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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

West Virginia bill would require all schools to offer a Bible class

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — A bill has been introduced by West Virginia senators that, if passed, would require all schools to provide an elective course on Hebrew scriptures and the Old or New Testaments of the Bible.

It's called Senate Bill 252 and was introduced by Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sen. Sue Cline-R-Wyoming.

They said the bill's purpose is to teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry and narratives that are pre-requisites to understanding contemporary society and culture.

Under the proposed bill, a student “may not be required to use a specific translation as the sole text of the Hebrew Scriptures or New Testament and may use as the basic textbook a different translation of the Hebrew Scriptures or New Testament from that chosen by the county board or school.”

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a joke

Anonymous said...

Call it "Basic Morals" and you might get it passed.

Anonymous said...

This is absurd, and has no place in the class, not to mention is ALARMINGLY dishonest.

They claim that teaching "the bible" this way is not showing any religious preference.

Were that TRUE then they would also teach the Talmud, the Qur'an (in its original Arabic language), the Book of Morman... etc etc.

If they were HONEST about not showing a preference, this is how it would work.

I would support a religions class that taught all the worlds major religions beliefs and origins.

But this is just a thinly veiled way to shoe horn Christianity into the public school system.

If the claim is to somehow show how Christianity influenced America, then it needs to show off its "warts" too... ie how the Bible was used to justify and support slavery and the slave trade, and to deny womens suffrage and support misongony.... but that's not what they are trying to do here.

They are trying to smuggle in a bible study Christian indoctrination class into public schools.

I thought honesty was a moral imperative for Christians.

Anonymous said...

@ 2:35 Go back to grade school and learn to read. This is, as written, to help students learn the founding of Judeo Christian history in our country not world history. The QUr'an only shows up when Thomas Jefferson needed to learn about those barbarians to fight them.

Anonymous said...

This would not be a required class. It would be an elective. The kids can choose the class if they want it.

Anonymous said...

Good idea, and the kids actually might even learn something.

Anonymous said...

@ 3:02

That was addressed in 2:35's post with this:

"If the claim is to somehow show how Christianity influenced America, then it needs to show off its "warts" too... ie how the Bible was used to justify and support slavery and the slave trade, and to deny womens suffrage and support misongony.... but that's not what they are trying to do here."

You know, supporting slavery and misogyny and homophobia, and denial of science that contradicts biblical stories? Are those the "Judeo-Christian" history or values you refer to?

I see and hear this meme of "Judeo-Christian" history, or values... but no one can really define that now, can they... can you? Cause I'm all ears. Seems to me this is a Secular Republic that protects all religious freedoms.. is now and always has been. How about we just teach "American History?" That would sort of cover it all, wouldn't it?

But no, that's not what this is now is it? This is a way to smuggle Christianity into schools.

The point being made is that if it were true that this is "religion" neutral, then they would be teaching all religions... which I would absolutely support as an elective in schools. As it stands now, this is a dishonest ruse.

Anonymous said...

That will really help them get a great job.