The Bible and Public Schools

by on February 2, 2012 • No comments

Why is it that Arizona State Legislators have such difficulty understanding the constitutional dictum regarding the separation of Church and State? After all, if our founding fathers understood this division was essential to protect minorities, both sectarian and secular, and maintain political liberty, you would think that today’s politicians would be equally astute.
Obviously, astuteness isn’t the case with Republican State Representative Terri Proud. Rep. Proud wants Arizona lawmakers to create a high school course for public and charter schools students that teach the Bible and its role in Western culture. Proud’s House Bill 2473 would allow high schools to offer an elective course on the “critical evaluation and examination of the Bible as a literary work”. A second House Bill 2563 would require the State Board of Education to determine requirements for a high school course titled “The Bible and its Influence on Western Culture”, which would include lessons on history, literature and the influence of the Old and New testaments on laws, government and culture.
Don’t you just love the names of the classes? Makes it sound like it’s not a Bible Study. Supposedly the course is intended to maintain religious neutrality, so students are not required to use a specific version of the Bible. I wonder how that will work. Let’s see, there’s the Hebrew Bible, the Catholic Bible, the Protestant or King James Bible, The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible or The New World Translation and the Mormon Bible – not to be confused with The Book of Mormon. I know, how about using Thomas Jefferson’s translation of the Bible. At least the Jefferson Bible would actually have a connection to the class course. With all those choices, it’s going to be one difficult class to teach.
Representative Proud and her supporters feel that somehow students are being deprived of learning about the Bible. I was under the impression, they taught about the Bible in Sunday Schools, Catechism and the various parochial schools? So, it’s not as if the Bible isn’t taught in schools…just not public schools.
It’s a tragedy Arizona ranks 42nd in the nation for our public education. Arizona’s education budget has been cut so much that we’ve had to cut back on teachers, arts and music classes, daily physical education and programs such as First Things First and KidsCare. Grade school students can’t even play at recess because they don’t have enough teachers to supervise their play. So, in my opinion, spending money to establish a Bible class is not a wise use of our education funds.
I do believe, however, that our education system needs a dramatic change…but a change that provides the necessary knowledge to help student’s function in our society when they graduate. It’s appalling that a large majority of our high school graduates aren’t physically fit, mentally stimulated or financially literate. Wouldn’t it be wiser to provide classes that will help our children succeed in life?
I’m aware that other states have passed laws to establish Bible education in public schools. But I believe our forefathers were correct about separating church and state. So to be fair, if we establish a Bible Class, then we should also provide classes to study the Koran, the Tanakh, the Torah, the Sruti, the Tipitaka, Dianetics and if Representative Proud really wants to teach about western culture, how about a class on Native American Spirituality. I took a class like that. It was called the History of Religions and it was a College elective.

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