Ignorance, Religion and Education

 

The relentless efforts of the Texas State Board of Education to intermix its religion of choice (a form of Protestant Christianity) with public education continue, and even accelerate. Not content with requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, it now seeks to make portions of the Bible (a Protestant version of it) required reading.  The extent to which such reading parrots the actual language of the Bible will, apparently, vary with the age of the students.

The Board is, of course, aware of the First Amendment.  It's also aware of the fact that a majority of the members of the Supreme Court are sympathetic to its quest to make our Great Republic a kind of theocracy, however, and so it feels it can actively pursue its goals and will ultimately be allowed to do so.

Because the first four of the Ten Commandments are devoted to the appropriate worship of the oddly jealous God it's claimed issued them, I find it hard to think the mandatory display of them in public schools doesn't promote the establishment of a particular religion or work to restrict others. 

But the selective, and shadowy, folk that make up the majority of the Supremist Court think otherwise.  So it's likely that they'll find a way to bless, as it were, any requirement that other portions of the Bible must be read by all public school students, Christian or otherwise.

It seems that some effort is being made to argue that the Bible contains stories which are part of the literary tradition of the West, and this justifies requiring them to be read.  This, it's maintained, removes any First Amendment concerns. But I think there's cause to wonder whether they'll be taught as fiction in the same way as other Western classics such as The Iliad.

 I doubt any teacher will risk the wrath of the Board by doing so.  I also doubt any will note the inconsistencies appearing in Genesis and other parts of the Bible or the plagues inflicted on Egypt or the slaughter of those living in the Promised land by the God of the Bible.  If reading the Bible as one would any literary wpork is to be mandated, though, how can one honestly  require that only portions of it be read and the rest of it censored?

Of course we also see the old canards that the Bible should be read in public schools because this is a Christian nation and founded on Judeo-Christian values.  Here we see the argument devolve drastically.  This is simply to make it obvious that the mandate is imposed because Christianity is being taught because that's consistent with our established religion.  

The Board and its supporters also thereby demonstrate their ignorance regarding the fact that the Founding Fathers relied much more on the structure of the Roman Republic and the writings of pagan political philosophers in founding this nation than they did on the teachings of Jesus as reported in the Bible.  That follows from the fact that Jesus advocated the abandonment of the family and established order, and taught the arrival of the Kingdom of God was imminent.  Why look to such a person to form a government or nation intended to last many years?

Ignorance is characteristic of those who believe in a religion which claims that it alone is true. So for that matter is the demand that it be taught to all.