:)
Posted on 04/15/2006 3:02:45 PM PDT by twippo
A well-known, local Christian pastor is denouncing a controversial new Bible curriculum designed for public schools which he says encourages students to question whether the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
The Virginia-based Bible Literacy Project (BLP) has been promoting a new textbook for public schools called The Bible and Its Influence.
Among respected evangelicals who have endorsed the BLP’s curriculum are Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson and Ted Haggard, president of the National Associations of Evangelicals. A school district near San Antonio, Texas, recently approved The Bible and Its Influence for its use. But state legislatures in both Alabama and Georgia have recently rejected proposals to approve the textbook for use as an elective Bible course in high school English and social studies programs.
Dr. D. James Kennedy, senior minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, sits on the advisory board of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a group that supports use of the Bible itself as a text in public school Bible classes. Kennedy explains why he does not endorse the BLP text.
“It is relativistic. It’s the typical liberal approach to the Bible,” says the Florida pastor. “When I was in a half-liberal seminary, it’s the kind of thing that they pushed all the time, the purpose of which is to undermine the students’ confidence and faith in the teachings of the Bible and in the Word of God.”
According to Kennedy, the BLP’s textbook contains “very anti-biblical material” that takes an “extremely radical” approach to studying the Bible. He notes that among the book’s supporters are groups such as People for the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on Islamic Education. But that does not carry much weight with Kennedy.
“Somebody said if all those people are in favor of it, there couldn’t be anything wrong with it, could there?” he says, adding: “You know, I would not for a moment endorse this.”
As for the endorsement of prominent evangelicals as Colson and Haggard, Kennedy says he is confident neither one of them believes what is in the book and just did not do enough research into it.
I gotcha.
Yeah it would be a mess. I mean I wouldnt want my child coming back from school in believing in "once saved always saved" Just like I am sure many Protestants wouldnt t be thrilled hearing that the Pope is God's Represenative on Earth from their kids. Then what about the book of Mormon. They are growing by leaps and bounds all over the place. I am sure at some point they would want some input.
Of course it’s a minefield. How can you teach such a controversial topic without upsetting students every day? How do you deal with the multitude of private interests who see an opportunity to indoctrinate your children? I’d like to see the curriculum. Anyone have a link?
"And I can guarentee you the curriculum will incorporate local bias."
You've got:
the Mormons in Utah and some parts of the southwest,
the largely unchurched Pacific northwest,
Catholics in border states, NY, MA and south Florida,
the Jewish communities in the northeast and south Florida,
Lutherans in the midwest,
Liberal Protestants in New England,
Southern Baptists in the sunbelt,
Hippy-dippy new wave religion in California,
Buddhists in Hawaii and the Pacific states;
Yep, I'm so sure the curriculum will be unbiased and uniform all throughout the U.S.
:)
"
Yep, I'm so sure the curriculum will be unbiased and uniform all throughout the U.S."
And then there will be be people who will want to nationalize and standard the classed....
www.bibleliteracy.org
Folks that insist that every word is literally true leave as the only alternative that nothing is true and it's all a fake--in my opinion, a false dilemma.
>>This is silly. I'm an evangelical and part of my path to the cross was a lot of questioning about the Bible--there's parts that seem to contradict what we know. Ultimately, the evidence of the Resurrection is so powerful I could not but be a believer. But I also had to accept that there are parts of the Bible I may never understand, or that have to be taken as metaphor to reconcile to reality, or that some of the folks who wrote the Bible were not omnipotent.
Folks that insist that every word is literally true leave as the only alternative that nothing is true and it's all a fake--in my opinion, a false dilemma.<<
That pretty well sums up my feelings as well.
Where did you pull that figure from? I think I can guess it's very near you hip pockets.
It's largely an American phenomenon among the developed Western nations, but U.S. Evangelical missionaries have made many converts in Latin America, Asia and Africa and spread that theology. The Caribbean Christians tend to be literalist as well.
"It's largely an American phenomenon among the developed Western nations, but U.S. Evangelical missionaries have made many converts in Latin America, Asia and Africa and spread that theology. The Caribbean Christians tend to be literalist as well."
Then I could easily be wrong about the numbers.
The numbers that are most relevant to this issue is how many literalist Evangelicals are in the U.S. George Barna's 2001 survey gives the impression that there is a majority of nominal Christians, but a minority of true Evangelicals.
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=216&PageCMD=Print
Some highlights:
"...All Barna Research studies define "evangelicals" as individuals who meet the born again criteria; say their faith is very important in their life today; believe they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; acknowledge the existence of Satan; contend that eternal salvation is possible only through God's grace, not through good deeds; believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and describe God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. In this approach, being classified as an evangelical has no relationship to church affiliation or attendance, nor does it rely upon people describing themselves as "evangelical."
...Given the statement "the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches," strong agreement with that view ranged from four out of five among those who attend a charismatic or Pentecostal church down to just one out of five Episcopalians. Nationally, less than half of all adults (41%) believe the Bible is totally accurate in all it teaches.
...This classification model indicates that only 8% of adults are evangelicals. Barna Research data show that 12% of adults were evangelicals a decade ago, but the number has dropped by a third as Americans continue to reshape their theological views.
....When seven theological perspectives are combined to determine the overall purity of people's biblical perspectives, the ranking of the twelve denominations shows three groups far outpacing the rest of the pack, with two far below all others. At the top of the list were people who attend Pentecostal churches (who had a firm biblical view on the seven items 72% of the time), Assemblies of God (72%), and non-denominational Protestant (65%) churches. The next echelon included people who attend Baptist (57% accuracy) and Church of Christ (54%) churches. In the lower portion of the standings were those aligned with Mormon (49%) Adventist (48%), Presbyterian (43%), Methodist (38%), and Lutheran (37%) churches. Lowest on the continuum were people affiliated with Catholic (28%) and Episcopal (28%) churches."
Thank you for finding that information.
His organization does alot of trend tracking within Christianity. You can read most reports on his site for free.
We depend upon teachers too much, instead of THE Teacher.
John 14:26 says,
"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."
I've learned much more by reading THE WORD, than by reading about it.
Happy Resurrection Day!
The purpose of groups like the BLP is clearly not about teaching The Way, The Truth and The Life. They simply want school kids to not be completely ignorant of biblical references they'll come across in Shakespeare or Steinbeck. Some Christian leaders are expecting it to go much deeper than that.
How about ending "public" education?
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