A Bible course without the lawsuits?

[really annoyed]

Apologies if this is a repost.

A Bible course without the lawsuits?

From the Christian Science Monitor.

Like prayer in the schools and the Ten Commandments in courthouses, teaching about the Bible in public classrooms has long been contentious. Some people question whether it is legal. Many educators worry they might be faced with lawsuits.

And American students, it seems, end up the losers. Without academic knowledge of the Bible and its influence, many teachers say, pupils can't understand their own literary, artistic, and cultural heritage. In a survey last spring, 90 percent of leading English teachers said biblical knowledge was crucial to a good education. Yet a Gallup poll found that only 8 percent of public-school teens said their school offered an elective course on the Bible.

For school districts, the difficulty lies in agreeing on what will pass constitutional muster, and then actually having the materials to teach it appropriately.

Help may be on the way. The Bible Literacy Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group in Fairfax, Va., has spent five years developing the first high school text on the Bible in 30 years. The project involved scholars and reviewers from all major Jewish and Christian traditions.

"The Bible and Its Influence," released last week in Washington, is designed to meet constitutional standards and to convey the Scriptures' broad influence on Western civilization. Covering Old and New Testaments, it presents the biblical narratives, characters, and themes as well as their cultural influences.

[Massacure]

1. As long as it is neutral and promotes no religion.

My school district taught about christianity but they also covered judaism and islam so that they could talk about the conflict in the Middle East. My district did a good job with it, but culture in the northern states is much different than in the south.

[beyurslf]

2. They have trouble because it would be a literary class most likely. The

bible is full of ancient myth and many of the most common themes in literture run deep in the bible. But to teach a class on Ancient Myths or Literary Myths and include the bible.... right, the crazy nutjobs will really go for this.

They, of course, could also teach a class on religion in the world. Again, though, this would put the bible on equal footing with other religious works of other faiths. They don't want that either.

[nosmokes]

3. oh. i thought you said CURSE.

never mind.

[valerief]

4. People have trouble with geography and they don't teach

that anymore.