OT:The Bible As History

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I read the following story this morning in the New York Times.  After
reading the article, I think it would be great to teach the Old
Testament in school because the kids seem to ask just the right
questions when confronted with the many contradictions and absurdities
in the Bible.

February 17, 1998

Schools Struggle With Ways to Teach the Bible as Part of History
By MIREYA NAVARRO

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- In his public high school classroom here, Mark
Axford, a history teacher, was gingerly telling his new students what
the course would entail. He was being cautious because the subject was
the Old Testament, the textbook the Bible, and every word he said was
being videotaped for review by lawyers and a federal judge in a
pioneering legal case. 

"We want to talk about the story of Noah and the flood," Axford said
last month, on the first day of class. "Well, is it true or not true?
That's not for me to say. That's not for us to say. We're just going
to look at it and see what we can verify and can't verify." 

Later, a student asked whether the ark had ever been found. Axford
said that "they found something on a mountain" but that scientific
tests showed it was not old enough. "Could it have been Noah's ark?
Who knows? This is the type of stuff that, when you mix history and
faith, it's complicated." 

SJW
I find it interesting that the teacher says that the scientific test
showed it was not old enough to be the Ark but then says no one knows
if it could have been the Ark.  Sounds like xian doublespeak to me.

NYT
The class, called Bible History, was begun on Jan. 21 at Riverdale
High School, where Axford teaches, and at six other high schools in
Lee County after a contentious two-year battle among parents,
religious leaders, community organizations and civil liberties groups. 

<snip>

On Jan. 20, a federal district court judge here, Elizabeth
Kovachevich, issued an order prohibiting the teaching of the New
Testament, because, she said, it is "difficult to conceive how the
account of the Resurrection or of miracles could be taught as secular
history." But she permitted the teaching of the Old Testament as
history and ordered the videotaping to "prevent any veiled attempt to
promote religion or Christianity in the guise of teaching history." 

Stationary cameras belonging to the Lee County school district capture
every word uttered by Axford, the other teachers and their 153
students. The first 60 hours of tape, now being reviewed, provide a
rare documentation of public schools' struggles to teach the Bible
within the confines of the law. Judge Kovachevich told opponents they
would have an opportunity to raise further objections to the course
this month after their review. 

Already, a lawyer for those opponents said that he may have detected
enough violations to ask again for an injunction. The lawyer, Thomas
R. Julin of Miami, represents seven parents and religious leaders,
assisted by the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the
American Way Foundation, who sued the school system in December after
the school board in this largely Republican county approved the
course. Julin said that in one class, students were showed a
documentary called "Jerusalem," in which the narrator says, "The
memory of Jesus and the miracle of His Resurrection live in Jerusalem
every day." This, Julin said, violates the prohibition against
teaching the New Testament. 

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center at
Vanderbilt University, which trains public school teachers to teach
religion within constitutional guidelines, said that only in recent
years have school districts been willing to test these waters. They
steered clear for nearly a generation after a 1963 Supreme Court
ruling outlawed Bible reading in public school classrooms but allowed
religion to be taught as a subject. 

The resurgence of interest is driven partly by Christian conservatives
but also by "widespread agreement that literacy in the Bible is an
essential part of a good education," Haynes said. 

But in classes like Axford's, legal concerns have precluded the
teaching of whole portions of the book, not only the New Testament but
Adam and Eve and the story of creation. The videotaping has cast a
pall of self-consciousness over both teacher and students. 

"It's unfortunate that because of the close scrutiny you can't have a
free-flowing discussion," said Wayne Perry, a spokesman for the school
district. "As the course goes on and the kids get more involved in the
subject and start asking more questions, it's going to be more
difficult to maintain a discussion. Instead they may end up just
having a quiz." 

SJW
Yes, and as they ask more questions, they may begin to question the
validity of the bible.

<snip>

NYT
Haynes said that Bible history can be legally offered only if the
curriculum includes a variety of critical sources and teachers are
well-trained on how to use them. But Julin said the Lee County tapes
showed that although history teachers like Axford strive to be
objective and use a college-level textbook containing critical
analysis as a supplemental text, they are insufficiently trained to
teach the Bible in a secular fashion. 

SJW
I don't understand why Mr. Haynes believes the teachers are
insufficiently trained.  It must be that they might not be brainwashed
in the xian belief in the bible.

NYT
"When the teachers get to the presentation of the Bible stories it
becomes Sunday school class," Julin said. "The danger is that the
school system is teaching it." 

Lawyers on both sides here say they are familiar with only a handful
of legal challenges to Bible history curriculums in public schools
around the country, so their case is one of the early efforts to set
the legal boundaries for such courses. 

<snip>

Under the district's guidelines, the teachers cannot use the course to
promote a certain religious belief or to proselytize. They must teach
the Bible as one of several historical sources rather than as literal
history. 

<snip>

When the seven plaintiffs sued the board late last year to stop the
course, they charged that its main purpose was to promote religion. 

Last month Judge Kovachevich ruled that the Old Testament curriculum
complied with the law, but she barred the New Testament curriculum. 

The Old Testament class began last month with an enrollment of 153 of
the district's 13,000 high school students, mostly juniors and
seniors. The district is mid-size for Florida, with a total of 53,000
students, 75 percent of them white. 

One of the students taking the course, Jennifer Spaulding, 15, said
she wanted to become a Methodist minister and needed "a historical
knowledge of the Bible." She called the classroom cameras "a little
annoying" but she found the controversy worse. 

"Actually, leaving Bible history out of the school is against the
First Amendment because you also have freedom of religion," she said.
"And you're not even having a religion class." 

School officials said the Bible course so far had not been a
particularly popular elective, and one of eight high schools in the
district does not even offer it for lack of demand. Those who teach it
are history or social studies teachers who volunteered and who
received 30 hours of training on the curriculum and the legal pitfalls. 

Keith Martin, the school board's attorney, said the course was
approved for educational enrichment. "Students' education may not be
complete without study of the history of religion and its effect on
the development of Western civilization," he said. 

<snip>

"This is a major work of literature," said Ms. Spaulding, a
clerk-typist for the Salvation Army. "It's part of history. I don't
see how it has to be ignored in school. They're not trying to sway
anybody. It's not a big deal." 

But other parents say that a school system with overcrowded classrooms
should not be using any resources on Bible classes. And there is
mistrust of the agenda behind the course because one school board
member belongs to the Christian Coalition and because the board's
defense in the lawsuit is being provided by the American Center for
Law and Justice, a legal organization founded by Pat Robertson, the
television evangelist. 

Some parents fear the next fight will be over teaching creationism in
science classes. 

SJW
I can understand being afraid of the Pat Robertsons of the world.

NYT
Douglas Evans, 39, who teaches religion at a community college and
whose 16-year-old daughter is not taking the course, said that
presenting the Bible as history, not as literature, gave Christianity
a preferential treatment because "you legitimize its religious
message." 

"We have to create a Christian nation or otherwise God will punish
us," he said, describing what he believed was the motivation behind
the course. 

<snip>

In Axford's class, the discussion one day turned to Abel and Cain. A
male student wondered where the two brothers had come from. 

"In the beginning there was Adam and Eve," a girl's voice piped in,
"and Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel." 

Axford quickly intervened. 

"For whatever reason, we're not supposed to talk about that," he said,
trying to steer his young charges back to safety. "You just read it on
your own. I don't know why. Please don't ask me why." 

SJW
Come on, let them talk about talking snakes.  

SJWeisiger
weisiger@yahoo.com












 

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