundamentalist community, home- schooling is seen as a way to promote Christian values as an alternative to what is regarded as an increasingly secular and irreligious culture prevalent in public schools. The college says it aims to “prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding.” It seeks “to aid in the transformation of American society by training Christian students to serve God and mankind with a passion for righteousness, justice and mercy, through careers of public service and cultural influence.”
Though Bonicelli has scant credentials for his new post, he and his institution enjoy close ties to the Bush administration and to fundamentalist religious groups that form such a critical part of the president’s base. Many Patrick Henry students have been chosen to serve as interns working for White House political adviser Karl Rove, for the White House Office of Public Liaison, and for Republican members of the House and Senate. “Most students’ values don’t link up with [those of] the Democrats,” Bonicelli says.
In 2002, Bush appointed Bonicelli, along with former Vatican adviser John Klink and Janice Crouse of the ultra-conservative Concerned Women for
What’s wrong with this picture is that the USAID programs Bonicelli will run are important weapons in the arsenal of Bush’s new public diplomacy czarina, White House confidante Karen Hughes. These programs are intended to play a central role in boosting Bush’s efforts to foster democracy and freedom in
One can only wonder how Muslims, the target audience for these USAID programs, will react to the view that “all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.”
[William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and
Copyright (c) 2005 The Daily Star
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