Yesterday, my local NBC affiliate ran a quick news story about the proposed Bible curriculum which is still being mulled over by Mustang Public Schools. You can find background here and here, but the basic story is that they are still thinking about bringing an elective Bible course to the public schools.
Here is why this is a bad idea, regardless of how well the curriculum is implemented.
Scenario #1 – Constitutional Bible Classes
In this scenario, the Bible is taught as just another holy book among many, containing some history, plenty of mythology, and an active academic debate about the extent to which particular stories fit into one category or the other. Schoolchildren will be taught that it is okay to question on Monday morning what they were taught to take on faith in Sunday School the previous day. Here is a representative sample of what those sorts of lectures look like:
As you may well imagine, many people of faith will be enraged to find their kids coming to believe that their infallible holy text may be critically analyzed like any other man-made book. School board meetings may come to feature overripe, ballistic fruit.
Scenario #2 – Unconstitutional Bible Classes
In this scenario, the Bible is taught as revealed truth from God, just like it is on Sunday. As a result, Americans United and/or the ACLU sue the district for blatant violations of the Federal and/or State Constitution. The district will lose, because case law is quite clear on this point.
Scenario #3 – Hybrid case
A hybrid scenario might involve a mixture of the previous two, in which the district manages to piss off pretty much everyone by following constitutional guidelines only most of the time, with occasional deviations into a more faith-based approach.
None of these scenarios will give the overwhelmingly churchgoing people of Mustang what they want. Naturally, I would prefer the first of the three, not only because I enjoy a good public spectacle, but because I sincerely believe that people should learn to study holy texts in a critical way. Honestly, though, unless they hire someone exceptional, I don’t expect that one is a remotely likely outcome.
