Teaching Jesus in the Texas public schools

This is derived from an article by Jennifer Riley at christianpost.com.

Seems that some so-called "evangelicals" think that our public schools should teach the Bible. The Bible is so important they say. Our founding fathers built this nation on "Christian truths," they say. In fact, these "Christian truths" were of "central importance" to our founding fathers, saith one rightwhitewingnut, Jim Daly, prez of Focus on da Family.

Yup!

Guess which state is in the middle of this muddle? You betcha, Texas! Seems the dimwits on the State Board of Education mandated that the Christian Bible be taught in Texas' public schools.

Oh, but the law says that the Bible courses must observe "religious neutrality." Teachers must be trained, materials must be approved by the state, and the attorney general must determine "curriculum standards."

Heh. Heh.

The article also quotes a few "scholars" who talk about how an educated person should know something about the Bible. It also quotes Chuck Colson, the reformed felon who now runs a fundamentalist prison ministry which, in my opinion, clearly violates the constitutional injunction against meshing church and state. Colson, though, being a devious rightwhitewingnut, thinks that "Texas public schools should teach students, from a (sic) historian's perspective, how Judeo-Christian thinking played a pivotal role in the West."

Huh? Oh, he must be talking about how the so-called "christian" Europeans headed west and killed off all the natives and stole their land and the resources of their land - a process that continues today! All in the name of the white man's god, of course!


What we have here is another sneaky attempt to foist fundamentalism into our public schools. If these idiots read the Bible they're so worried our children won't know about, they'd probably scream that it should never be taught in our public schools!

They might be happy with a six-day creation nonsense, and the mythologies of the patriarchs, and the hokey story about wandering 40 years in the wilderness, which few credible historians accept as fact today. They might think that the students ought to know something about the legendary Jesus, and the creation of the Christian church and how the Christian church tormented the Jews (of which Jesus was said to be one)!

But, I don't think they want to spend much time in Leviticus! You know, that part about stoning to death your children if they don't observe the Sabbath. Or the part where God kills thousands of the Israelites for not giving him the proper respect. Or, where God instructs his people to slaughter and rape another population, bashing the heads of the children against the rocks.

They also might have to excise most of the Song of Solomon. That book is just dripping with sex! And cut out the book or Ruth; nothing religious there. And Ecclesiastes? Omigod! What a loser book. Despair everywhere.

Furthermore, other questions raise their ugly heads: Should the Intertestamental books be taught? Which of the hundreds of "versions" of the Bible should be used? If one is teaching the Bible, then it would seem to be important to use a Hebrew version. Or, how does one teach the fact that the Septuagint is 1/8th shorter than the Hebrew Bible?

Does the teacher start with the notion that the Bible (meaning the version used) is the "infallible" word of the the Jewish god, Yahveh? If so, then what in the world do you do with the notion that the sun stood still, or that the earth is flat, or that witches live in some underground below the earth, or that the firmament is a hard place which holds up the water?


It's all silly as hell. Why can't these "evangelical" morons teach their Bible in the churches? Furthermore, you'd be hard put to find two of them who agree with what the Bible says about anything - well, except for abortion and same-sex marriage - they all know the Bible's agin those thangs.

There is no way on God's green earth that anyone could possibly come up with a "biblical" curriculum that would satisfy anyone other than the person who wrote it! The whole idea is ludicrous and stupid beyond measure.


Furthermore, if these numbskulls are really worried about the children knowing something of a book which they claim has had historical significance, then we also ought to be teaching the holy scriptures of Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, etc. The earth contains more of those "believers" than it does Christians!

Which creates a real dilemma. The "evangelicals" would never agree to that because with them it's never about "learning," it's about indoctrination. That is the sole reason for this push to bring the Bible into the public schools. And for them to claim any other purpose is to expose their blatant hypocrisy and their ongoing ability to lie through their teeth!

Some of the "founding fathers," which these so-called "evangelicals" are always harping about, may have been deists, but their religion was mostly for public consumption. It was something people did; it had no real impact. Some were atheists. Most didn't give a rip about religion or churches or piety! They would laugh at the beliefs of the "evangelicals" of today! The Enlightenment was the source they used for our founding documents.

And that's why they insisted that our founding documents make no mention of a deity of any kind! That's why our constitution contains the famous "separation of church and state" clause. They knew from previous experience in the countries from which they came that any time religious fanatics are put in charge of anything, hatred, persecution, and violence are sure to follow!


The State of Texas, overrun and controlled by christianist wingnut fundamentalists (please don't call them "evangelicals"), is in for trouble. If you have children attending public schools in Texas, you may want to give serious consideration to moving to another state or put them in a private (non-religious) school where they have some change of getting an education that will prepare them for the world in which we live.