{"id":1495,"date":"2018-02-15T21:05:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T02:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2020-02-22T14:59:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T19:59:34","slug":"bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252<\/a>, which would require all schools to offer an elective social study course in the \u201cHebrew Scriptures, Old Testament of the Bible; an elective social studies course on the New Testament of the Bible; or an elective social studies course on the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament of the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also requires that federal and state laws be followed regarding religious neutrality, and was based on a similar bill that recently passed in Kentucky.<\/p>\n

The bill states its purpose is to:<\/p>\n

Teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since then two committee meetings have been held to discuss the bill and a revised version of the bill was introduced. It doesn\u2019t require schools to offer the elective, but instead gives them the option to do so. So far, no action has been taken to move the bill forward.<\/p>\n

Sen. Azinger explained why he cosponsored it:<\/p>\n

The reason it\u2019s the Bible only is because America was essentially founded on the Bible. It was integral to our founding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those who oppose it don\u2019t oppose it because they oppose Christianity, but because they are concerned about impartiality and the \u201cseparation of church and state.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a February 1 Senate Committee meeting, Sen. Mike Romano, D-Harrison, expressed his\u00a0concern:<\/p>\n

Can we singularly teach one particular religion? Even though Hebrew Scriptures are part of the Bible, we are really only teaching Christian texts. I\u2019m fine with that. I\u2019m a Christian but I\u2019m just wondering if we have to leave this open to teach other religions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Azinger then remarked that the bill wasn\u2019t about religion, but was about the Bible. He added,\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re talking about the book that had more influence on America than any other book up to 1963. America was built on biblical principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angela Mann, a principal at Peterstown Middle School, told the committee that public schools already don\u2019t have the resources to provide electives. She said, \u201cThe problem is in West Virginia, we don\u2019t have the money to provide barely any electives besides what is required.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Romano also\u00a0offered<\/a> an amendment to the bill that would allow teaching all religions in social studies classes. It failed by a vote of 5-7.<\/p>\n

The senate bill comes after similar ones were introduced by Delegate\u00a0Ralph Rodighiero (D-Logan) in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2015, HB 2499\u00a0called for<\/a>\u00a0\u201cmaking available, as an elective course of instruction, the history of the old and new testaments of the Bible\u201d by the completion of 12th grade. It did not make it out of the House Education Committee. In 2016, again a similar bill and outcome, and the same in 2017 with HB 2073.<\/p>\n

Of these bills Rodighiero said<\/a>,<\/p>\n

The history of the Bible is fact\u2014it\u2019s factual history. Why not have that as an elective,\u00a0something as popular as the Bible? A child should have a choice about what they want to learn about in their history class.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 2018 senate bill comes after the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF)\u00a0sued West Virginia school districts last year over what it claims was a violation of the First Amendment. The suit resulted in halting Mercer County\u2019s\u00a0\u201cBible in the Schools\u201d program last April and its teachers lost their jobs.\u00a0By November the lawsuit was dismissed after the program was suspended in May.<\/p>\n

The Mercer County Board of Education voted to suspend the \u201cBible in Schools<\/a>\u201d program for at least one year in order to review and modify the program. The Bible program was still offered as elective classes at Bluefield and PikeView high schools.<\/p>\n

According to debate.org<\/a>, 59 percent of poll respondents agree that the Bible should be taught in public schools.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to offer an elective social study course in the \u201cHebrew Scriptures, Old Testament of the Bible; an elective social studies course on the New Testament of the Bible; or an elective social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1910,"featured_media":1498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[972,970],"tags":[139,1351,1354,1357,1360,1366,1363],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","category-politics","tag-bible","tag-ffrf","tag-mike-azinger","tag-mike-romano","tag-public-schools","tag-ralph-rodighiero","tag-sue-cline"],"yoast_head":"\nBill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hedgerow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-16T02:05:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-22T19:59:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/442\/2018\/02\/BITS_color_logo.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"554\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"421\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bethany Blankley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BethanyBlankley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bethany Blankley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/\",\"name\":\"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-16T02:05:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-22T19:59:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#\/schema\/person\/ddbc3167252adedc06fd1075cad248e4\"},\"description\":\"On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/\",\"name\":\"Hedgerow\",\"description\":\"Soul Libertie and the Wilderness Garden\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#\/schema\/person\/ddbc3167252adedc06fd1075cad248e4\",\"name\":\"Bethany Blankley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57b084e23490cb23c6e08fcd268739c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57b084e23490cb23c6e08fcd268739c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Bethany Blankley\"},\"description\":\"Bethany Blankley is a former Capitol Hill staffer, political analyst on public radio and Fox News affiliates, public speaker and commentator on Christianity and politics in America. Her commentary has been published by The Washington Times, Townhall, Religion Today, Charisma News, Christian Headlines, BeliefNet, and others. Follow her at @bethanyblankley and www.bethanyblankley.com. Her articles about state and federal public policy are published nationwide by The Center Square newswire, a publication of the Franklin News Foundation. Bethany previously worked as a communications strategist for four U.S. Senators, a U.S. Congressman and New York governor, and for several nonprofits. She earned her MA in Theology from New College at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and her BA in Political Science with honors from the University of Maryland. She is a past fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal and L'Abri Fellowship.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.bethanyblankley.com\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BethanyBlankley\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/author\/bblankley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools","description":"On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools","og_description":"On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/","og_site_name":"Hedgerow","article_published_time":"2018-02-16T02:05:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-22T19:59:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":554,"height":421,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/442\/2018\/02\/BITS_color_logo.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Bethany Blankley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@BethanyBlankley","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bethany Blankley","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/","name":"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-02-16T02:05:50+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-22T19:59:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#\/schema\/person\/ddbc3167252adedc06fd1075cad248e4"},"description":"On January 11, 2018, West Virginia Senators Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, introduced Senate Bill 252, which would require all schools to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/2018\/02\/bill-allow-teaching-bible-classes-west-virginia-public-schools\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bill Would Allow Teaching Bible Classes in West Virginia Public Schools"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/","name":"Hedgerow","description":"Soul Libertie and the Wilderness Garden","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#\/schema\/person\/ddbc3167252adedc06fd1075cad248e4","name":"Bethany Blankley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57b084e23490cb23c6e08fcd268739c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57b084e23490cb23c6e08fcd268739c6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Bethany Blankley"},"description":"Bethany Blankley is a former Capitol Hill staffer, political analyst on public radio and Fox News affiliates, public speaker and commentator on Christianity and politics in America. Her commentary has been published by The Washington Times, Townhall, Religion Today, Charisma News, Christian Headlines, BeliefNet, and others. Follow her at @bethanyblankley and www.bethanyblankley.com. Her articles about state and federal public policy are published nationwide by The Center Square newswire, a publication of the Franklin News Foundation. Bethany previously worked as a communications strategist for four U.S. Senators, a U.S. Congressman and New York governor, and for several nonprofits. She earned her MA in Theology from New College at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and her BA in Political Science with honors from the University of Maryland. She is a past fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal and L'Abri Fellowship.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.bethanyblankley.com","https:\/\/twitter.com\/BethanyBlankley"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/author\/bblankley\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hedgerow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}