But many school districts in the Lone Star State
still haven’t gotten the message, according to a report released last month by
the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) entitled “Reading, Writing and Religion.”
Conducted by religious studies professor Mark
Chancey of Southern Methodist University, the study examines elective Bible
courses offered in 57 Texas school districts and 3 charter schools and
concludes that “evidence of sectarian bias, predominantly favoring perspectives
of conservative Protestantism, is widespread."
In other words, school officials in many parts of
Texas convert public schools into Sunday schools in violation of the First
Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.
According to Professor Chancey, many Texas teachers
with no training in the academic study of religion treat sacred events in the
Bible as secular history, and use secondary sources that offer only one
Christian interpretation of the Bible.
The religious agenda that shapes many of these
courses isn’t subtle. For example, a
supplementary text used in two districts informs students, on the inside
front cover, that by studying the Bible they “will see the heart of God and the
person of Jesus Christ revealed from Genesis to Revelation.”
Public schools, of course, can and should teach
students about the Bible – in history, literature and elective courses. But
such teaching must be educational, not devotional.
In Schempp, the High Court prohibited devotional
Bible reading in public schools, but simultaneously encouraged appropriate
inclusion of the Bible in the curriculum. Writing for the majority, Justice Tom
Clark put it this way:
“[I]t
might well be said that one’s education is not complete without a study of
comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the
advancement of civilization… Nothing we have said here indicates that such
study of the Bible or religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular
program of education, may not be effect ted consistently with the First
Amendment.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s guidance about what is
and isn’t constitutional, many public schools continue to have a hard time
getting the Bible right.
In recent years, religious conservatives as well as
advocates of biblical literacy have urged states to support the creation of
Bible courses. As a result, a growing number of states, including Georgia,
South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, South Dakota and Arizona, have passed
legislation encouraging local districts to offer Bible electives.
The Texas “Bible bill” was passed in 2007 and like
similar laws in other states was supposed to support Bible courses that are
constitutionally and educationally sound. Thanks to the Texas Freedom Network
and other First Amendment advocates, some safeguards were built into the
legislation calling for teacher training in the academic study of the Bible and
adherence to constitutional principles.
Unfortunately, the law hasn’t worked. Most Bible
electives in Texas created since 2007 are taught by unqualified teachers, using
sectarian materials and promoting one religious interpretation of the Bible.
According to the TFN report, “the evidence suggests
that these problems largely reflect a failure by state and local officials to
implement provisions in the new state law that were designed to protect the
religious freedom of students and help school districts construct academically
and constitutionally sound courses.”
The TFN study does have some good news. Professor
Chancey found at least 11 Texas school districts with successful Bible courses,
many using textbooks (The Bible and Its Influence; The Bible As/In Literature)
which pass constitutional muster and which provide objective study of biblical
literature.
As Justice Clark pointed out, biblical literacy is
an important part of a good education. After all, knowledge of biblical stories
and concepts contributes to our understanding of literature, history, law, art
and contemporary society.
But when the Bible comes into the public school
classroom, it must arrive through the First Amendment door.
About the author: Charles C. Haynes is director of
the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave.,
N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001. Web: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/.
E-mail: chaynes[at]freedomforum.org.
This article was published by the First Amendment Center.
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