From the article:
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By SUZANNE SATALINE
May 16, 2007 12:38 p.m.
Eight Odessa, Texas, residents filed a lawsuit today against their
superintendent and county school board, saying that the curriculum
used in the Bible courses violates the Constitution by promoting the
conservative Protestant faith.
The plaintiffs have asked the U.S. District Court in Midland-Odessa to
stop the courses, taught for this first time this current school year
in two Odessa high schools, using books from the National Council on
Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a conservative non-profit in
Greensboro, N.C.. . .
.. . .The new suit, led by parent Amanda Moreno of Odessa, says the
curriculum does not adhere to legal standards requiring bible courses
to be objective and neutral, and presents the perspective of
Christianity from a Protestant viewpoint, instructing students that
the New Testament fulfills prophecies in the Hebrew Bible. Some Odessa
course materials, the lawsuit says, state that Christ the Messiah "was
prophesized [sic]" throughout the Old Testament and that Jesus was the
son of God. Course materials characterize Roman Catholic beliefs of
the transformation of the body and blood of Jesus into communion bread
and wine as "warped" thinking brought on by "mysticism."
The course also teaches the Bible as historical truth, the lawsuit
states, relying on the King James version of the Bible, the bible of
Protestant faiths, as a historical document. The course treats the
story of the creation, the life of Noah and his ark, and the lives of
Abraham, Sarah, and Moses as if they were accurate historical
statements, the lawsuit says.
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Read it at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117932652060404926.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Read the ACLU's press release at
http://www.aclu.org/religion/schools/29738prs20070516.html
J. Spaceman
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