Oklahoma school district OKs ‘Bible curriculum’ created by Hobby Lobby president

[Playinghardball]

According to the Religious News Service, the “Museum of the Bible Curriculum” created by Hobby Lobby’s President Steve Green (pictured above) will be beta-tested in Oklahoma’s Mustang Public School district beginning in the Fall of 2014.

Green hopes the program — which will be overseen by Jerry Pattengale, head of the Green Scholars Initiative — will be placed in “hundreds” of high schools by 2016, and “thousands” by 2017. It is a four-year elective course in which students will study the narrative, history, and impact of the Bible on Western Civilization. Because the book is being taught within an academic purview, it does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Abington School District v. Schempp.

“Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible,” the Court decided, “when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

Statements made by Green when he received the 2013 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities strongly suggest that the material in the Museum of the Bible Curriculum will neither be “presented objectively” nor “part of a secular program.”

In the speech, Green refers to the Bible as a “reliable historical document” that’s had a “great impact on the world,” but that people don’t understand that impact. “It’s our job to point that out,” Green said, “to show that whether it be our government, education, science, art, literature, family, on and on in every area of our life.”

More here and see the video at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/16/oklahoma-school-district-oks-bible-curriculum-created-by-hobby-lobby-president/

[upaloopa]

1. So why not courses in every other religious book

and an introduction to atheism?
Seems everyone on the right has to lie to get theorist agenda in the schools.

[Prophet 451]

4. I'd actually support that

A kind of world religions class that gave a brief introduction to, say, the biggest eight religions (including atheism although I acknowledge it's not a religion).

[el_bryanto]

2. The text isn't available yet

It may not have been available to the schoolboard in a timely fashion either.

The vote Monday night was closer than might have been expected: four yeas and one abstention. One former pastor spoke out against adopting the curriculum, citing the innate difficulty of finding common language about the Bible. Abstaining board member Jeff Landrith grumbled that the community had not had enough chance to review curriculum. Board President Chad Fulton responded that it would available shortly for examination. One party promising to take a look was the Oklahoma ACLU: “to ensure no students… have their right of religious liberty compromised.”

That's from the Religion News article on it.

Kind of a frustrating story, because on the one hand the premise is accurate - the Bible is a fundamental text in western society, and if treated in a secular matter, it is something that should be taught in schools (although studying other religious texts and humanist works would be a good idea too, as was pointed out above). But since we can't really look at the text, and the proponent of it clearly believes that part of the purpose of reading the Bible in schools is so that people can understand it from a distinctively religious perspective, it seems like it is being done in bad faith.

Bryant

[justhanginon]

3. Unfortunately, given their past history,

I pretty much assume that anything they do is done in bad faith. I am just tired of the constant battle to try and keep religion and government separate as it should be. Even things that start out as relatively innocuous seem to always end up presenting only the biblical fundamentalist's point of view.