There is a petition with my ISD to teach the Bible in high school.

[Ilsa]

I've heard there are about 1,300 signatures on it, which may not be enough for the school district to agree to do this. I don't think they've considered that we need to pay for other stuff besides Bible teaching in high school (like better TASK/TASP/TASS scores).

The kids can go to church if they need to be taught the Bible. They say it is just an academic class, not a devotional class, but I bet they get some Fundie preacher in there to teach it for free and the next thing you know, we'll have glossolalia and hands in the air in the hallways.

Why do these people want families to abdicate their parental responsibilities with religious teaching?

[meganmonkey]

1. In High school?

A class for JUST the Bible?

I don't like that so much. It would be one thing to have a HS class in comparative religion, as an elective. If it included several religious texts from all sorts of religions (including those with oral tradition as opposed to Bible-type texts) I would not have a problem with it. But a class in a public high school, just on the Bible?

No thanks.

[MissMarple]

3. A class on comparative religion...good idea.But the fundies would hate it.

And if the bible as literature was taught, they would hate that, as well. But it is what we need, a critical look at the bible would expose a lot of false preaching that goes on in the fundie cult churches.

[porphyrian]

4. Which version of the Bible?

Are we talking about the King James Version? The Mormon Bible? What about the one white supremacists use to justify their bullshit? The Jews call the Torah "Bible," (I think that's what "Torah" means) so are they going to teach that?

I'm assuming not.

[MarsThe Cat]

6. "Bible" means book.

so if torah means bible, then torah means book.

[porphyrian]

8. Is that kind of like when people say "pita bread"...? - n/t

[MarsThe Cat]

10. or sahara desert.

or D-Day(the "D" stands for "day")

[ismnotwasm]

2. I will never, ever, ever understand this

What is this focus on the bible crap? There are plenty of comparative religion courses in colleges across the nation. I have no objection to comparative religion courses in HS I just don't understand teaching just the bible in any non-Christian school. It limits knowledge base and impedes critical thinking. Yes, the bible has had a huge cultural influence. But teaching cultural classes is not the same as teaching the bible. In fact any course that taught biblical history and it's subsequent influence would have to include the good, the bad and the ugly. It seems that many folks pushing this do not want to address certain cultural detrimental effects the spread of Christianity has had.
I don't believe RW fundies would have this problem when talking about negative effects of other religions. Total imbalance.
(I'm not saying all religion is bad BTW)

[knitter4democracy]

5. I taught the Bible.

It was in my World Lit class one year. We covered the Rig Vedas, the Koran, the King James Version (mostly the Torah), and a few of the Greek and Roman myths before tackling various creation myths.

I was in a Catholic school, and yet I was required to teach other ancient texts and not just the Bible. My curriculum specifically stated that I was not to teach any interpretation of the Bible but the Bible as literature.

It was fun, actually, as I had a Muslim student who recited the Koran for us in the original Arabic, writing it out on the board for us. That was an interesting unit.

[Ilsa]

7. Yours sounds like the most ecumenical course of the Bible

that wasn't labelled a religion course, which I would not oppose.

Yep, these folks want a Bible course. Didn't say what version, etc. Geez, i hope the ISD recognizes the litigation they could be exposed if they go along with this.

[knitter4democracy]

9. It does sound like a bad move on their part.

The Bible should only be taught in relation to other ancient texts, not on its own. It doesn't make sense for a public school teacher to teach it in isolation and not mention the Epic of Gilgamesh or other flood myths in other cultures or to leave out teaching the Five Pillars of Islam when covering Jesus's Two Greatest Commandments or the Beatitudes.

The kids won't really understand what's going on in their Bible class if everything else is left out. Contrary to popular belief, kids do hear of other faiths and then ask questions in class about them. How would a Bible teacher handle that?

Of course, my next question is where they get this Bible teacher? How could that person be a certified teacher so that the school's accreditation isn't in trouble? Religion majors don't have a certification test on the National Teachers Exam, last I checked.

[B Calm]

11. They'll teach the children the facts that their parents are

inspired by satan! Thank ya jesus...

[maximovich]

12. That's Just Straight Out Oppressive

And people wonder why religion is bashed so much.

Where can we go to be free?