DISCUSS: Mandatory Bible In Public Schools?

My home state of Oklahoma is requiring that the Bible be incorporated into the curriculum of its public schools. What do you think of that?

Here is another factor to consider: What theology do you think children will be getting along with their Bible instruction? In the 19th century, American schools were quite free about teaching the Bible and praying in the classroom, all in the context of generic Protestant civil religion. But we Lutherans, like Catholics, chafed at the kind of religious instruction given in those public schools and started our own parochial schools instead.

Wouldn’t that principle still hold? Of course, today we don’t really have a generic Protestant civil religion, and we certainly don’t in public schools, even in conservative states like Oklahoma. Do we really want public school teachers to teach our children the Bible? What will they say about it? To be sure, though, there are solidly Christian teachers. And isn’t a little Bible better than none? Or is this a mixing of the kingdoms to the detriment of the church?