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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'How to torture a Jew': Parent outraged after Bible class antisemitism
Link to tweet
Andrew Weinstein
@Weinsteinlaw
We really need an explanation as to why its acceptable for Tennessee public school students to learn how to torture a Jew in Bible class, but reading a cartoon novel about the Holocaust is simply a bridge too far.
jpost.com
'How to torture a Jew': Parent outraged after Bible class antisemitism
A teacher told students that they could "torture a Jew" by making them say the transliteration of God's name out loud.
2:15 PM · Feb 6, 2022
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-695704
A parent of a Jewish student expressed outrage after a Bible class teacher at a public school near Chattanooga, Tennessee pushed Christian ideology and advised students on "how to torture a Jew."
Juniper Russo, in a post that was reposted on her wife's page after Facebook deleted the original post for "hate speech," wrote that she had been hesitant to enroll her daughter in the "Bible in the Schools" elective program, although it was meant to teach the bible from an unbiased and non-sectarian viewpoint as a literary document.
Russo added that she had enrolled her daughter in the program because she has disabilities that made the other available electives in that time block inaccessible to her.
According to the parent, the teacher of the "Bible in the Schools" program at East Hamilton Middle School, gave students a syllabus that included what she called "incredibly abrasive" language and rules that would allow her to refuse to let children go to the restroom.
Assignments given to students included questions such as "do you read the Bible at home?" and "which books of the Bible have you read?" Students were told a story about an atheist student who took the class to "prove it wrong" and later ended up "realizing it was true."
*snip*
multigraincracker
(32,632 posts)wnylib
(21,300 posts)They do door to door or drop off pamphlets in public places. They would not participate in a public school program where they are employed by someone else who calls the shots. They believe that they must not participate in any government programs.
multigraincracker
(32,632 posts)called Yaweh Witness.
wnylib
(21,300 posts)in the Bible.
When I was in junior high, my best friend's mother was a former Catholic who had joined the JW church. She was trying to raise her daughter, my friend, as JW but it wasn't working well. Behind her mother's back, my friend did as she wanted. Her father remained Catholic and he let her get away with what she wanted. But, I learned about some of the JW rules and customs through my friend.
multigraincracker
(32,632 posts)The derived forms Iehouah and Jehovah first appeared in the 16th century. Jehovah was first introduced by William Tyndale in his translation of Exodus 6:3, and appears in some other early English translations including the Geneva Bible and the King James Version.
wnylib
(21,300 posts)historically accurate. I knew that it was later form, but did not know the source. Thanks.
jaxexpat
(6,790 posts)Started just up the road in Kentucky early last century.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,811 posts)What part about separation of Church and State is so hard to understand?
albacore
(2,398 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,811 posts)Honestly, the separation of Church and State thing should keep this class from happening. Or do they have a Buddhism class? Islam? Mormon?
wnylib
(21,300 posts)A non religious, non sectarian class to teach the Bible as literature. But, since this is in Tennessee, you can be sure that the stated goal of the course is total BS and the real goal is to slip religious teaching into public schools.
Dial H For Hero
(2,971 posts)This was in the late 1970's.
sir pball
(4,737 posts)It was very clearly described as a purely literary work of fiction, my teacher even kept referring to "this God character". Nobody so much as batted an eyelid.
ShazamIam
(2,564 posts)our History and the schools should concentrate on those portions that are referenced in the national dialog and why and really they should posit the obvious, the Old Testament is used by three major religions, Jewish, Christian and Muslim.
Some of the lies are kind of official, like the U.S. being founded by people seeking religious freedom, which ignores the early Virginia settlements and others that were Crown Colonies and ignores New Amsterdam a trading colony, etc.
rockfordfile
(8,695 posts)Irish_Dem
(46,417 posts)Damn them to hell.
Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)canetoad
(17,133 posts)"I drew a hard line and withdrew my daughter from Bible class when it actually turned hostile on February 2," Russo wrote on Facebook. "[The teacher] wrote an English transliteration of the Hebrew name of G-d on the whiteboard. This name is traditionally not spoken out loud, and is traditionally only written in the Torah. She then told her students, 'If you want to know how to torture a Jew, make them say this out loud.' My daughter felt extremely uncomfortable hearing a teacher instruct her peers on 'how to torture a Jew' and told me when she came home from school that she didn't feel safe in the class."
https://news.yahoo.com/torture-jew-chattanooga-mother-raises-230100120.html
Demovictory9
(32,415 posts)Farmer-Rick
(10,134 posts)Of these Nazi scum and now they are here teaching our children.
All because a bunch of idiots voted for a psychopath for president who is a Nazi sympathizer.
I am so embarrassed to be from Tennessee right now.
soldierant
(6,782 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)Those idiots would probably argue that Jesus wasn't Jewish.
soldierant
(6,782 posts)which would be quite a surprise to him.
Not that he wouldn't know exactly what to say. He was good at that.
