““England has two books; the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.” — Victor Hugo
A bill sitting on Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen’s desk would allow the state to develop a curriculum for the academic–nonsectarian, nonreligious–study of the Bible. Tennessee students could be studying the influence of the Bible on literature, art, music, culture and politics.
It’s hard to argue against the measure on curricular grounds. Our public discourse is full of literary allusions to the Bible, and it informs our history and politics. A pair of Tennessee state lawmakers argue for the bill here. Others inevitably worry it’s an invitation to proselytizing. This writer calls the bill a ticking time bomb.
I’m always amused at these types of bills, although I understand the thrust. Points:
1) People are very diverse in this country, and even the religious could not agree on what bible version to use (Catholics make up 25% of the nation, and their bible is the more traditional one and has more books). The only reason they might pull it off is a common enemy: the school system.
2) There is no question the bible is very historically important. It’s hard to get along in literature or even history if one doesn’t know the bible. It’s sort of amazing the schools aren’t demanding this. More proof schools are made up of secularists who hate Christianity so much they are willing to hurt education itself in the secular cause.
3) The bible plays a large cultural and political part in much of the country. It would be a wise thing for an educated secular person to be well versed in it; 99% of Christians in this country don’t know squat about the bible, and even a slight bit of biblical knowledge can be of value in public debates and writing.
4) The educational powers in this country made an error in being so anti-religious and hiring so many liberal and secular teachers (the NEA is just as rigid and fundamentalist in their belief system as any Christian, and these are not mainstream views). Most of the religious people I know have embraced the multicultural concept and have their own networks, values, and even schools. They nearly all hate public schools with a passion and give them zero support politically. They also have more children than average… Therefore schools, through no fault but their own, have less political friends every day.
5) The next generation is very unfriendly to our “locked-in” way of looking at school curriculum; they hold none of the boomer or even gen-x superstition that we are “one people” and unity is important. Diversity is all they know. The future attitude: live and let live, offer the course if it is in demand, why not? Schools, used to power and conformity, are not ready for the consumer-style parent of the future.