Bill would require Bible classes in Texas schools
DALLAS ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ A Texas legislator wants to require the state’s nearly 1,700 public school districts to teach the Bible as a textbook, “not a worship document.” The House Public Education Committee was set late today to consider a bill by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, mandating high schools to offer history and literacy courses on the Old and New Testaments. The courses would be elective. The idea of teaching the Bible in school seems to be undergoing a revival nationally. Two literature classes on the Bible are included on a list of state-approved courses that Georgia public schools could choose to offer beginning next year. Some critics say it would be the first state to take an explicit stance endorsing and funding biblical teachings. The Texas measure goes a step farther ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ requiring school districts to make such courses available, advocates on both sides agreed.
Welcome to yet another not-so-transparent attempt to circumvent the separation of church and state and legislate the teaching of Christianity as part of the Texas public school curriculum. For years, the religious nutjobs that make up a majority of the Texas Republican Party having been scheming and game-planning a number of different strategies for getting the Bible into the curriculum. That tax dollars would be going to push Christianity in our public schools seems to be something that these troglodytes have no problem with. Warren Chisum’s bill is just another volley in the seemingly never-ending battle to turn public school teachers into evangelists.
Hey, any REAL Texan knows that Jesus votes Republican, don’tchaknow??
Chisum and his compatriots will piss and moan about how society is going to Hell in a handbasket since God’s been “removed” from the classroom (Uh…did I miss that one??). The reality, though, is that public schools should not be turned into publicly-funded Sunday Schools. There are plenty of private and parochial schools ready, willing, and able to do exactly that if you want your child to be indoctrinated in the whys and wherefores of Christianity.
“We’re not going to preach the Bible, we’re going to teach the Bible and how it affects all of our writings, documents and the formation of our government,” said Chisum. “We’re taking it as a document that has historical value. It’s the most widely distributed book in the world.”
A study by the liberal watchdog group Texas Freedom Network last year identified 25 high schools in the state already offering such courses and said that many have serious problems.
Gee, what a shock, eh? When you consider that courses that most courses which treat the Bible as a “historical document” are more often than not thinly-veiled attempts at evangelizing public school classrooms, is it any wonder that there are problems? For example, why are most of these course taught from an almost exclusively Christian perspective? Didn’t the Jews play something of a role in the Bible? And wasn’t Jesus a Jew?
The proposed legislation puts school districts in legal jeopardy, said Kathy Miller, TFN’s director, who was joined at a news conference by theologians and clergy members opposed to the bill.
“These courses are often more about the religious beliefs of the teachers rather than true academic studies of the importance of the Bible in history and literature,” she said.
The Chisum bill says the Old and New Testaments should each be the “basic textbook” for the courses.
While I’m not about advocating atheism, I also don’t believe that promoting Christianity with taxpayer dollars is a wise or constitutional use of scarce resources. When history is taught from a Christian perspective using the Bible as a textbook, what you have is a Sunday School class. While there’s certainly a time and a place for that, it’s not in a public school classroom, and it’s certainly not on the taxpayer’s dime.
The Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools promotes its curriculum as the only one that uses the Bible as its primary textbook. Supporters include the conservative American Family Association, Eagle Forum and Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute.
Elizabeth Ridenour, the council’s president, said the group’s material is already being used in 54 Texas school districts.
“The Texas Freedom Network will make any negative statement they can to try to basically blow smoke to scare people about this,” she said. “We’ve never been legally challenged, and they know that. If what they say is happening were happening, lawsuits would have been filed a long time ago.”
Perhaps they’ve never been legally challenged. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s also completely beside the point. If your want your child to get a religious education in Texas, there are plenty of private schools that will be happy to provide exactly that. Given that public schools are there to serve children of all colors, backgrounds, and faiths, why should Texans be OK with a curriculum that teaches the Bible from an almost exclusively Christian perspective? Why would a Jewish or Hindu parent not be offended by the open Right-wing Fundamentalist elitism? As a Buddhist, I do not want my tax dollars used to finance the evangelizing of our public schools. If I had children, and if they were in public schools, I would want them to be taught, not preached to.
Warren Chisum’s bill is just the latest salvo in the Evangelical Right’s attempt to take over the public school curriculum. There are plenty of private and home schools which do the proselytizing part of the educational process much better than Chisum’s bill would provide for. How about we leave the teaching of Christianity to them? Our public schools should be institutions that are , inclusive of all religions and faith traditions, not turned into publicly-funded Sunday Schools.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
