Christian Nationalism and School Boards

Pinball1970

Pinball1970

Valued Senior Member
Louisiana governor Landry signed a bill into law that requires a poster-sized print of the Abrahamic god's “10 commandments” on the wall of all public schools, through college.

No other states have enacted this law. Kentucky tried to pass a similar law in the 1980s

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...4/ten-commandments-religion-us-public-schools

Oklahoma schools have to teach the Bible

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjk35vv2ryjo

and the Texas school board trying to do similar

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/29/texas-school-curriculum-biblical-content

So as a Brit catching up with some of this stuff.

A violation of Establishment clause?

Also teaching the Bible as History? Do Biblical scholars treat scripture like this? As fact/ history?
 
Pinball1970 said:
Louisiana governor Landry signed a bill into law that requires a poster-sized print of the Abrahamic god's “10 commandments” on the wall of all public schools, through college.

No other states have enacted this law. Kentucky tried to pass a similar law in the 1980s

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...4/ten-commandments-religion-us-public-schools

Oklahoma schools have to teach the Bible

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjk35vv2ryjo

and the Texas school board trying to do similar

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/29/texas-school-curriculum-biblical-content

So as a Brit catching up with some of this stuff.

A violation of Establishment clause?

Also teaching the Bible as History? Do Biblical scholars treat scripture like this? As fact/ history?
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Where does any of this say the bible is to be taught as history? My reading of it is certain stories are to be taught for the purpose of cultural literacy, which actually seems not unreasonable in itself. My mother, for many years a head of English at a UK 6th form college, used to lament the need to digress all the time when teaching literature, in order to explain the biblical and religious references with which English literature is suffused.

I presume the concern with these manoeuvres is that they may actually be used to teach religion itself. I look forward to yet another marathon soap opera involving rival groups of snarling American lawyers. :biggrin:
 
exchemist said:
Where does any of this say the bible is to be taught as history? My reading of it is certain stories are to be taught for the purpose of cultural literacy, which actually seems not unreasonable in itself. My mother, for many years a head of English at a UK 6th form college, used to lament the need to digress all the time when teaching literature, in order to explain the biblical and religious references with which English literature is suffused.

I presume the concern with these manoeuvres is that they may actually be used to teach religion itself. I look forward to yet another marathon soap opera involving rival groups of snarling American lawyers. :biggrin:
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Have a listen to the TEXAS discussion, how they (Pro documents) describe the Bible.
 
exchemist said:
There is audio in the links?
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post 18 is the time stamp

Texas school curriculum proposal

You guys aware of this? https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/19/texas-christianity-school-curriculum-worries/ Aron Ra, an excellent science communicator posted on his site. When you have Christians and pastors who strongly object to an education policy regarding religion, in Texas, that has...
www.sciforums.com www.sciforums.com
 
billvon said:
I would be behind that 100%, as long as they include the Koran, the Vedas etc.
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Myself also but past past cases demonstrate that Christian hardliners are willing to get religion into the classroom at all costs.
Even if violates the first amendment.
Even if it could potentially damage a child's science education.
Even if what they want taught regarding the Bible is not much to do with literature and more to do with Christian indoctrination.
Even if the Bible "History" they are pushing is not regarded as history by the scholars who actually know what they are talking about.
 
billvon said:
I would be behind that 100%, as long as they include the Koran, the Vedas etc.
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That’s what UK schools do. There is a class on what’s sometimes called comparative religion. But it does I think make sense to pay more attention to Christianity, as the culture of our civilisation is so much entwined with that: history, architecture, literature, music, paintings, sculpture……… over 1000 years of it, if one lives in Europe. Agree it’s a lot less in the States.
 
billvon said:
I would be behind that 100%, as long as they include the Koran, the Vedas etc.
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The crazy thing is there are a lot of atheists who are nuts about the Bible, myself included.
It is the most valuable collection of stories, myths, history (yes there is some) that we have.
Bart Ehrman thinks that Shakespeare is the greatest work of English literature and the Bible comes in second.
 
exchemist said:
There is audio in the links?
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Apologies this is the audio.

Main objections if you listen to this are that it is unconstitutional, anti Semitic, promotes Christianity, is not age appropriate and treats scripture as fact.

One thing I noticed is that the board refuse to say who authored it. I heard Ben Carson mentioned ("Evolution is evil" Carson) The actual PDFS are available on line but I have not had time to go through them yet.
 
My primary line of defense against this has been to remind people of their distrust of government. Ask them if they really want the government teaching their kids about God. I mean, these are the same people who have been known to pay $500 for a hammer. No, something as important as religion needs to be taught at home.
 
Pinball1970 said:
King James I assume but I am sure they do not mention manuscripts.
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Oklahoma is about to be seriously ripped-off , paying $60 each for a book that normally costs $15-20. It does contain American founding documents that do not appear in the authentic version. Gee, I wonder whether there is a vested commercial interest in play....
I'd have no problem with kids learning what's in the Bible they hear so much about. I was curious enough to read it at 12-13 (takes a while to chew one's way through the boring books) and had trouble understanding some of it. So, okay - - if they were learning it in the historical context of its writing and compilation. I suspect, however, that what will be taught is the radically redacted version: just the passages that suit the administration's agenda.
Of course, if they read the Constitution and Bill of Rights (another slow chew, because I don't imagine those documents will be explained in any relevant context) they may have some issues with the OT text.
Gawdzilla Sama said:
It's funny that "Christian Nationalism" isn't more like the originating spirit, and be "Christian Socialism".
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Jesus may have been a nice guy, but he just didn't understand economics.
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
"Christian Socialism" aka "National Socialism*." No clear difference.


*The ruling paradigm of the Nazis.
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What things are called and what they are often differ widely. That doesn't mean we have to throw away functional words just because someone abused them.
 
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