Last month, Texas schools received word about returning the Bible to school. The Texas Board of Education approved a modified Kindergarten through fifth-grade curriculum that allows teachers to discuss biblical stories in the classroom. According to Bluebonnet Learning, the company providing the state ecumenical curriculum, lessons will include stories about Moses and Jesus and parables about the Good Samaritan and the Golden Rule.
While this is glorious news for Christians across the Lone Star State, it wasn’t going to be that easy.
Canyon Independent School District, a suburb of Amarillo in the state’s panhandle, prepared to welcome the curriculum. Then, Superintendent Darryl Flushe sent an email to every parent on the mailing list that “the full text” of the Bible would no longer be permitted in schools due to deemed “sexually explicit material.”
So, is the Bible too raunchy for kids?
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A Banned Bible in a “Patently Offensive Way”
The vague aspect of Flushe’s email is that it seems as if the school district caved on curriculum rather than standing on the Word of God. He notes that in accordance with State House Bill 900, the Holy Bible is “unsuitable due to sexually explicit material.” The Texas Legislature passed SB 900 to “protect schools from sexually explicit or vulgar content,” which is defined in print as “any communication, language, or material” that depicts sexual conduct in a “patently offensive” manner.
Well, good on them. That’s the loophole allowing the use of a censored version of the Bible in the curriculum. Flusche tries to put parents at ease by noting that “30 titles are available in Canyon Junior High Library that are Bible stories or portions of the Bible.” While some parents try to understand stories about Noah and his sons once the flood is over, Sodom and Gomorrah, harlots in various books, what David did to woo Bathsheba, and then, there’s the Song of Solomon. (Seriously, “50 Shades of Solomon” is more like it. Read it. No, no, parents. God blessed that.)
Yet, not all parents are happy to hear that the Bible will not be available in its natural form.
The Christian Post spoke to Canyon ISD parent Regina Kiehne, who said that it “seems absurd…that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books [of sexually explicit content that was banned from the library].”
“In a day when we are needing security guards and bulletproof windows and doors, I think having the Word of God available to our children cannot only be preventative to violence, but also provide comfort and a sense of security in a chaotic world,” she said. “It just makes sense to have the Word of God in our school library. After all, it is the book of wisdom. It is the bestselling book of all time; it is historically accurate, scientifically sound, and most importantly, life-changing.”
Regina is right, but look around the red letters and pay attention to the stories. Would you want to explain some of those ideas to your 2nd grader? Aside from those questionable topics that happen in ancient and modern times (well, some of them), there are other psalms, proverbs, prophecies, and other promises that share the love of God in an intimate way. Any one of those scriptures can be enough to spark the life of God inside someone’s soul. Eventually, Christians get around to reading the entire Bible, but if it’s only John 3:16 that gets them in church or talking about Jesus in a personal fashion, God will use it for His glory.
In 1962, the Supreme Court heard Engel v. Vitale, in which it ruled that school-sponsored prayer violated the Establishment Clause, which is part of the First Amendment and prevents the government from favoring one religion over another. One year later, in the Supreme Court case School District of Abington Township v. Schempp, organized Bible reading for “moral instruction” was banned in schools. And that’s when the struggle became real.
One Giant Obstacle…Again
As each year passes, the struggle intensifies to get the Bible back in school. And just when Christians are this close, a last-ditch effort claiming obscenity gets in the way.
In November, the Texas State Board of Education narrowly voted to allow elementary schools in the state to teach lessons containing Bible-infused teachings, a move Democratic state Representative James Talarico branded “unconstitutional, un-American, and deeply un-Christian.” (source)
Get that: A move to get the Bible in the classroom with “Bible-infused teachings” is “deeply un-Christian.” Wait, what? At times, the enemy’s efforts don’t make sense, so we get fiery darts, and they miss. As they move to get the Bible back into the classroom, they know that there is a gigantic resistance. Society has pushed against it since 1962. Yet, we should not give up hope and possibly pick up a few stones along the way.
He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:43-47 NIV)
Now, 1 Samuel has some “explicit” stories, such as the Amalekite Massacre and the Witch of Endor. Kids may not get to hear about David and Goliath. (Although those two stories make 1 Samuel sound like pages torn from The Lord of the Rings.) Whatever the case, we learn a cardinal truth before David slings his five stones–the battle is the Lord’s. This one is, too. Trust in God to help educate our future and get the Bible in Texas schools (and across the nation). And keep good aim too, state legislatures. You never know when the next giant is coming.
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