Bible Study Classes Optional For Texas Public Schools

According to an article published by The Dallas Morning News, Attorney General Greg Abbott made the decision that a Bible Study elective will not be required of Texas public high schools. This decision came about after much confusion over a bill that was passed in the Texas Legislature in 2007.

In a statement released by the Texas Attorney General the legislation “authorizes but does not require school districts and charter schools to offer elective courses on the Hebrew Scriptures and its impact, or on the New Testament and its impact.” In other words, schools can offer a separate bible elective class if they want to, but it is not mandated by the Texas government that they do so. Many school officials were worried over possible legal problems that having a required Bible class would have. In the politically correct society we live in it would certainly draw an uproar among parents and activists who are offended by the very notion of kids praying in public schools.

The Attorney General made it clear that his legal opinion included the idea that it should be mandated that public schools incorporate some coverage of the Bible’s impact on history. Of course the Bible should be added to the curriculum. What those who want to ban the Bible from public schools totally and the easily offended don’t understand is that among all the works in literary history, whether you believe the texts or not, the Bible has had one of the greatest impacts on history, Western literature, art, and music. I would support a world history course that talked about the impact Christianity and the Bible has had on Western history, Islam and the Koran has had on North African and middle eastern history, and the impact Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, and philosophies and religions like that have had on Eastern history. These religions have influenced societies, cultures, and in various instances the governments and policies of the countries in which they are practiced.

If we are to discuss Western history, our history, then we must not forsake the Bible or Christianity. The overly offended may throw a pc fit over it, but if we are to ban the Bible from public schools then what else should we ban? Should we ban authors who have taken influence from stories of the Bible? I guarantee you will find the list of appropriate books under such a policy quite short. Should we ban Handel’s Messiah or Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring from choir class? Should we ban Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 from orchestra? Should be ban some of the most infamous works from artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, or Raphael Sanizo from art class? Should we sit back and let overly pc people edit history so that it is more politically correct? This should anger any student of history that there are people out there who seek to rewrite the events of the past to fit their own agenda.

A mandatory Bible elective course should not be advocated, and Greg Abbott was right in his decision on the matter, but if you are going to study Western history, Western literature, art, or music than you must be educated on the influence that the Bible has had on all of these subjects.