Seperation of Chuch and State? Maybe if you're a heathen! It's been no secret that numerous public schools in the bible belt and beyond already "teach" the bible, but now a Democrat State Representative is pushing for an actual bill that would make studying the New Testament mandatory law.
A proposal that would allow the state Department of Education to develop a curriculum for the academic study of the Bible in public schools has passed the House.
The legislation sponsored by Rep. Mark Maddox, a Dresden Democrat, was approved 93-3 on Tuesday. The companion bill unanimously passed the Senate last week.
Both chambers must now work out differences in the legislation before it heads to the governor for his consideration.
The bill would require school districts to teach the course with an approved textbook in a manner consistent with the state and federal constitutions.
The legislation prohibits the use of any religious test or association when assigning teachers for Bible courses.
For the record, when Rep Maddox appeared on MSNBC this morning and was asked if this class would include other religious bibles like the Old Testament or the Koran or the Book of Mormon, he laughed and said those weren't American traditions..........
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Comments (2)
This is not at all shocking. Southern Democrats are not exactly liberal. They're basically no different conservative republicans. They have to be...they're constituents are like that...Which is why Barack Obama is gonna have a hell of a time winning this fall...they still don't even believe that he's Christian!
Posted on May 16, 2008 12:28 PM
From the bill's "summary" webpage:
"Bill Summary for *HB4089 / SB4104
This bill authorizes the state board of education to approve a curriculum for an elective state-funded course of a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible. Any LEA that elects to offer the Bible course and utilize an approved textbook would be required to do so in a manner that is consistent with the state and federal constitutions. This bill prohibits the use of any religious test or association when assigning teachers for Bible courses pursuant to this bill."
How exactly is this unconstitutional? Since when is a "elective class" teaching "about the bible" (presumably in a historical and/or sociological context, as judged by the details seen there), the same thing as "mandatory bible classes"?
"Separation of Church and State" extends ONLY to the prevention of the state from mandating a specific (or any) religion. That is not to say states are prohibited from recognizing the existence of religions, religious texts, traditions, or the like. I'm BIG in favor of a reasonable separation (i.e. certain parties who want Creation taught as science, as an alternative to evolution, are clearly out of line and rather delusional), but one must draw the line at "reasonable".
I feel your post (echoing the news story linked, to be fair) is misleading by the way it ignores the details.
Posted on May 17, 2008 5:16 PM