The Case Against The Bible In Public Schools

Posted by Bruce Wilson at 11:38 AM on May 3, 2007.

[ When the April 2, 2007 edition of Time Magazine came out last month, I wrote a number of essays ( 1, 2, 3 ) criticizing Time's cover story, a piece of advocacy journalism entitled The Case For Teaching The Bible that offered a qualified endorsement of Bible classes in public schools. Subsequently, I came across the following analysis, by Tim Mitchell, that I thought was quite remarkable for it's thoroughness and sensitivity to issues of cultural, religious, and philosophical diversity and which made many arguments, against Time's case, that I hadn't thought of. Tim told me that, in fact, the series I'd written was what had inspired him to write his own take in the first place, and I'm grateful he did because I think his treatment, below, adds tremendously to what really needs to be a national conversation about the controversy over Bible classes in American public schools - Bruce Wilson ]
Examining Bible Classes in Public Schools and Religious Literacy
by Tim Mitchell

A few weeks ago, Time magazine ran a cover story entitled The Case for Teaching The Bible, which was written by Time's senior religion writer David Van Biema. Van Biema's basic argument is that the Christian Bible should be taught as a class in public schools, but with careful precautions taken to ensure that the class remains secular and constitutional.

As Van Biema summarizes in the beginning of his article:

There aren't that many (Bible classes). But they're rising in popularity. Last year Georgia became the first state in memory to offer funds for high school electives on the Old and New Testaments using the Bible as the core text. Similar funding was discussed in several other legislatures, although the initiatives did not become law. Meanwhile, two privately produced curriculums crafted specifically to pass church-state muster are competing for use in individual schools nationwide. Combined, they are employed in 460 districts in at least 37 states. The numbers are modest, but their publishers expect them to soar. The smaller of the two went into operation just last year but is already into its second 10,000-copy printing, has expressions of interest from a thousand new districts this year and expects many more. The larger publisher claims to be roughly doubling the number of districts it adds each year. These new curriculums plus polls suggesting that over 60% of Americans favor secular teaching about the Bible suggest that a (Bible class) may soon be in a school near you.

Even though America is a largely Christian nation, Van Biema cites poll statistics that say only half of the adults know the title of even one Gospel, most can't name the Bible's first book, and even only 44 percent of whose teens from evangelical Christian families could identify a particular quote as coming from the Sermon on the Mount. Apparently, the 5000 billboards being erected across America by the National Bible Association and the Bible Literacy Project that say An Educated Person Knows The Bible are simply not enough.

Other writers have already commented on Van Biema's article; in particular, Bruce Wilson provides a detailed examination of the arguments featured in this article and their implications at his site, Talk To Action. Nevertheless, I thought I would contribute my own perspective, particularly within the context of the issue of religious literacy in America....

[note: Tim Mitchell's full article is considerably longer than the excerpts I've provided here, but the following should give readers a good sense of the directions Mitchell's arguments move in - Bruce Wilson ]

One of the recurring secular arguments behind the movement for teaching the Bible in public schools is that because Christianity is the dominant religion in the West, references to the Bible are found throughout Western literature, art, and political discourse. Hence, in order for students to understand both classical and modern Western thought, they must understand its majority religion regardless of whether the students in question are Christian (or not) or are even interested in practicing Christianity (or not). Van Biema clearly endorses this argument. In the print version of the article, he even includes a chart titled, The Bible in Pop Culture, which says Even our superficial pleasures are enhanced by a background in the Good Book. (His selections here are mostly biased: either they make explicit references to the Bible, such as the movies Babel and Pulp Fiction and the stage musical Spamalot, or they are claimed as Christian entertainment anyway, such a The DaVinci Code, The Chronicles of Narnia, and the Left Behind books. How controversial books such as The DaVinci Code and the Left Behind series can be considered superficial is beyond me.)

What struck me first about Times Bible class article was Van Biema's usage of language, which skewed heavily towards an evangelical viewpoint so much so that I was baffled over how Van Biema could become a senior religion writer for ANY publication that isn't openly Christian. Yes, he does include some commentary from people and groups that oppose Bible classes in public schools, but he mostly focuses on people, groups and court rulings that favor such classes. Below is a sampling of some of Van Biema's article, as well as quotes that he chose to include (with italics and emphasis added):

* Van Biema's summary of the Bible class advocates argument: The Bible so pervades Western culture, it says, that it's hard to call anyone educated who hasn't at least given thought to its key passages. It claims that the current civic climate makes it a now more than ever proposition.

* A quote from evangelist Chuck Colson, who favors Bible courses: "Would I prefer a more explicitly biblical Christian teaching? Of course. But you cant do that in public education. What you can do is introduce the Bible so that people are aware of its impact on people and in history and then let God speak through it as he will."

* From the article's conclusion: "what is required in teaching about the Bible in our public schools is patriotism: a belief that we live in a nation that understands the wisdom of its Constitution clearly enough to allow the most important book in its history to remain vibrantly accessible for everyone."

Such language about making the Bible accessible to everyone (particularly now more than ever) could easily be used by any evangelical/missionary organizations to endorse what they do.

Click here to Tim Mitchell's entire article

You may also be interested in this related Alternet story:

Chuck Norris Fights For Bible Classes With "Mind Karate"

Tagged as: public schools, bible classes, time magazine, van biema

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