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Religion and the Schools
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There is currently pending before the Texas Legislature a number (at least three) bills which will
influence what our schools teach our children about religion. I have some strong feelings about some of these things and wish to pass those feelings on to you. In the first place so that you can better judge what I have to say about it you should know a few facts about my background and some of my previously expressed beliefs. These are:
1. I am a Christian.
2. I am the product of a school system (here in the state of Texas) which until the early fifties was not in any way responsible to or beholden to the federal government and only minimally controlled by the state government. Schools were, in the days of my childhood controlled, financed, directed and supervised by a local board of the community in which they existed. The determination of curriculum, teaching personnel, graduation requirements and student discipline were entirely in the hands of a local board consisting of five to seven members of responsible citizens of your community–your neighbors. The prevailing sentiment was that the community of one’s friends and neighbors was better equipped to determine what and how your children were taught and if you didn’t like what they did or how they ruled you could stop by their house or office and discuss the matter over a cup of coffee. There was no Department of Education in Washington DC. No federal funds were appropriated to education and the schools were run by the local community of your friends and neighbors. State government acted primarily to just establish common textbooks throughout the state, to administer teacher retirement funds. And blessedly there were NO federal regulations concerning WHAT the schools should teach or HOW they should teach it.
3. In every community of any size a student had the option of going to state school or to "church school" and the option of what church school they wanted to attend—at least that was a matter which the law and the government left to be worked out between the parent and the church which sponsored the school (and paid its expenses). A student I shall refer to as "TS" who went to school with me in Austin High school got kicked out of AHS for some rather droll things he did and so went to St Edwards High School out in South Austin—which I presume was an Episcopalian or Catholic school—he graduated in 1943 just as I did and attended the University of Texas just as I did. A St. Edwards diploma was just as valid as a state high school diploma—and in some cases probably represented an education superior to the average state school. Not one cent of Travis County or the State of Texas tax money or federal tax money went to the support of St. Edwards.
4. I strongly feel that government by the state or the federal government should NEVER have the option of controlling what is taught to our kids as religion. If the government can tell my child whether or not to believe one paragraph of the Holy Bible it can tell that child that the Koran is all truth to the letter, that the Arthava-Veda is the only path to Varuna as god of the Cosmos, or that this world is populated by Wiccan creatures which demand animal sacrifice on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Far fetched in Texas? Don’t you believe it.
5. I strongly believe that this country (The USA) was designed, constructed and has endured for more than two centuries because it is based on the moral and social philosophy of the Christian
religion and because of the lack of diversity in our population—Whoops! That got your attention didn’t it. It is not permitted to criticize the concept that "Diversity is Good—chaos is better". Well so be it. Diversity is not always good–that is a personal belief. As a matter of fact I am working onm a thesis that even disputes Darwin’s contention that diversity is good. Despite the fact that we are a "nation of immigrants" we are just as surely a "nation of Christian immigrants". Sure there were a few thousand Chinese Buddhists who came into the west practically as slaves to build the railroads and operate the mines in the 19th century, and the forcible importation of African peoples during slave time brought some new ideas in religion which can be seen n in New Orleans and some southern areas but all in all the vast waves of immigrants have been of people who were fervently Christians.
6. I am the product of a school system that offered "Bible Study" at the high school level as an elective course for which credit toward graduation was allowed. These Bible study courses were not "the Bible as history" type courses. They were actually religious courses which exhorted their students to be Christians. I did not take any of these courses but they were available at the time I was in High School and were quite popular among the student body. It is important to note that the courses were not taught by school teachers but rather by personnel of the church where they were held.. One could window shop these courses and take them from a Catholic, Baptist , or Episcopalian church in Austin Texas. If a town was very small the courses were most likely available from Protestant or Catholic Churches only. No none were available from Mormon churches, not from Wiccan covens and few if any sought the guidance of the Santeria
Church and no courses at all were offered in Voodoo—despite this alarming lack of diversity most all of my class made it through school and some of us even went to college and a few have lived normal productive lives. Out of my graduating class of 640 there was one who became a Scientologist and I think that one was a Zen Buddhist.
Now with all of that as a preamble to show where I am coming from let me tell you that the Legislature of the State Of Texas is considering a bill which will require every high school in the state of Texas to offer an ELECTIVE course titled "The Bible As History" and give credit for it toward graduation. The course is to be taught by regular faculty of the high school. I strongly oppose this law for at least the following reasons.
1. Very few high schools in the state of Texas have faculty capable of teaching what the Bible says and answering all those hundreds of thousands of questions that adolescents have about God, life and other matters of religion.
2. Religion is a matter NOT to be taught by the state but rather by the family of the student by the church of their choice and by the tenor and support of the community in which they live. It seems that the community and even some of the churches have almost abdicated their role in this
process but that is no reqason to give it to the schools who will in my opinion just make it worse.
3. The Bible is not just history. It is an organ of religion. Without doubt it is one of the world’s greatest literary masterpieces and I believe that it is true that it tells a remarkable amount about the history of the world in that day and time and I regret the loss of Bible literacy in population in general but the fact that the Bible is concerned with matters of one’s existence and eternal life can not be relegated to the reading circle role. I think that it would be impossible to teach to adolescents strictly as history or literature and I don’t trust the NEA the TSTA, the Department of education or the Government of the United States to interpret those matters for children. Leave it to the families and the churches chosen by those families.
4. If the schools teach my child the Bible they can as well declare that the Bhagavad-gita or the Koran be taught in schools. It follows as the night the day. And they can say that the Koran is great literature and should be taught. I have read through the Koran twice and yes it is good literature. I don’t personally think that as literature it approaches the Bible but I will allow for some prejudice on that point and I would not object to my children reading the Koran but I don’t want to be told by government that they have to read it. Remember also that today’s elective may be tomorrow’s requirement.
So that is what I think about the requirement for compulsory Bible As History courses in Texas High Schools taught by teachers. There is ample room for disagreement in the above. Don’t be timid, let me know if you think I am wrong. There are two more laws going through the legislature concerning the Texas school system—I m,ay oppose them too. If I do I will let you know.
Love
dad, granpa, ami
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