Alabama Board of Education approves Bible textbook, Chuck Colson hopes God will speak to students

[Lobster Martini]

(LM: The surprising thing about this isn’t that the Board of Education approved a Bible textbook, it’s that they held a hearing and no one showed up. What, no one had an opinion?)

Alabama Picks a Bible Textbook

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 163 schools in 35 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.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20071023/us_time/alabamapicksabibletextbook;_ylt=AgvzrAkSNL22ll8LBuE04FCs0NUE)

[jody]

1. When students are given a choice of Bible or assigned text for an open-book test, they choose text.

[Sequoia]

2. Ole Chucky, Nixon's hachet man.

[Ezlivin]

3. I wonder which transliteration of the Bible that they use?

21st Century King James Version?
American Standard Version?
Amplified Bible?
Contemporary English Version?
Darby Translation?
English Standard Version?
Holman Christian Standard Bible?
King James Version?
New American Standard Bible?
New Century Version?
New International Reader's Version?
New International Version?
New King James Version?
New Life Version?
New Living Translation?
The Message?
Today's New International Version?
Worldwide English (New Testament)?
Wycliffe New Testament?
Young's Literal Translation?

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Why not offer PKDick's "VALIS" trilogy as an alternative?

There's certainly plenty of discussion of "the influence of religion" in there. :evilgrin:

[and-justice-for-all]

5. This country gets dumber DAILY!!!

This has got to be the beginning of the end. The bible has no bases for furthering any education purpose, but it is more a waste of time and diversion from real education that other civilized countries pursue. This is a prime example why the US is in the shitter, stupid and ignorant bullshit like 'bible ed', it is not even a full scope of world religion, it is a Sunday School Class paid for with public funds.

I think I need to really consider packing my shit and moving to the UK or Germany, a country that has plenty of commonsense and Government System that works for its citizens.

[and-justice-for-all]

6. Tell ANITA BUCKLEY what you think.

[e-mail]
Phone: [phone]

http://www.alsde.edu/html/sections/section_detail.asp?section=54&footer=sections