Jump to content

Texas Public Schools offer Bible Study


Guest BlackJesus

Recommended Posts

Guest BlackJesus
[u]Clergy group attacks schools’ Bible study course
Thomas Terry / AP
MSNBC
Aug. 1, 2005
[/u]

AUSTIN, Texas - A religious watchdog group complained Monday that a Bible study course taught in hundreds of public schools in Texas and across the country promotes a fundamentalist Christian view and violates religious freedom.

The Texas Freedom Network, which includes clergy of several faiths, also said the course offered by the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools is full of errors and dubious research.

The producers of the Bible class dismissed the Texas Freedom Network as a “far left” organization trying to suppress study of a historical text.

The National Council on Bible Curriculum Web site says its elective course is offered in high schools and junior highs by more than 300 school districts in 37 states.

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said her group looked at the course after the Odessa school board voted in April to offer the class. It asked Southern Methodist University biblical scholar Mark A. Chancey to review the curriculum.

Chancey’s review found that the course characterizes the Bible as inspired by God, that discussions of science are based on the biblical account of creation, that Jesus is referred to as fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, and that archaeological findings are erroneously used to support claims of the Bible’s historical accuracy.

He said the course also suggests the Bible, instead of the Constitution, be considered the nation’s founding document.

“No public school student should have to have a particular religious belief forced upon them,” the Rev. Ragan Courtney, pastor of The Sanctuary, a Baptist congregation in Austin, said at a news conference held by Texas Freedom Network.

Counter-assertions
Elizabeth Ridenour, president of the Bible class group, accused the Texas Freedom Network of censorship.

“They are actually quite fearful of academic freedom, and of local schools deciding for themselves what elective courses to offer their citizens,” she said in a statement.

According to the Texas Freedom Network, 52 Texas school districts offer the class. In Odessa, more than 6,000 people signed a petition in support before it was approved in April.

Although representatives of the Bible council have attended school board meetings in Odessa, superintendent Wendell Sollis said course materials have not yet been selected.

Miller said the Texas Freedom Network supports study of the Bible as a significant historical text, but not in a way that amounts to religious indoctrination.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Jamie_B' date='Aug 1 2005, 11:18 PM']As an elective I have no problem with, if it ever became a requirement then Ill be on the protest line with you BJ. ;)
[right][post="122806"][/post][/right][/quote]

But it is still state funded. I dont see how you can even pretend to say this is a 'history class' without studying texts from other religions also. Oh well...let texas have there fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Ben' date='Aug 2 2005, 12:20 AM']But it is still state funded.  I dont see how you can even pretend to say this is a 'history class' without studying texts from other religions also.  Oh well...let texas have there fun.
[right][post="122812"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


Community colleges are also state funded, yet we offer religion classes (both eastern and western) as electives in them. [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/3.gif[/img]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Jamie_B' date='Aug 1 2005, 11:22 PM']Community colleges are also state funded, yet we offer religion classes (both eastern and western) as electives in them. [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/3.gif[/img]
[right][post="122819"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


No shit? My taxes are actually paying a professors salary for this? Can you get a doctorate in the bible?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Ben' date='Aug 2 2005, 12:24 AM']No shit?  My taxes are actually paying a professors salary for this?  Can you get a doctorate in the bible?
[right][post="122823"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


The christian university I went to for a year and a half got some state funded money, and yes they offered a Doctor of Ministry.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Jamie_B' date='Aug 1 2005, 11:27 PM']The christian university I went to for a year and a half got some state funded money, and yes they offered a Doctor of Ministry.
[right][post="122828"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]

o.k. now I'm being serious here, so no flames from either side. As a christian, what value add does bible study at your educational institute add, that your church does not provide?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Ben' date='Aug 2 2005, 12:30 AM']o.k. now I'm being serious here, so no flames from either side.  As a christian, what value add does bible study at your educational institute add, that your church does not provide?
[right][post="122832"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


I think the point is that not everyone has the opportunity to attend a church and this is just another avenue for those that cant, but want to learn about it. I would love to see them offer other things besides just Bible classes though.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest BlackJesus
[quote][i]“Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.... We need believing people.”[/i][b]
--- Adolph Hitler, April 26, 1933[/b][/quote]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest BlackJesus