Skittles
(153,104 posts)seriously
PlanetBev
(4,104 posts)Deprive me of bagels and lox and matzoh ball soup. A transliteration aint gonna do it.
electric_blue68
(14,807 posts)Partly grew up in a NYC 2/3 Jewish neighborhood.
Love bagels, no lox for me, and love matzoh ball soup.
(despicable action by the teacher!)
AdamGG
(1,284 posts)There's wall to wall churches in the bible belt and kids have ample opportunity to focus on that, if they want. With test scores on basic Math, Science, English at low levels and many arts electives being cut, kids don't need more bible inserted into public schools.
And, teaching it from an unbiased and non-sectarian viewpoint as a literary document isn't going to happen. If a teacher in Tennessee claims that it's pretty lousy writing, parents will be outraged. It's not appropriate subject matter for public school. The right tries to make it illegal to teach actual aspects of American history, and then wants to fill kids' time up with this.
Captain Zero
(6,777 posts)But the intent of the course was being subverted by the instructor who obviously is a Nazi. are we surprised they would use it this way?
AdamGG
(1,284 posts)Teaching the Bible as literature in a nonbiased way is about as likely to happen in a public school in Tennessee (and much of this country) as the Qur'an is to be taught solely as literature in Pakistan.
There's enough other literature for school children to study without bringing religious texts into the mix. The vast majority of them are already exposed to this book. School should be about broadening their horizons and exposing them to more things, not spending yet more time on something they're already saturated with.
robbob
(3,522 posts)That made me laugh out loud. Im just trying to picture it
ok, so waters covered the earth and then when the waters receded God created the rainbow as a promise to never try and murder us all again? Eureka! It all makes sense now!!!
I mean, at what moment in the bible study class did this atheist suddenly realize its all true?
Ray Bruns
(4,070 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(144,870 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,915 posts)Mock us, deny us, betray us, belittle us, condemn us, or just ignore us, seems more and more that history is echoing really loudly.
Ray Bruns
(4,070 posts)70sEraVet
(3,472 posts)I just don't trust a public school (especially in Tennessee) to do it. I can imagine how the process of selecting a teacher for that class went:
Principal: "So, the School Board has decided that we will offer an elective class next year, called 'A Nonreligous Look at the Bible as Literature'. Are any of you interested in teaching such a class? OK, I see a few hands up. But ... You there. Yes, the young lady who just cut off her left arm so she could raise it with her right arm."
RobinA
(9,884 posts)objectively teaching the Bible As Literature in a Tennessee public school, I'm thinking it's not the Jewish people who are going to be the most upset.
70sEraVet
(3,472 posts)RobinA
(9,884 posts)M
AdamGG
(1,284 posts)some Jews might be upset too.
Either way, the point of studying actual literature is to enhance writing and interpretive skills and there's thousands of books that are far far better suited for that than the Bible that won't inevitably tie into people's personal theological agendas.
Bettie
(16,058 posts)That this elective is failing the stated goal:
"Bible in the Schools" elective program, although it was meant to teach the bible from an unbiased and non-sectarian viewpoint as a literary document.
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)The Book of Genesis was taught as the factual story of how the universe was formed, Russo wrote, and the correct answer to a test question, "It is important to read the Bible even if you are not Christian or Jewish" was true.
The mother said the class was shown videos from the BibleProject, a nonprofit that creates animated resources about the Bible and believes "the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus."
Russo said the school took her concerns seriously, but the Bible teacher refused to meet with her or the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga to discuss how the curriculum was problematic.
https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2022/feb/05/bible-class-issues/562843/
The BibleProject, according to this article, is a nonprofit that funds the Bible teaching course with $1.8 million given to 29 schools.
RobinA
(9,884 posts)to get my head around the idea of a cartoon about the Holocaust.
TrogL
(32,818 posts)DeeNice
(575 posts)'Students were told a story about an atheist student who took the class to "prove it wrong" and later ended up "realizing it was true."'
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,462 posts)At first the meetings were fun and the bible talk was only a few minutes in the end.
Then they wanted to sign us up to a big young life event in ocean city.
They made it look like a lot of fun.
But when I got there it was exciting getting our hotel rooms meeting new roommates and eating at the huge buffet,but soon after that it turned cocercive.
There was droning bible classes for hours,up too early to bed really late all day we sat on the hard floor while they announced you couldn't go out the door. They had counselors in black outfits standing at all the exits.
Eventually my butt was in agony from the floor and I had to pee so bad I was gonna lose it. I walked up to the guard at the door and said look if you dont let me out to pee I will drop my pants and pee right here.
I said this really loud.
I even unbuckled my belt like I was gonna pee right there. Everyone turned around to see who said that.They let me out to pee.
I didnt go back in there.
Went walking on the beach found another person who was staying out of the group.We had a blast hanging out together that day..
So we skipped all the groups for the next 2 days.
I suspect these bible groups wanted to lure kids into more deep cult crap just like young life tried to do to me.
And they are using public schools as a recruitment tool. And testing the water about how far can it go until parents step in.
Just like young life did.
Thats what I think.