Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post
By Lawrence Jones
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, Jul. 19 2008 08:58 AM EDT
The Texas State Board of Education on Friday gave final approval to establishing a Bible elective for high schools but left specific class guidelines up to local school districts.
Board members voted 10-5 to adopt broad standards for the Bible class. In March, they had already approved current TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills) guidelines for the Bible class but Friday's vote follows the opinion handed down last week by Attorney General Greg Abbott that affirmed the constitutionality of the proposed standards.
“We have met the requirements of the legislation. We don’t want to stifle what they (school districts) are doing in classrooms," said board member Cynthia Dunbar, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Texas high schools can start offering the Bible class for the 2008-09 school year now that the rule has been approved by over two-thirds of the board.
“Elective Bible courses now have the final green light from the Texas State Board of Education and Texas has now gained an academic advantage," said Jonathan Saenz, director of legislative affairs for Free Market Foundation, who testified before the board in support of the class on Thursday.
Some critics, however, said that the without specific guidelines, school districts offering the course could run into legal issues later if a neutral viewpoint of religion is not maintained in the class.
But supporters of the rule say that such concerns are already addressed in the TEKS guidelines, which call for "religious neutrality" and the accommodation of diverse religious views in the classroom.
Furthermore, they argue, the Bible class examines the impact of the Bible on history and literature and is not about religion.
The author of the original bill, Rep. Warren Chisum, had previously affirmed that the class would not "preach the Bible" but examine it as a "document that has historical value." State lawmakers passed legislation on the Bible course in May.
"As we stated and the Attorney General has now confirmed, the current [standards] are sufficient and we are ready to move forward on the new Bible course laws," added Kelly Shackelford, president of Free Market Foundation, a group that helped passed legislation for the class.
Texas now joins other states like Georgia that offer Bible electives in high schools.
Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
6 comments:
As long as we're subverting the separation of church and state, we might as well offer Sunday school classes that examine Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and Dawkins's "The God Delusion," and while we're at it, get Christian schools to offer these electives too. Oh, but purely for historical and literary value, of course. Think Liberty University would go for it?
The only subversion of the so-called separation of church and state which is going on these days is the use of government to sanitize Christian thought, values and expression from the public square.
It might surprise you to learn that the Bible was a primary textbook in America, even for many years AFTER the revolution, and after the Constitution was ratified.
Unless Congress has passed a law establishing or furthering an official state religion, there is no violation of the First Amendment with these courses.
You're right, the Bible was a primary textbook in America, and unless it was used to indoctrinate children into Christianity, I think that's fine. But come on, you have to see that the reason these Christians are advocating for Bible electives is to weasel their way into secular society, under the guise of political correctness ("intelligent design," anyone?). If that's not the case, then they should have no problem allowing biology teachers and scientists to talk to their Sunday school classes about evolution.
As for the government pushing Christian thought and expression to the sidelines, I wouldn't be so quick to point the finger without looking at yourself. You people are getting so ridiculous and alarmist that you're making mockeries of yourselves. Maybe it's not the government's fault; maybe intelligent people have just stopped listening and caring.
"Weasel their way into secular society?" Ours was not a "secular society" in the sense you mean until the last 30-50 years. Oh, there was certainly an area of our society which operated outside the sphere of religious control and authority, but only in the last 30-50 years has it been sanitized of Christian values and expression. Our founders recognized that religion--and specifically the Christian religion--was necessary to the good maintenance of a free and healthy society.
Those who insist on "cleansing" our public arena of the Christian worldview are actually threatening the freedoms of us all. The very tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and so on that this nation is established on are owed to the Christian worldview. Take away that Christian worldview (of transcendent moral values), and ours becomes a society of "might makes right" and mob rule.
This is something the founders specifically wanted to avoid, knowing that only a moral people can remain a free people.
Interesting. I wonder how that Board of Ed would feel about similar classes teaching the historical impact of, say, the Qur'an or sacred Hindu texts or something.
When I was in school, we learned about Islam and some of the other major world religions.
But Christianity and the Bible have had the greatest relevance and impact on Western civilization and American history, so it makes sense that they would have the most emphasis of any study of religion.
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