aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, January 27, 2006

Let’s try Bible study in the public schools

In Dover may be over, but the problem’s not I wrote, “My reaction to the Dover decision is an increasingly firm belief that we should teach religion in the public schools.”

Today the Times tells of 2 Southern Democrats, one from right here in Georgia, who are promoting a Bible study class I’m inclined to support:

Democrats in both states have introduced bills authorizing school districts to teach courses modeled after a new textbook, “The Bible and Its Influence.” It was produced by the nonpartisan, ecumenical Bible Literacy Project and provides an assessment of the Bible’s impact on history, literature and art that is academic and detached, if largely laudatory.

The Democrats who introduced the bills said they hoped to compete with Republicans for conservative Christian voters. “Rather than sitting back on our heels and then being knocked in our face, we are going to respond in a thoughtful way,” said Kasim Reed, a Georgia state senator from Atlanta and one of the sponsors of the bill. “We are not going to give away the South anymore because we are unwilling to talk about our faith.”

I’m less inclined to like what they’re saying in Alabama, but I support them too:

In Alabama, a deeply religious state where Democrats support prayer in the schools and a Democratic candidate for governor recently introduced her campaign with the hymn “Give Me That Old Time Religion,” the Bible class bills reflect Democrats’ efforts to distance themselves from the national party.

“We have always had to somewhat defend ourselves from the national Democratic Party’s secular image, and this is part of that,” said Ken Guin, a representative from Carbon Hill, leader of the Democratic majority in the State House and a sponsor of the measure.