Why do we want to teach the Bible in public schools?

World famous biblical scholar, Chuck Norris, says "Teach the bible in public schools, or else!"

Why do we want to teach the Bible in public schools?

Only god knows!

The old argument is that so much of our literature, etc. has biblical references that it behooves our public high schools to teach the Bible as part of their curriculum.

Bah, humbug!

Nobody, and that includes all Christian and a bunch of non-Christian religious groups, can agree on what the Bible is, what the Bible means, or the place of the Bible in either ancient or modern society! Why would we foist it on public school students when the Constitution quite clearly states there shall be no establishment of religion?

If the Bible is taught in the public high schools, then the "holy" book of every other religion with a presence in the United States must be taught also!


Except they don't think that way in states like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Somehow politicians in those states (and other states), being Constitutionally-challenged, have bought the notion that the Founding Fathers were all evangelical Christians and really intended to establish a Christian nation -- in fact that's exactly what they did, but liberals and Democrats have disguised their true beliefs and that's why the country is in such a mess.

So, Alabama's the most recent state to adopt a curriculum that teaches a blatantly fundamentalistic form of Christianity and includes all kinds of historical errors mostly from the mind of the truth-challenged theocrat, David Barton.


"The Bible in History and Literature" is a product of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. We've written extensively on this group previously. It is a fundamentalist Christian operation designed to convert high school students to fundamentalist Christianity!

The ACLU of Alabama will, hopefully, file suit to stop this nonsense as soon as possible. For as Allison Neal, of the Alabama ACLU says:

"The curriculum is deeply flawed and constitutionally deficient in many ways. The textbook presents the Bible from the perspective of Christianity in general, and a particular interpretation of Protestant Christianity specifically. Additionally, the curriculum also teaches the Bible as literal, historical truth, contrary not only to a variety of Catholic, Orthodox Christian and Jewish interpretations, but also to many other Protestant interpretations. The textbook also shows no serious familiarity with scholarly debate over the date and authorship of the Bible. ...

"Furthermore, the NCBCPS course promotes a particular religious interpretation of American history that is not part of objective historical scholarship, and instead provides an inaccurate, monolithic view of the Founding Fathers -- well known for their religious diversity -- as champions of a Protestant Christian nation.

Olivia Turner, Executive Director of the Alabama ACLU says, correctly, "While the theological viewpoints expressed in the NCBCPS curriculum are constitutionally protected when taught in Sunday school, they are not appropriate to be taught in public school."


The fundamentalist bozo who pushed for this is an Alabama State Senator by name of Scott Beason. He claims, very untruthfully, that "this elective course on the Bible ... has been thoroughly reviewed by scholars and is proven to be academically legitimate for study."

Not true! There isn't a real biblical scholar in the world that would accept the tenets of this faux Bible course! The curriculum is, not to put it too neatly, bullshit!

The only reason that Beason or anyone else would promote a course like this is to evangelize public high school students! That's it. The course has no legitimacy from either a biblical or historical point of view. It's fundamentalist evangelism, pure and simple and does not belong in any public school!

The notion that, as Beason claims, "It is extremely difficult to understand western thought including history, politics, and social interaction without an understanding of the content of the Bible" is misleading, at best, and simply wrong. He doesn't care that students "understand western thought." He wants to make little fundy christianists out of public high school students. And, quite honestly, one can understand western thought quite well "without an understanding of the content of the Bible."

Get the Bible out of our public schools and back into the churches where it belongs! Either that or, as I said, teach every damn holy book that exists in this fair and secular country! Or as in the words of that old song, "Got along without ya before I met ya, gonna get along without ya now!"


You can read more on the NCBCPS curriculum here in an essay by Chris Rodda. And here's a brief article featuring the famous biblical scholar, Chuck Norris. There's more here from Panda's Thumb.

For a comprehensive study done a few years ago by the Texas Freedom Network on the NCBCPS, click here.