Local who led the fight for bible classes in public schools, suddenly finds out why us '(add your own untrue insult, I've heard em' all)' types said it would not work. AND, it was pretty blamed obvious to ME what the board was up to. Guess he had too much faith in them.

http://www.gomemphis.com/newca/local/waters/e6faith12.htm

---------------------------------------------------- Courses about whose Bible?

This just in:

The Shelby County School Board has approved a new course for high school students. It's called "New Testament Math: Why it all adds up to John 3:16."

I'm kidding, of course. If only the county school board were kidding about two new courses it has approved - Bible History I and Bible History II.

Earlier this year, I wrote in favor of the idea of a Bible course in county schools. The Bible is the most important book in human history, I wrote. A Bible-free education is an incomplete education, I wrote.

In my defense, I wrote that way back in January, before it became obvious what some school board members were up to.

Now I have copies of the board's applications for state approval of the two new courses. Now a Bible class in county schools doesn't seem like such a good idea.

How should I put this? Reading the applications reminds me of something Archie Bunker once said on TV's All in the Family: "Yes, I admit Jesus was Jewish - but only on his mother's side."

School board members say they don't understand why the state rejected the applications. They've asked their chairman to find out.

Don't bother. It isn't that complicated. As presented in the applications, the courses are religiously biased.

Bible History I "traces the origin and development of the Old Testament." Bible History II proposes to do the same for the New Testament.

One of the stated goals of the second course is to present "a knowledge of the world after the close of the Old Testament and prior to the birth of Jesus."

Here's the problem. The Old Testament is a Christian document. And dividing Biblical history into two segments - before and after Jesus - is a Christian concept.

Such an approach puts the county's tax-supported public school system in the position of favoring one faith - Christianity - over all others.

That's not only unconstitutional; it's unfair and dishonest.

Obviously, the intent of some school board members is to teach the Bible from a Christian (and narrowly Protestant) perspective. They want Sunday school in the public schools.

If members truly were interested in teaching students about the Bible, they wouldn't use exclusively Christian terminology or timelines.

Sure, the New Testament is a Christian document, but to recast the entire Bible in primarily Christian terms isn't just biased - it's wrong.

In the beginning was Judaism, not Christianity.

The "Old Testament" is a Christian reorganization (and reinterpretation) of the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible.

The Tanakh begins with the Torah - which is not merely the first five books of the Bible, but for Judaism the decisive revelation of God.

Jesus (the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua, or Yehoshua) never read the "Old Testament." He studied and quoted the scrolls of the Hebrew scriptures.

Mary, Joseph, Jesus and all the disciples were Jewish. Except for the books of Luke and Acts, the "New Testament" was written entirely by Jews who studied the Hebrew scrolls.

This is not to say that religious bias is the only problem with these proposed Bible classes.

The county's applications list "The Bible" as the "official textbook" for both courses. It doesn't specify which of the hundreds of versions of the Bible would be chosen.

Not that it would matter. Somehow, the board has managed to take the world's most thrilling and transforming theological manuscript and reduce it to a chronological pile of facts and figures.

For example, another one of the goals for Bible History II is "to present to the student a chronological study of the life and teachings of Jesus."

I can imagine one of the test questions: "Jesus is quoted as saying `Love your enemies' before or after he met Peter's mother-in-law?"

Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh about this. This is one of those "survey" classes that are thousands of years wide and an inch deep. Facts and figures are all they'll have time for.

What a shame.

The Bible isn't a textbook or an encyclopedia. It isn't a collection of facts and figures to be memorized and tested.

The Bible is a collection of books of profound meaning and wisdom that reveal the nature of God and of God's will for mankind.

"The scripture of the Jewish people does not simply record historical facts, but by its interpretation of history, the Jewish scripture seeks to ask and to answer the fundamental questions of human existence," Peter Gomes wrote in The Good Book.

"Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? What does it mean to be good? What is evil and how do I deal with it? How do I deal with death?"

Those are not multiple-choice questions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Waters's Faith Matters columns run on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. To contact him, call 529-2399 or E-mail waters@gomemphis.com

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2000

Answers

Hey, look at the bright side; at least this guy not only realized he was wrong, actually posted a column to explain it.

A truly rare event these days. I think it's a good sign.

Sigh....yes, I'm ever hopeful.....

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

A friend of mine who is Hindu once confessed to me, in all seriousness, that he prays for protection from Jesus' followers.

Can you imagine the kind of knots that would develop in their underwear if a group of Muslim students insisted on stopping classes completely at certain points during the day so they could pray to Mecca?

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

A friend of mine who is Hindu once confessed to me, in all seriousness, that he prays for protection from Jesus' followers.

Would you do me a favor Tarzan, and ask this gentleman to visit this site and post the details himself, firsthand and allow us to discuss his experiences? This sounds very interesting.

Thanks,

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

David-

I'd be happy to, except that he's in India. He and his wife had their first baby a couple of months ago and they have gone back to show him off to the folks and the extended family. He'll be back in January.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000