church and state

[jenthompson]

I just found out that my high school offers a new "bible literacy" class as an English elective this year. My mind is blown. I had no idea that such a thing existed in public schools, but apparently Texas passed a law allowing it in 2009.

I'm so torn about how I feel about this. I took a world religion class in college and I LOVED it, but it was a WORLD religion class and we studied all religions. And I am grateful for my childhood education from church about biblical stories because it's good for art history and just general well-rounded life knowledge. In fact, part of my fall away from the Baptist church came after I read the bible from cover to cover and discovered for myself exactly how insane it really is, so I'm glad I spent the time studying it. So I actually do think that educating young people about the bible is a good thing. But...

This class apparently just covers the old testament of the bible, and that's in an effort to be less Christian-specific. But it is taught by one of our uber-Baptist teachers, and when I asked my student about about the class, she said that everybody in there is a Christian, so it's basically just a big bible study class like you would have at church. This whole concept makes me SO uncomfortable! I do think that education about religion is important, but only if it includes ALL religions. If it is Christian-specific, it should be taught in a church, or a private school, not a public one. Separation of church and state is one of the things that I'm the most passionate about, so this one is really throwing me for a loop. I'm amazed that nobody has challenged this in court yet.

Wow. Welcome to the bible belt, I guess!

Comments

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the idea of a Bible Lit elective, even though I don't believe in it. I think the problem is in the teaching - if it's teaching actual religion instead of just the stories, it's going too far. I was required to take Bib Lit in college (Methodist School) - I know we did the old testament, and I think maybe we did a couple parts of the new testament? I know we didn't do the whole thing. It wasn't terrible, though, since it really was just analyzing the stories. That said, I do agree that a World religions class would probably be far more appropriate.