Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Public Schools Should Teach the Bible
Wall Street Journal ^ | 03/01/2013 | ROMA DOWNEY AND MARK BURNETT

Posted on 03/01/2013 2:05:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Have you ever sensed in your own life that "the handwriting was on the wall"? Or encouraged a loved one to walk "the straight and narrow"?

Have you ever laughed at something that came "out of the mouths of babes"? Or gone "the extra mile" for an opportunity that might vanish "in the twinkling of an eye"?

If you have, then you've been thinking of the Bible.

These phrases are just "a drop in the bucket" (another biblical phrase) of the many things we say and do every day that have their origins in the most read, most influential book of all time. The Bible has affected the world for centuries in innumerable ways, including art, literature, philosophy, government, philanthropy, education, social justice and humanitarianism. One would think that a text of such significance would be taught regularly in schools. Not so. That is because of the "stumbling block" (the Bible again) that is posed by the powers that be in America.

It's time to change that, for the sake of the nation's children. It's time to encourage, perhaps even mandate, the teaching of the Bible in public schools as a primary document of Western civilization.

We know firsthand of its educational value, having grown up in Europe—Mark in England, Roma in Ireland—where Bible teaching was viewed as foundational to a well-rounded education. Now that we are naturalized U.S. citizens, we want to encourage public schools in America to give young people the same opportunity.

This is one of the reasons we created "The Bible," a 10-part miniseries premiering March 3 on the History Channel that dramatizes key stories from Scriptures. It will encourage audiences around the world to open or reopen Bibles to understand and enjoy these stories.

Without the Bible, Shakespeare would read differently

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: bible; publicschools
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-46 last
To: SeekAndFind
I graduated HS from a Christian sch. in PA in 1979. Thank God I went there (and that my father knew the headmaster from their own HS days [dad (RIP) graduated in 1955]).

ff

41 posted on 03/02/2013 5:42:08 AM PST by foreverfree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: trisham
Bingo!!

They'd end up teaching the Bible as well as they teach, reading, writing and arithmetic. Badly, at best. But everyone will know how to put on condoms, that America is evil, and that lesbian anarchist lumberjacks built America.

42 posted on 03/02/2013 7:23:53 AM PST by Jabba the Nutt (.Are they stupid, malicious or evil?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

To put it simply, the Bible is probably the single most influential book in Western culture. If you don’t understand it, your understanding of the culture in which you live is inadequate.


43 posted on 03/02/2013 10:05:32 PM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

As if religious belief violates civil liberty?


44 posted on 03/03/2013 2:51:04 PM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: 1010RD
No education can be religiously, politically, or culturally neutral.

Government schools never were, are not now, and never can be religiously neutral.

Solution: Begin the process of privatizing K-12 education. Work toward complete separation of school and state.

At their inception, our nation's system of K-12 socialist-entitlement and single-payer schooling was generically lukewarm in its Protestant worldview. It became progressively secular and by the 1960s was utterly godless. None of it from the beginning was, or is, religiously neutral in content or consequences.

Today, any child who cooperates in the government's godless classroom **will** learn to think and reason godlessly. They must just to participate. How could it be otherwise? How can this be religiously neutral? ( Answer: It isn't!) And...They risk learning that privately held religious belief is to be thrown in the trash can at the door to their public life.

45 posted on 03/03/2013 2:57:38 PM PST by wintertime
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
we want to encourage public schools in America to give young people the same opportunity.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I have a better idea. Abolish our nation's socialist-entitlement, single-payer, and compulsory K-12 schools! Privatize all of it!

Do that and we will see the blossoming of Western Civilization.

46 posted on 03/03/2013 3:01:37 PM PST by wintertime
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-46 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson