Georgia just passed a law allowing public schools to teach elective classes on the Bible. The law claims the classes are just a way to teach about the book’s socio-cultural influence, but the religious freedom watchdog group Americans United says the bill is part of a larger nationwide plan called “Project Blitz, a coordinated attempt by the Religious Right to enshrine Christian nationalism in our schools.”
According to the full text of Georgia’s law, grades 9 through 12 can teach five electives covering the Bible’s history, literature and scriptures. No similar classes are offered for any other religious texts, although teachers can assign readings from such texts.
The law’s original language said it existed to “accommodate the rights and desires of those teachers and students who wish to teach and study [the Bible]” and its influence over morals, values, culture and public policy.
The classes are supposed to be taught in “an objective and non-devotional manner with no attempt made to indoctrinate students as to either the truth or falsity of the biblical materials or texts,” and yet teachers must “not disparage or encourage a commitment to a set of religious beliefs.” It makes one wonder whether teachers will be allowed to criticize Biblical passages punishing homosexuality with death, permitting slavery or deeming women as inferior to men.
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It should surprise no one that these classes have been promoted by Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council. The New Civil Rights Movement says that at least 14 other states have introduced similar legislation: Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Florida, West Virginia, Mississippi, New York, North Dakota, West Virginia, Texas, Indiana, Washington and Oklahoma.
Americans United, a nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to the separation of church and state, warns that these bills are part of Project Blitz, “a three-tiered framework of state bills meant to incrementally redefine religious freedom and tear down the separation of church and state.”
This framework starts by pushing what its authors believe will be less controversial measures, such as requiring “In God We Trust” to be posted in public schools. Using those bills as a foothold, it then seeks to pass more dangerous legislation, like bills that allow taxpayer-funded agencies to turn away couples seeking to foster or adopt children in need of stable and loving homes because they are same-sex or the “wrong” religion.
In February 2019, after Trump promoted such classes as a good thing, Christian author Jonathan Merritt wrote that Bible-study classes in public schools could spectacularly backfire, especially if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds its 1948 and 1962 decisions outlawing Bible study and prayer as unconstitutional establishment of a government-endorsed religion.
“If conservative Christians don’t trust public schools to teach their children about sex or science,” Merrit wrote, “why would they want to outsource instruction about sacred scripture to government employees?”
Creamsicle
Will they include the fact that Jesus condemned usury/charging interest at all?
I’m all for people actually reading their religious texts themselves. I can actually see this backfiring in the faces of the modern GOP, who ostensibly pay lip service to God, while chanting “Greed is Good,” out the other side of their mouth.
justyouandi
All of Western civilization is based on Judeo/Christian values, including the Constitution of The U.S. If you watch “Jeopardy” much you will notice that there is often a category on the Bible. A well-rounded academic will know the Bible. I took a course in college entitled “The Bible as Literature”. The Bible is full of both history and prose and poetry. Shakespeare did no better than what you will find in the Bible.
dwes09
The authors of the Constitution went to great lengths to not mention religion at all, except in the context of separation of church and state, and the forbidding of any “religious test” for appointed or elected government positions.
The structure and function of the government as laid out in the constitution has nothing whatsoever to do with and documents found either in Christian or Jewish scripture. And the rights and responsibilities of citizens enumerated in it owe more to the beliefs of the secular (or at most Deist) Enlightenment philosophers as well as a tradition begun with the Magna Carta, than they do to any specific faith.
Put simply, you are incorrect as regards the US’s philosophic origins. Christian theology was used more commonly to justify monarchy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
As for Jeopardy occasionally having a category on the Bible, that is no more meaningful than the more frequent categories of famous quotes, popular films or whatever! Just another form of high level trivia.
I also take exception regarding the “well rounded academic”. Some will know myths of the various religions, some will not. They are not universally important in academia. And thinking that biblical content is somehow on a par with Shakespeare is bizarre! The narrative is inconsistent and often self-contradictory, the style is often stilted and difficult and forced (in translation) to conform to an agenda not originally intended. Some of the the poetry is engaging and wonderful; but even there it is sometimes mistranslated or abridged to remove the Hebrew context and force it to allude to Christian dogma that did not exist when it was composed. Shakespeare, by contrast uses English in a remarkable way and constructs drama artfully and impeccably.
Billysees
Jonathan Merrit revealed something important —
“If conservative Christians don’t trust public schools to teach their children about sex or science, why would they want to outsource instruction about sacred scripture to government employees?”
The Bible, like Christianity itself, is a very mixed bag, often very unrealistic and can easily cause wrong emotions towards others. It can be the perfect weapon against Jews, gays, unbelievers, rich people and others.
Here’s a sample of attitudes, or opinions, that are found in the Bible.
JEWS — … you suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men, hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them……..1 Thessalonians 2:14-16
GAYS — If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them………..Leviticus 20:13
UNBELIEVERS — They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them … Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart … Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
RICH PEOPLE — Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you …
Follow after the things that make for peace ……..Romans 14:19 … If we really want that kind of situation to prevail in our public schools, then we should be mindful what we teach our children.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven…..Luke 6:37 … is probably the best guidepost we can use to help us decide what to do.
Neville
Nailed it, to the wall; these Christofascist fundies are very ignorant of things, the contents of the Bible being one of them.
Raphael
But it will be mandatory? I don’t think any law can force anyone to have or hear about religion… I had “religion” classes in my school, which should include all religions, but as we might guess, they talked only about the Bible. They implied that it was mandatory, but I thought it could not possibly be. I’ve never attended one single class, even with the professor sending messages saying that I would have to repeat the year if I did not attend… At the end of the year, I had no problems with it.
justyouandi
Raphael, if you never attended the classes how can you comment on them?
Raphael
Well, maybe because I was not the only student at the school!? Because I had friends who did attended this one for fear!? Friends who were not Christian and their religion was never talked about? Maybe because the professor sent those “threatening” messages through them…!?
justyouandi
dwes09 and Billysees, you both are so wrong and it would take more than Queerty would print for me to explain it to you. In addition, I’ve learned that certain people cannot be convinced of certain things, so there is no point in me wasting my time and effort.
Pox vobiscum!
crashnburn121
More reasons for students to skip classes.
Neville
Not just for them to skip classes, but also for them not to go to school, ever, if this is all that they can be taught.