Faith

Bible 101?

Last Updated on January 21, 2017

South Carolina lawmakers have backed a bill that would allow elective high school courses on the Old and New Testament of the Bible, according to an article in last week’s Post and Courier.

As you can imagine, this has triggered a big debate between believers and non-believers. And I can see both sides.

I don’t see the argument that it doesn’t belong in school at all; I think the fact that it is presented as an elective course ought to be enough to calm those concerns. I think it can have a perfectly valid place in school, but that there are too many potential problems stacked against it for it to work out that way.

There are those — mostly believers — who say that the classes will give students a lesson in history and literature. The Bible does contain a lot of history, and it is regarded as one of the world’s most famous pieces of literature. (The big debate there is whether or not it belongs on the fiction or nonfiction shelf.)

I bet that there are a lot of people who are hoping that students who aren’t necessarily religious who do take the course will end up being more religious. That’s an odd position for some believers to take, since some of them have never bothered to do any kind of elaborate study of the bible themselves.

There are also those — some of whom are non-believers — who argue that it is wrong for one faith to be placed above any other in a school curriculum, which would seem to violate the concept of Separation of Church and State.

Democratic Representative Joe Neal offered an amendment to expand the teachings to other religious texts, such as the Torah:

“If this is an attempt to get around the Constitution and insert a faith above another faith, that’s a mistake. I’m a Christian, but I don’t believe my faith ought to be fostered in a way that’s not honest and above board.”

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I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, that amendment failed.

No matter whether you believe in God and/or respect the Bible, if the goal is to educate children about history and literature, there is no reason to focus solely on the Bible. Religion, as much as some seem to want to deny it, has a major impact on our world. People die every day because of other people’s religious conviction. It is unwise to try to pretend that it is somehow unacceptable to be exposed to other people’s viewpoints.

My biggest problem with this proposed course, beyond the implication that Christianity is being unfairly promoted, is that it seems to me that this is a course that doesn’t belong in high school. Who’s going to teach it? What is that teacher’s own religious views? How biased might the presentation be either way? It would be a detriment to the students to have the course taught by a bible-thumper or an anti-religious zealot. Either opinion would be worth considering, and the effects of those opinions on our culture should be considered if we’re really out to teach a lesson about religion itself. But neither should be allowed to present the material itself.

In a college setting, the course could be administered through a school of religious studies. But a course like this, I think, shouldn’t be left to someone who knows the bible because of what they learned in Sunday School, or because of what they were told by religious figures they grew up resenting.

It’s too sensitive a topic to fall into either extreme, and it seems too easy for it to go either way.

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.

1 Comment

  • This issue is completely unrelated to the issues that were tested in court last year in cases like Kitzmiller et al. versus the Dover School Board. I have no problom with a course that examines the Bible for its literary or historical merit…as long as there is no proselytising involved. I do have a problem with our children being taught lies in science class.

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