:|
:|High schools try out new Bible course
:|http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=3D17469
:|[excerpt]
:|
:|High schools try out new Bible course
:|
:|By The Associated Press
:|10.02.06
:|
:|How do you teach the Bible in public schools?
:|
:|Very carefully.
:|
:|Yet this academic year, 78 U.S. school districts in 26 states are bold=

:|embarking on a newsworthy experiment. They're offering high school ele=

:|courses using a new textbook, The Bible and Its Influence alongside Bi=

:|versions chosen by each student.
:|
:|More schools might have signed up but the all-important teacher's edit=

:|of the book wasn't available for assessment till late August.
:|
:|The teacher's version, by freelance writer and former college religion
:|teacher Marjorie Haney Schafer, tells educators to cultivate "respect"=

:|for the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by courts, for Bible scholars=

:|for divergent opinions about the Bible, for various religions and for =

:|scriptural text itself.
:|
:|Don't "disparage the Bible or treat its content lightly," but also "av=

:|uncritical adulation" that violates academic objectivity, Schafer advi=

:|[end excerpt]
:|
:|

PART I
My question is. Why?
Is there a shortage of good history books, philosophy books, good
literature books, etc?

Courses on Comparative Religion are already permitted, but that isn't what
those seeking this want.

The public school system has been and still is the #1 major target of the
radical religious right. They want to abolish it altogether or take it
over.

Legally speaking, it is rare and takes just the right combination of judg=

and or justices to overturn established precedence.

A far more effective way is to chip away at that established precedence o=

small victory at a time.

That is the purpose of getting these Bible programs into schools. Once th=

is done then the next step will be easier.

It is a back door approach to get religion back into public schools as it
once was or as they perceive it as having once been.

It is a back door approach to eventually overturn
* 1962 -- Engel v Vitale
Because of the prohibition of the First Amendment against the enactment of
any law "respecting an establishment of religion," which is made applicab=

to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, state officials may not compose
an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public
schools of the State at the beginning of each school day - even if the
prayer is denominationally neutral and pupils who wish to do so may remain
silent or be excused from the room while the prayer is being recited. Pp.
422-436.

* 1963 -- ABINGTON SCHOOL DIST. v. SCHEMPP -- banned school-directed
recital of the Lord's Prayer and reading of Bible passages as part of
"devotional exercises" in public schools.
* 1980 -- STONE v. GRAHAM -- banned the posting of the the Ten
Commandments on public school classroom walls.

One way this may go would be for them to get as many school districts
signed on as possible. Next would be to file suit in courts to get the Ten
Commandments into the public schools, not just the building in general but
posted in every classroom. The argument could go like this

Because of the influence that Bible has had on our history and culture we
were allowed to have elective Bible courses. The Ten Commandments which a=

found in that Bible has had a equal importance on our history, they are
after all the basis of our legal system., and on our culture. Therefore =

courses on the Bible are permitted it seems only natural that the Ten
Commandments should be permitted in our schools and classrooms

Bare in mind a couple small victories equal a medium victory and a couple
medium vidctores equal some major precedence altering.

These folks are patient, They have goals and already have been working at
this since the late 50s early 60s


PART II
The problem is, it is a course on "The Bible" The Bible, as we generally
know it serves only Protestant Christianity.

The Catholics have their own version and there is a bloody history in this
country over that conflict In the mid 1800s people died in the streets of
some major U S Cities over the fact that the Bible referred to in public
schools was the King James version.

In site of the Judeo-Christian myth , which is truly a myth, Christianity
and the Jewish religion and how each uses the Bible have little in common.

How many everyday public school teachers are qualified to teach about the
Old Testament that will even come close to being the way it is used and
taught by those qualified to teach in among the Jews?

There should not be any courses elective or otherwise in public schools
about or on the Bible.

The only things that should be allowed is an elective comparative religion
course or an elective course on the various "Holy Books" of various
religions.

There is no way that this Bible course is not going to be abused and
misused.

There is a very real reason these various groups want a Bible only course
in public schools. its not really about the Bible, it is about something
much bigger.


