Politics With the Bible

[Dr. Shane]

It is nice to see the Adventist church taking another moderate position in the political spectrum. This is a good article to distribute among educators.

Bible Wars

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In March 2006 the Georgia legislature voted 151-7 in the House and 50-1 in the Senate for the first-in-the-nation “Bible bill,” calling for Bible electives to be taught in Georgia’s high schools.

Although Georgia schools were already free to offer Bible electives, the bill provides state funding and curriculum to encourage widespread adoption of Bible courses. Similar legislation has been proposed in Alabama, Tennessee, and Missouri; proponents promise more states to come.

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The first of these Bible bills appeared in Alabama, where Democrats in the legislature proposed electives that would use a textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, published by the Bible Literacy Project in 2005. Because the textbook has broad support from Jews and Christians, was reviewed by 41 scholars (disclosure: I was among the reviewers), and successfully field-tested, the Democrats saw this as a golden opportunity to do something both religion-friendly and constitutional.

Not surprisingly, Alabama Republicans were not about to let Democrats steal their biblical thunder. Although in the minority, GOP lawmakers have thus far managed to block passage of the Democrats’ bill.

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What many religious leaders and scholars like about The Bible and Its Influence is that it puts the Bible in historical context, exposes students to how Jews and Christians understand the Bible in various ways, and illustrates how the Bible has shaped history, literature, and the arts. Contrary to the false claims made by the National Council, students using the textbook are required to read the Bible itself. But teachers and students are given sound scholarship and historical context for understanding the Bible...

The National Council’s curriculum, by contrast, doesn’t have a student textbook (the Bible, they say, is the textbook). It is instead a lengthy workbook for the teacher that, in places, treats the Bible like a history book. The vast majority of secondary resources recommended for classroom use are from an evangelical Christian perspective.

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If you ask the nation’s top English teachers, they will tell you. Forty of the 41 teachers surveyed for the BLP study believe that knowledge of the Bible is essential. “It’s impossible to understand Western literature without it,” said one teacher. Not to mention much of Western art, music, and history.

The teachers agreed that lack of biblical literacy puts students at a distinct academic disadvantage. Consider this: One preparation guide for the advanced-placement literature and composition exam lists more than 100 allusions students should know—and more than 60 percent of them are biblical references. The list includes everything from Abraham and Isaac to “through a glass darkly.”