fayfreethinkers.com

ROGERS --Gentry High School students may study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the way they study Shakespeare or "Ethan Frome."

Logan Reed, a Gentry resident for 46 years, is scheduled to speak to the Gentry School Board at 7 p.m. Monday about starting an elective Bible curriculum class at the high school. The school board meets at the administration building, 201 S. Giles in Gentry.

Reed submitted to school administrators a book entitled "Public Schools -- Bible Curriculum: The Bible, A Foundation Document of Society," said Gentry Superintendent Randy Barrett.

The book is from the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, an organization based in Greensboro, N.C., seeking to get elective Bible courses in high schools nationwide.

"The curriculum for the program shows a concern to convey the content of the Bible as compared to literature and history," said Elizabeth Ridenour, president of the Bible curriculum council, in a statement on the Web site www.bibleinschools.net. "The program is concerned with education rather than indoctrination of students."

Schools teach ancient philosophers including Aristotle and Homer, Reed asked, so why not also teach philosophy from the Bible?

Try to read the rest here.

Some of the comments are just sickening. Reading them reminds me of why I don't have any more hope for the human race than I do.

DAR
I don't know, this could go either way. If they try to teach doctrinal stuff, as this group probably is, then it is a rats nest and religious war in the class room. If it is good Bible scholarship then I am all for it. There is a lot of biblical ignorance and the more people know about the Bible, based upon modern scholarship, the better. Fundies lose when good Bible scholarship is taught. Bible reading in a non-church, investigative questioning format creates atheists.

D.

Absolutely with Darrel on this - the more people actually read and study the bible - serious scholarship (timeline of history & where the different bible stories fit in, comparing translations, etc) , the better. It's definitely one of the better ways to create atheists.

As to teaching a religion class - all it takes is one catholic - or even member of the more 'traditional" protestant churches (Presbies, Pisckies, etc) contacting the ACLU to shut that down.

DOUG
Now the guy wants Bible classes not only in Gentry, but also in three more districts, including one in Oklahoma.

From here.

GENTRY -- Logan Reed wants to be fruitful and multiply his efforts to get a Bible curriculum course in public schools in three more districts.

The Gentry School Board on Monday heard Reed's request to adopt a Bible course touted by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, an organization based in Greensboro, N.C.

The course teaches students the Old Testament in the first semester of the school year and the New Testament in the second semester.

Reed first approached Gentry Superintendent Randy Barrett about the Bible curriculum four to five weeks ago and presented a booklet about the program.

Barrett copied the information and distributed it to school board members, who wanted more time to digest the information after hearing from Reed on Monday night.

...Students who learn about the Bible would have better attitudes and if the Bible is taught in every public school, it would improve the state, Reed said.

However, he said the Bible curriculum course would not promote any religion, but would help students learn common references and stories in the Bible.

"I wouldn't mind if it was an atheist who teaches it," he said.

Reed's goal is to see the Bible curriculum taught as an elective.

It's legal to teach the Bible in public schools as history, an overview of civilization, ethics and to compare the tenets of different religions, Reed said.

...The Bible curriculum advocated by the Greensboro, N.C., organization is taught as an elective course in 337 school districts in 37 states, including Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, according to the Bible curriculum Web site, www.bibleinschools.net.

More than 190,000 high school students have taken the course. Those include students at Arkansas High School in Texarkana, in its second year of teaching the course.

Rita Sklar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas, previously said the state ACLU has not gotten any complaints or handled any litigation regarding the Bible curriculum group.

I thought this blurb in the comment section of the NWA article was most instructive (haven't checked the website yet):

Mark Chancey wrote on February 16, 2007 7:20 AM:

"I am a biblical scholar at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and have studied the NCBCPS extensively. It is a Religious Right group trying to break down the separation of church and state. Its course does not meet the legal requirements laid out by various court decisions, and it is not representative of mainstream scholarship. The NT component of the course was successfully challenged in a 1998 Florida case, Gibson v. Lee County. See details at

http://www.tfn.org/religiousfreedom/biblecurriculum/.

If the course really is the SOP propaganda, more students need to file complaints. Can't stop something nobody complains about. The fact the ACLU hasn't gotten complaints lends (some) credence to the scholarly study claim. Mark Chancey should have gone to them.