Thursday, March 08, 2007
Elective Bibles
According to this article, the Wilson County (Tennessee) school board has adopted an elective course on the Bible, supposedly for its historical and literary value.The curriculum is studying the Old and the New Testaments," Wilson County School Board member Don Weathers said. "It has been talked about for numerous years.
Board members expressed confidence that the necessary approval can be obtained from the State Board of Education because the class is similar to one offered in the Chattanooga school district.
However, this article from October of last year by Jim West, a pastor of a Baptist Church in Tennessee, indicates that the class materials under consideration may be those created by North Carolina-based National Council on the Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.
Favored by the Religious Right, this material has been shown to be utterly inadequate and quite skewed in the direction of very conservative thinkers. Other curricula are available, of course, but no matter what curriculum is chosen, it will have its detractors.
It also tuns out that the school district already has a suit pending against it by the ACLU for what it alleges is a "pattern and practice of promoting and endorsing religious activities by the Wilson County public school system."
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The school board should remember that old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."
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