Posted on 08/02/2005 5:07:37 AM PDT by CarlEOlsoniii
HOUSTON, July 31 - When the school board in Odessa, the West Texas oil town, voted unanimously in April to add an elective Bible study course to the 2006 high school curriculum, some parents dropped to their knees in prayerful thanks that God would be returned to the classroom, while others assailed it as an effort to instill religious training in the public schools.
Prof. David Newman of Odessa College, whose daughter attends an Odessa school, said he found the Bible course's curriculum unacceptably sectarian. "Someone is being disingenuous; I'd like to know who," he says. Readers
John Waggoner, at the county school board's administrative building on Friday, has presented petitions in support of a Bible course to the board.
Hundreds of miles away, leaders of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools notched another victory. A religious advocacy group based in Greensboro, N.C., the council has been pressing a 12-year campaign to get school boards across the country to accept its Bible curriculum.
The council calls its course a nonsectarian historical and literary survey class within constitutional guidelines requiring the separation of church and state.
But a growing chorus of critics says the course, taught by local teachers trained by the council, conceals a religious agenda. The critics say it ignores evolution in favor of creationism and gives credence to dubious assertions that the Constitution is based on the Scriptures, and that "documented research through NASA" backs the biblical account of the sun standing still.
In the latest salvo, the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group for religious freedom, has called a news conference for Monday to release a study that finds the national council's course to be "an error-riddled Bible curriculum that attempts to persuade students and teachers."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Oh, the HORROR!
Its an elective--right? If you dont like the course-you dont have to take it--Right? Those parents who doint want their kids taking the Bible course should have some other elective--right? How about the Montgomery County course on homosexuality and how to place a rubber on a Cucumber.
We have got to change the government school system. Voucherize the whole process. Get some competition. It can't get worse.
Ok help me out here.... it seems as though I remember something about everyone being entitled to a free and public education. How is it being free when people are being forced out of their homes due to the ever increasing property and sales taxes.
Where did it all go wrong?
so, where's the religious freedom they espouse?
Well....actually an alternative should be offered. Unless there are strict guidelines this could become a mess. My family and our church's (catholic) interpretation of the bible may differ in subtle ways from say Southern Baptists etc.
If classes were taught that fairly interprested all sides then I have no problem.
It will probably end up becoming a "Comparative Religion" class or something similar, eventually.
It can and will. Sadly, in places where the public schools are considered "good" (which includes many suburban areas like my own), there is no push for this at all. People like to pretend their kids' teachers are not NEA dupes brainwashing their charges with the values of the leftist elite. But in fact, that is exactly what is happening.
Good luck with that one! We can't even agree on what the meaning of "is" is, as in "This is my Body"
FDR’s “New Deal” is the root cause of our problems. FDR started the process of putting government care ahead of individual responsibility (read “socialism”) It won't get better until we force the federal government back to the "enumerated" rights in Article 1, Section 8. Unfortunately, too many people like government to take care of them. It is difficult for a politician to say “Vote for me and I will take things away from you.” The best we can hope for is a continuation of tax cuts.
I think this is, as a *practical* matter, a very bad idea in public compulsory schools.
In a nation that prizes religious freedom, this elective course will neither satisfy those who want a secular and academic study of Christianity nor those who want God in the public classroom. We need be aware having a Jesus Taliban is every bit as unAmerican and immoral as having Muslim Taliban or another official religious practice / enforcement.
If the curriculum really claims this then it's tripe.
Nothing in your possession is actually yours. The government allows you to think those things to be yours so they may use them against you as a tool to extract an extortionist's fee from you.
Thank You for this message from the ACLU and dont forget to send in your dues early.
Yes, I know, it's a difficult thing to do.
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