Mikaela says:
Here's the next battlefront of the culture wars: Bible Study in Public Schools
Bible as literature is being marketed as a thinly-veiled attempt to bring religion back into everyday curriculum. Am I sure? Check out this quote from one of the proponents of the BILLS introduced in Alabama and Georgia.
"We are not going to give away the South anymore because we are unwilling to talk about our faith." -- Kasim Reed, Georgia state senator from Atlanta.
Even Howard Dean is weighing in.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, promised that Democrats would do a better job talking about values to religious voters. "We have done it in a secular way, and we don't have to," he said, adding, "I think teaching the Bible as literature is a good thing."
While the "textbook" to be used is called The Bible and Its Influence, whose author wrote it in part because he was disturbed at the growing ignorance of the biblical story -- arguably a central source of Western culture, it does NOT cover the more controversial "influence" that the Bible has had to justify intolerance against gays, minorities, or other marginalized groups or wars at various points throughout history. It only covers the glowing reports of the Bible's good deeds, spreading light and truth throughout the dark earth. Hmmm... Sounds like a rigorous academic subject to me!
I would not have a problem with a World Religion class, in which all religions are studied as a source of culture and literature. But I suspect that if someone intoduced a bill to teach a class on the Torah and Its Influence or the Koran and Its Influence, not only would such classes be disallowed, the proponent would be at least put on a watch list and more likely either deported or arrested and declared an enemy combatant. If you think I'm exaggerating, keep up with the news! Tariq Ramadan, a leading Islamic scholar and a Palestinian, was denied entrance into the U.S., where he had been hired to teach at Notre Dame University.
A whole class on teaching the Bible backed as a political ploy to get in good with Christian voters is just wrong. It's just wrong. Teaching religion and inculcating religion are two different things. The slope is slippery. We must be vigilant. I agree, actually, that cultural awareness is an important component of education. As such, ALL cultures must be welcomed and taught from a critical distance. That's not what's being proposed here. Know this.
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