New Hanover high schools in Wilmington, North Carolina, offer a voluntary Bible class which is being investigated - and for good reason. People aren't happy about the ACLU inquiry, but it's clear that the school administrators haven't tried to exercise much in the way of oversight or control, allowing the class to get out of hand and thereby forcing an outside investigation.

Journal Now reports:

Is a class as secular as courts require if it says, for example, that the Bible’s fulfilled prophecies give testimony to the fact of God’s existence? What if local churches pay the teachers’ salaries? And what if only believers teach? ... Losing the classes would be worse than canceling calculus, said Don Vigus, the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bible, the church-supported group that hires and pays the teachers.

Notice that an outside religious group funds the class — it isn’t funded by the school itself and, therefore, isn’t technically under school oversight when it comes to pedagogy, content, etc. This is the only case where the school does this. They don’t let Nike hire and pay for gym teachers and sports coaches, for example. The Committee, of course, makes a person’s faith part of the job requirement, something the school cannot do. To call such a practice “problematic” is an understatement.

It looks like they are trying to create “plausible deniability,” so that if they are problems with the classes, they can claim to not be involved. It won’t work. They are providing the room and the time, so they are responsible.

The Executive Committee has been paying for classes in New Hanover County for more than 50 years. And left to a vote, it might easily do so for 50 more. Just a whiff of the ACLU’s involvement brought out a long line of speakers to last month’s school board meeting, all opposed to removing lessons about the “anvil on which our Constitution was formed.”

It doesn’t sound like the classes are being defended on the basis of their academic quality and uses — they are being defended on more religious grounds. Not everything in the class is a sermon, the evidence is clear about that, but the evidence is also clear that the Bible is not being taught from an academic, objective perspective:

Harris referred to creation and made statements such as the Bible is one book, which has 66 smaller books, 40 authors and one central theme: “The redemption of man through Jesus Christ.” Those simple claims might be plain as day for some Christians. But they’re not true if you’re a scholar who may see many hands behind books such as Psalms, or if you’re Jewish and unlikely to find Christian redemption in the Old Testament.

“In my view, teaching the Bible as one book with the unifying theme of ‘the redemption of man through Jesus Christ’ crosses the line from an academic study to a specifically Christian interpretation of the Hebrew Bible,” said Thomas Schmid, chairman of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s religion and philosophy department.

Ashley Hebert, a junior in one of Harris’ classes, is quoted as saying “He’s not trying to cram Christianity down your throat or any religion.” Obviously Harris is promoting one religion. What are the chances that Ashley Hebert doesn’t recognize it because it’s her religion which is being promoted and, therefore, she cannot comprehend how members of other religions would react?

That’s a symptom of a larger and significant problem in America: too many Christians lack the “moral imagination” necessary to even think about, much less understand, how other people can and will react to certain situations. They treat their own perspective and reactions as the “norm” and the only appropriate way for anyone to (re)act. When others act or react differently, it’s not because of legitimate differences, but because there is something wrong with them. This prevents such Christians from being able to handle pluralistic communities because a working pluralism requires an ability to accept and deal with differences in others.

 

Separation of Church & State:

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• What is the Separation of Church and State?
• Religion's Place in the Public Square
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Religion in Public Schools:

• Religion in Public Schools: News
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• School Holidays: Good Friday & Easter
• School Holidays: Christmas
• Arguments Against School Vouchers

 

Christian & Religious Privilege:

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