TX Mulls Bills On Fake History Bible Classes & Fake Reproductive Medicine

Posted by Bruce Wilson at 7:11 AM on April 3, 2007.

A bill being considered today by the House Public Education Committee of the Texas State Legislature would mandate that all high schools in Texas offer elective Bible Classes using a controversial course curriculum from the National Council On Bible Curriculum In Public Schools (NCBCPS) which, says the group, is used in over 1,000 high schools in 36 states and which also has been  accused of being partisan, religiously sectarian, academically shoddy, and historically incorrect.

In a recent, notorious incident that casts a peculiar light on the legislation being considered by the Texas legislature, House Bill 1287 was introduced by Texas State Rep. Warren Chisum, who gained a national profile in February 2007 for distributing a memo, also circulated in several other US State legislatures, that alleged the Theory of Evolution to be a religion based in Jewish Kabbalism and referenced a website rebutting Copernicus and claiming the Earth does not rotate and is orbited every 24 hours by the Sun, the Solar System and the entire known universe. That latter view, known as "Geocentrism", is also held by some leaders on the American Christian right who advocate the imposition of Christian theocratic government.

Beyond the controversy over the integrity of the NCBCPS curriculum itself, if Texas House Bill 1287 gets signed into law, argues capitalannex.com's Vince Liebowitz, a Texas based journalist, newspaper editor, and former Texas Democratic County Chairman,   the legislation would "force many school districts, especially small districts where teachers are already pushed to the limit, to increase staff sizes or drop electives. Since many small districts are limited in electives already, it's likely they will have to hire new staff simply to follow this state mandate. It is an unfunded mandate, in addition to everything else.".

The NCBCPS curriculum has come under considerable academic criticism from Biblical scholars, most recently in a new, ongoing expose of dubious and even fraudulent history presented in the curriculum, by a historian who specializes in debunking historical fabrication and distortion found in revisionist interpretations of US history which claim America was founded as a Christian nation. In 2005, a widely endorsed study by Biblical historian Dr. Mark Chancy of Southern Methodist University stated that the NCBCPS Bible class curriculum advocates a narrow sectarian perspective taught with materials plagued by shoddy research, blatant errors and discredited or poorly cited sources. Dr. Chancey says he supports nonpartisan, nonsectrian, academically rigorous elective Bible classes in public schools.

In 2006, an extensive survey of the over 1,000 public schools in Texas that was a joint effort by Dr. Chancey and the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit organization that works to counter the Christian right, cast an unfavorable light on elective Bible classes in the  25 Texas schools that offered those in the 2005-2006 school year: "With a few notable exceptions, the public school courses currently taught in Texas often fail to meet minimal academic standards for teacher qualifications; curriculum, and academic rigor; promote one faith perspective over all others; and push an ideological agenda that is hostile to religious freedom, science and public education". According to a 2005 story by the Texas based Baptist Standard, the NCBCPS claims its curriculum has spread more widely than the TFN/Chancy study found and is used in 52 school districts in Texas. The BCBCPS's website claims that its curriculum is currently used in 382 school districts in 37 US states.

Historian Chris Rodda, author of "Liars For Jesus : The Religious Right's Alternate Version Of American History", has started an online debunking of the presentation of American history in the National Council On Bible Curriculum in Public Schools' Bible class curriculum and notes a range of historical inaccuracies, possible fabrications, and misquotes in the NCBCPS curriculum's presentation of United States history. Rodda is taking the unusual step, which may set a new standard for academic accountability, of posting historical source documentation she refers to in her work at her website so that other historians can authenticate her claims.

Tagged as: texas, schools, bible classes, tfn

Bruce Wilson writes for Talk To Action, a blog specializing in faith and politics.