Bible Literacy Project News
TIME Magazine Online
Alabama Prescribes a Bible Textbook
DAVID VAN BIEMA
Monday, Oct. 22, 2007
Alabama has became the first state in the union to approve a
textbook for a course about the Bible in its public schools, and its
surprisingly uncontroversial decision may prove to be a model for
others.
 According to Dr. Anita Buckley
Commander, the Alabama Director of Classroom Improvement, there was no
opposition to the October 11 vote by the state Board of Education to
include The Bible and Its Influence on the state's list of accepted
textbooks. The Board held a hearing on the issue and no-one showed up;
the book was approved by a vote of 8-0.
The textbook is a product of the Bible Literacy Project, founded and run
by Chuck Stetson, a conservative Christian New York-based equity fund
executive. Assessing scripture and its subsequent influence on
literature, art, philosophy and political culture, it was specifically
designed to avoid the Constitution's church-state barriers. Although the
text, which has been on the market for two years, is now taught in more
than 360 Schools in 43 states, no state had previously endorsed it.
The Bible and Its Influence has a fascinating constellation of
supporters and critics. Some of its more liberal champions, such as the
American Jewish Congress's counsel Marc Stern, feel that the republic
can not only survive but will actually benefit from public school
courses on a document as culturally central as the Bible — as long as
the classes avoid being devotional. Evangelical heavyweight Chuck Colson
hopes that God will speak to students even through a class that is
secular in intent. Those opposed to the book include secularists who
argue that it already violates the First Amendment and fundamentalists
who see its approach as secular and therefore diluting the value of what
they see as God's inspired word.
Despite the book's smooth passage through the Alabama school board, it
had caused a firestorm in the state's House of Representatives only a
year ago. Democrats who liked the book — and may also have been
interested in burnishing their religious credentials -- had submitted a
bill making it the mandatory text for any public school bible-study
classes. State Republicans who didn't like the book, and may also have
wanted to deny the Democrats the political God Card in an election year,
ensured by their vociferous opposition that the Democratic bill was
eventually voted down in committee. Something similar happened in
neighboring Georgia, where Democrats submitted a bill prescribing The
Bible and its Influence, but Republicans turned it into a much less
specific endorsement of bible classes.
Precisely why the Alabama Board of Education succeeded where the
legislature failed (with one distinction: the school board didn't rule
out the use of other texts) remains something of a mystery. Presumably
most Alabamans would welcome a public school course on the Bible, even
if it were from a secular standpoint; "I don't see how [the book] would
scare anyone" who has read it, comments Commander. It may be that the
Board of Education, which she describes as politically "balanced," is
not as caught up in partisanship as is the Alabama House. Moreover, the
book was not the Board's sole focus: in fact, its attention was
monopolized by a discussion about school reading texts.
Although the Bible Literacy Project officers are thrilled with its
success in Alabama, they are not necessarily counting on replicating it
elsewhere fast. There are 22 states with similar low-key selection
methods, but they tend to consider different curriculum categories year
by year, and in some states the category including a bible course
textbook will not roll around for another eight. So, says a spokesperson
for the Project, "we have to sit around and wait." In other states, the
book doesn't appear to fit into any of the established categories of
study. And then there are the 28 states where such decisions are made by
local rather than statewide school boards.
The Bible Literacy Project is philosophical about the delays created by
the different legislative processes in different states. Although a more
centralized legislative initiative would result in faster adoption of
the text, that process can fall victim to politics, as Alabama's
experience shows. And, for advocates of studying (as opposed to
preaching) religion in the public school curriculum, the low-key
introduction of the text, whether locale by locale or through the
workings of state boards like Commander's, offers an opportunity to
assess its fairness and effectiveness before it becomes a nationwide
fact.
(c)Oct 22, 2007 TIME
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1674427,00.html
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