Posted on 01/10/2005 1:01:59 PM PST by wmichgrad
(AP) — A yearlong dispute over whether to add a religious group's Bible class at small-town Frankenmuth High School in rural Michigan comes to a head at Monday's school board meeting.
At issue is whether the proposed curriculum conforms to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision barring public schools from indoctrinating children in religion but upholding the right to teach about religion.
The dispute in Frankenmuth, about 75 miles north of Detroit, is the latest skirmish in a nationwide battle between religious conservatives and church-state separationists that has stretched from Fort Myers and Miami, Fla. to Camden, N.J.; North Kansas City, Mo.; Kewaksum, Wis.; and Westcliffe, Colo.
One year ago, hundreds of Frankenmuth parents and students asked their Board of Education to offer a Bible course based on materials from the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.
The Greensboro, N.C.-based council says its curriculum conforms to the law. But People for the American Way and the American Civil Liberties union say its materials illegally promote religion.
"It's religious right people who want to impose a theocracy in this country," said Judith Schaeffer, deputy legal director of Washington-based People for the American Way. Her group has urged Frankenmuth to reject the class.
National council lawyer Mike Johnson vigorously defended his group's course outline.
"It's completely defensible. The approach is objective, certainly nondenominational," Johnson said from Shreveport, La. "It presents the Bible as history and literature, but it does not proselytize."
The curriculum, based on the King James Bible, includes topics ranging from "Periods of Hebrew History in the Old Testament" to "The Parables of Jesus — Literary Genre."
In a letter to Frankenmuth school officials, Schaeffer said the course material teaches the Bible from a Protestant Christian perspective, rather than objectively, and teaches the creation story, Noah's flood, Tower of Babel and resurrection of Jesus as history.
National Council does not release the names of districts that use its materials. But Johnson said 288 schools in 35 states have adopted its course outline.
At the eye of the storm is David Pendleton, president of the seven-member board on which he has served for 20 years. The district in Michigan's rural Thumb has about 1,200 students, 500 of them at the high school.
"It's stirred up about as much controversy as the abortion issue," he said.
Founded in the mid-19th century by Lutheran missionaries to the Indians, and followed by German pioneer farmers, the Bavarian-themed tourist town of 4,600 remains a conservative community, Pendleton said.
As far as most board members are concerned, teaching the Bible at Frankenmuth High School would be a good thing, he said.
"I would love to see it. Other board members would love to do it. But can we do it legally? I don't think so. But, we'll see," he said.
The dispute came to a boil at a Jan. 13 school board hearing, when parents Marcia and Robert Stoddard submitted petitions signed by about 1,200 parents and students asking for the course, The Saginaw News reported.
About 100 people filled the Rittmueller Middle School cafeteria, with shouts breaking out at one point between an avowed atheist and a course supporter.
"It's our history, and we must accept it," the paper quoted high school student Dan Redford as telling the board. "It would be a crime to stop students from learning about our world."
Classmate Brandon Bierlein disagreed, saying, "It's best to leave the Bible to the pastors."
The school board will get a report Monday from a curriculum committee, made up of teachers and administrators, and will decide whether to adopt the proposed class, Pendleton said. He said he doubts the board will do so.
While opposing the National Council on Bible Curriculum's course, People for the American Way says that public school instruction about religion and the Bible is legal and desirable.
"Schools of course can teach students about the Bible, about the Quran, about people's beliefs," said Schaeffer of People for the American Way. "The issue is how do you approach this material."
Religion lies at the center of American society, and an educational system that ignores religion renders the nation's history incomprehensible, said Charles Kriker, founder of the journal Religion and Education and a retired professor at Iowa State University.
"You really can't understand things if you exclude that factor," he said from Ames, Iowa. "Just because something is controversial doesn't mean you have to ignore it."
On the Net:
National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools: http://www.bibleinschools.net
People for the American Way: http://www.pfaw.org
Ping to self for later pingout.
Interesting bit of trivia. John List, murderer of his mother, wife, and children was from Frankenmuth.
Not to mention there is nothing in the Constitution from teaching religion in a public school.
Teaching about a religion in a school is NOT the same as 'Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion..'
Public school administators are NOT congressman!
If its an elective, who cares ?
They know that but they don't care. They make their own laws.
This is a town that makes a career out of Christmas and they can't seem to be able to teach their kids about the Bible in school. Kind of like not being allowed to teach petroleum science in Texas.
bump
Not only was the actual Bible used as a text for millions of American school children, but a lot of the Bible and it's moral lessons and history was incorporated in the widely used McGuffy's Readers, a series of primers which were in widespread use from 1836 until well into the 20th Century. More than 80% of American public school children were at one time being taught with these superb texts.
If you examine the 7th Reader, you will find material in it which today would be applicable to collegiate graduate schools - all being taught in public high schools. Those were marvelous and fruitful days in public education, before the Bible was suddenly discovered as prohibited literature by an utterly disgraceful and wrong Supreme Court.
Ever since then, American public schools have been dying in every way. So has public life and culture in America. Do you think there might be some connection?
One of the reasons Catholics started making their own schools was because they did not like the schools using Protestant Bibles
I didn't know that, but I guess it makes some sense. McGuffey's used the King James Version also.
However, I can't remember any Catholics objecting. But maybe I just wasn't paying attention because I was too young - or maybe they didn't care in our small town. Religion never was that much of an issue that divided people until the Supreme Court and groups like the ACLU started making it an issue. I even had Jewish friends who went to Church, said the prayers, sang Christmas carols, etc. We seemed to repect whatever anybody believed in and not take issue.
Small conservative towns such as this...the parents should purchase the school from the town and run it privately.
I am sure it could be done.
Not to mention there is nothing in the Constitution from teaching religion in a public school.
Teaching about a religion in a school is NOT the same as 'Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion..'
Public school administators are NOT congressman!
Well, Supreme Court rulings over the years have expanded that prohibition to any government official establishing religion or inhibiting its free exercise.
Secondly, unless one is very careful, it's difficult to teach about a religion without either endorsing its establishment or inhibiting its free exercise.
I do agree with the professor from Iowa, though, that it's necessary to have an understanding of religion to understand American history; and that controversial issues shouldn't be shied away from.
FRANKENMUTH, Mich. - A rural school district will not offer a religious group's Bible class as an elective high school course, ending a yearlong debate.
The school board in Frankenmuth, about 75 miles north of Detroit, decided with one dissenting vote Monday to not offer the "Bible As Literature and History" class at Frankenmuth High School, following the recommendation of school Superintendent Michael Murphy.
The proposed class would have been based on materials from the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools of Greensboro, N.C.
Murphy said the class was not academically rigorous enough and said current classes in English, art and history, already include studies on how the Bible affects American society.
"It goes beyond talking about religion and becomes faith-based," Murphy said.
The district has about 1,200 students, 500 of them at the high school.
Murphy said the rejection was not based on the threat of lawsuits, and school board members said the decision did not rule out future consideration of similar classes. Gary Pickelman was the only dissenting board member.
"Why is it that students can't read the Bible in school when prisoners can in prison? Why do I have to swear on a Bible in court, when the Ten Commandments cannot be displayed on federal grounds? Our society is messed up," he said.
The proposed class had raised the issue of whether the curriculum would have conformed to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) decision barring public schools from indoctrinating children in religion but upholding the right to teach about religion.
The council says its curriculum conforms to the law. But People for the American Way and the American Civil Liberties union say its materials promote religion.
At a meeting year ago, backers had submitted petitions signed by about 1,200 parents and students asking for the course. About 100 people filled a middle school cafeteria, with shouts breaking out at one point between an avowed atheist and a course supporter.
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