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          <td valign="top" class="bodycell"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="BodyContent" --> From: "Cheryl Shepherd-Adams" <br />
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 20:39:39 -0500 <br />
<br />
Subject: The Bible as an elective course in public schools <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/08/the_bible_as_el.html#more">http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2005/08/the_bible_as_el.html#more </a><br />
<br />
Yes, it's in Texas; but a Hays minister proposed exactly this same thing in <br />
the "Faith" column in the Kansas Hays Daily News earlier this summer.&nbsp; He <br />
wasn't proposing a comparative religion course, mind you, but a course in <br />
just the Bible. <br />
<br />
Don't forget that that Abrams et.al. of the KS BoE shot down proposed <br />
curriculum standards for a comparative religion class last summer; <br />
obviously, they want no comparisons made. <br />
<br />
<br />
Here is my reply to the Texas "Freedom" Network's proposed curriculum: <br />
by Terri Murray <br />
<br />
As any serious Biblical scholar knows, the King James version is not the <br />
authoritative English translation of the Bible.&nbsp; The version used in any <br />
genuinely academic institute is the Revised New Standard Version.&nbsp; But even <br />
if public, taxpayer funded schools wanted to teach Bible study using the <br />
correct version of the Bible, it would violate the establishment clause of <br />
the First Amendment as applied to the States through the Fourteenth <br />
Amendment. This proposed Biblical curriculum represents an attempt to <br />
overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Abington School District V. Schempp <br />
(1963), in which the court held that "We have come to recognize through <br />
bitter experience that it is not within the power of government to invade <br />
[the inviolable citadel of the individual heart and mind], whether its <br />
purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard." <br />
<br />
The Biblical curriculum's sponsors intend to distinguish their practice from <br />
Abington by showing that, instead of having to 'opt-out' of a compulsory <br />
religious curriculum, students can instead voluntarily 'opt-in.' In <br />
Abington, Henry Sawyer, counsel for the Schempps, argued that the free <br />
exercise clause of the First Amendment did not give any religious group the <br />
constitutional right to pray under the aegis of the state, regardless of <br />
whether that group constituted a majority.&nbsp; If the school allowed students <br />
to use their classrooms, and their PA systems, and to take time from the <br />
student's school day to conduct even a VOLUNTARY Bible lesson or prayer <br />
session, this amounted to an establishment of religion by the state.&nbsp; In the <br />
Court's decision, the justices referred to the decision in Engel V. Vitale <br />
(1962) in which the Court said: <br />
<br />
&nbsp; "When the power and prestige and financial support of government is placed <br />
behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon <br />
religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved <br />
religion is plain..." <br />
<br />
<br />
The court also noted that it had rejected unequivocally the contention that <br />
the Establishment Clause forbids only governmental preference of one <br />
religion over another.&nbsp; This was stated so as to thwart any proposal to <br />
counter the 'coercive pressure' of the majority religion&nbsp; by teaching all <br />
(or more) religions in schools. <br />
<br />
Justice Tom Clark, writing for the majority in Abington, emphasized that <br />
"the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities" in <br />
classes that do not involve "religious exercizes".&nbsp; But this would also <br />
apply to the Torah, the Koran and many other religious books.&nbsp; The fact of <br />
the matter is that the Bible has no more authority than Moby Dick, except in <br />
the minds of those who freely choose to give it such authority. This is what <br />
the word FAITH means. If belief in this book's authority were compelled by <br />
external human authorites, it would violate the inviolable citadel of the <br />
individual human mind and thus would not fit the definition of 'belief' at <br />
all.&nbsp; I'm afraid this is exactly what our Texas "Freedom" Network intend. <br />
<!-- InstanceEndEditable --> <span class="tiny">Last updated: <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="LastUpdatedDate" -->August-2005<!-- InstanceEndEditable --></span></td>
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