[quote][i]“The Nazi regime started a youth movement which preached its agenda to impressionable children.  Hitler backed up the notion that all people need faith and religious education: “By helping to raise man above the level of bestial vegetation, faith contributes in reality to the securing and safeguarding of his existence.  Take away from present day mankind its education based, religious dogmatic principles or, practically speaking, ethical moral principles by abolishing this religious education, but without replacing it by an equivalent, and the result will be a grave shock to the foundations of their existence.”[/i]                                           
[b]--- Adolph Hitler (Mien Kampf)[/b][/quote]

[img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons//36.gif[/img] :blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Jamie_B' date='Aug 1 2005, 11:33 PM']I think the point is that not everyone has the opportunity to attend a church and this is just another avenue for those that cant, but want to learn about it. I would love to see them offer other things besides just Bible classes though.
[right][post="122835"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


are you saying that some will find it easier to pay to get education in college than find a church? Isn't there a church at every corner?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='BengalSIS' date='Aug 2 2005, 12:38 AM']are you saying that some will find it easier to pay to get education in college than find a church?  Isn't there a church at every corner?
[right][post="122844"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]


Not following your question.

Edit: No wait I think I got it.... the article was referring to public schools, thats what I was referring to as well.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest BlackJesus

[color="blue"][i][b]I don't understand how this is not a violation of Church and State.....

To have publicly funded schools giving religious instruction from the Bible....

It is a wolf in sheeps clothing masked as "study" of the faith through a historical lense, when in actuality it is indocrination of youth at a time when they are still dumb enough to believe it. If it was about enlightenment it would be called comparitive religions where the kids studied many faiths and what they have to offer, but then again that would require High School Americans to find India on a Map.... <_< [/b][/i][/color]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Jamie_B' date='Aug 1 2005, 11:39 PM']Not following your question.

Edit: No wait I think I got it.... the article was referring to public schools, thats what I was referring to as well.
[right][post="122847"][/post][/right][/quote]


Ah, ok...well, i'm tired...i guess i missed that minor detail... :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='BlackJesus' date='Aug 2 2005, 12:43 AM'][color="blue"][i][b]I don't understand how this is not a violation of Church and State.....

To have publicly funded schools giving religious instruction from the Bible....

It is a wolf in sheeps clothing masked as "study" of the faith through a historical lense, when in actuality it is indocrination of youth at a time when they are still dumb enough to believe it.  If it was about enlightenment it would be called [color="red"]comparitive religions where the kids studied many faiths and what they have to offer[/color], but then again that would require High School Americans to find India on a Map....  <_< [/b][/i][/color]
[right][post="122851"][/post][/right][/quote]


When I left the Christian school and went to a different college that was state funded as well that’s exactly what the eastern religion course I took was. We talked Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Jainism and a few others I cant remember off the top of my head.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='BengalSIS' date='Aug 2 2005, 12:46 AM']Ah, ok...well, i'm tired...i guess i missed that minor detail... :D
[right][post="122855"][/post][/right][/quote]


I forgive you. (seeing as it's a christian related thread and all :P )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, a Texas female Governor of the 1920's, tried to pass a law making it illegal to teach foreign language in the state of Texas.

when asked to defend her position, she picked up her Bible and said:
"If English works for Christ, it works for me!"


Classic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest steggyD
We had some bible school classes in elementary school when I was young. Northern Kentucky, it was outside of the school building. I'll let you know one thing now, BJ, it affected noone. It was more or less an hour out of school per week. I even remember some of the kids looking at porn on the way in. Don't worry, there's never any converts.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest BlackJesus
[quote]I'll let you know one thing now, BJ, it affected noone. It was more or less an hour out of school per week. [u][b]I even remember some of the kids looking at porn on the way in[/b][/u]. Don't worry, there's never any converts.[/quote]


[b]Now that's what I like to hear [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/36.gif[/img] [/b]

[img]http://www.funny-pictures.biz/images%20for%20web/whycantihave.jpg[/img]
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...