***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS =B7 Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]

***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why =

page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisne=

256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote

"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"

That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.

It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.

*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************

:|buckeye-elo@nospam.net wrote:
:|> High schools try out new Bible course
:|
:|Of course if high schools taught Koran classes, the hysterical left
:|would blow themselves up to make sure they stayed open :)

buckeye-elo@nospam.net wrote:

High schools try out new Bible course

Of course if high schools taught Koran classes, the hysterical left
would blow themselves up to make sure they stayed open :)

Interesting

buckeye-elo@nospam.net wrote:

High schools try out new Bible course
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=17469
[excerpt]

High schools try out new Bible course

By The Associated Press
10.02.06

How do you teach the Bible in public schools?

Very carefully.

I attended a Catholic high school and was subjected to Bible study for
four years, so I a bit about Bible study at the high school level.

First, I don't think the Bible can be taught as literature. As
literature, you're reading it in translation, so it's virtually
worthless. You lose the rhythm and intonation of the original and
you're a slave to the vagaries of meaning lost and invented by the
translator. I've tried (and completed) the translation of a good deal
of poetry from modern Spanish to modern English. It's no easy trick,
even between languages that share so much common vocabluary. I can't
imagine how much verbal perversion was introduced by the gang that
completed the King James version, people whose knowledge of the ancient
languages was not complete and who had both religious and political
perspectives to consider. Most of the more accessible bibles that exist
are modernizations of the KJV, rather flat, putrid and punchless in
20th centry American prose. What's the point of reading this stuff?

Secondly, every Bible course has some religious viewpoint, even if it's
merely that Bible-based religions are somehow good, because, well...
they're Bible based. I'm certain that the teachers don't begin the
course by stating that the bible is a loose collection of poetry and
stories, mostly written by ancient goatherders, concocted from various
sources and and cobbled together over the centuries. Instead, either
its origins are overlooked or the book is approached in a way that is
overly respectful, as if it's an unimpeachable sacred tome, a worthy
foundation for any belief. In any event, since the main impetus for
bible courses comes from the Religious Right, you can imagine the slant
the course must take.

Third, the Bible is chock full of salacious and violent stories. I can
well remember sitting in religion class the last semester of my senior
year, a time when we all were ***** sure of graduation and were willing
to challenge the Jesuits. The story of Jerico was on the agenda, and
some of my fellow classmates began asking then obvious questions: "Just
why were the Israelites attacking Jerico? Jerico had done no harm to
them." "The spies Joshua sent into Jerico seem to have made a bee line
for the nearest ***** house. The whores -- a mother who pimped her
daughters -- did the work of the spies, drawing a map of the city and
selling out their own people." "Later, after Jerico was conquered, and
its people either enslaved or murdered by God's Chosen, the whores who
betrayed their own city were given a place of honor among the
Israelites. Why?"

Jerico is one of the milder bits. How would a public school teacher
explain circumcision or why and how it was the symbol of the covenant
between Abraham and God? Why did Abraham take on a concubine, and what
is a concubine, anyway? Why did the mean old SOB abandon the concubine
to die in the desert? Why would anyone prepare to slaughter his own
son? Why was a test that horrific necessary? Why did the Israelites
have to slaughter sheep and birds to God? What did Onan do that so
enraged God?

The Bible is filled with tales of whores, infidelity, wars and murder.
How do you clean it up and make it presentable to teenagers outside of
some sort of screwball religious context?

As far as I'm concerned, the Bible should stay our of Public School.
The kids can learn in church. In college, they can take comparative
religion classes and be exposed to all the nonsense in the world when
they're mature enough to reject most of it. Teaching the bible in
public school merely reinforces Christian prejudices and endows the
book with more power than it deserves.


Wexford

As far as I'm concerned, the Bible should stay our of Public School.
The kids can learn in church. In college, they can take comparative
religion classes and be exposed to all the nonsense in the world when
they're mature enough to reject most of it. Teaching the bible in
public school merely reinforces Christian prejudices and endows the
book with more power than it deserves.