Recently, the Kentucky Education Committee unanimously passed a bill that would allow educators to instruct Bible literacy classes through the state's public school system and would require the Kentucky Board of Education to draft an elective core content course based upone religious ideology.
The course, mandated in Senate Bill 278, focuses on enhancing students' knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, law and narratives, with the intention of providing students with analytic skills and historical context which would serve as a foundation for understanding contemporary society and culture.
State legislators insistently gaslight that the course will be more educational than religious in content.
"Senate Bill 278 would not teach the Bible — it would teach about the Bible," said State Sen. Gerald A. Neal. "The Bible isn't something we should run away from"
The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Robin L. Webb, introduced the bill to the state Senate on March 3. She said that the proposed Bible class would not be much different than any other literature course, Webb, who boast that she practiced constitutional law for 30 years recently pandered to the Lexington Herald-Leader that the measure "passes constitutional muster."
Thankfully there are those looking out for separation of church and state here. Opponents, such as the ACLU of Kentucky, have pointed out that it could be harder to implement truly unbiased lessons.
"Because although there certainly are acceptable ways to teach about the Bible to public school students — such as teaching comparative religion classes or about the Bible’s relationship to literature, art or music — the fact remains that it is difficult, in practice, to do so in a constitutionally permissible manner," said William E. Sharp, the legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky. "Moreover, the ACLU of Kentucky maintains that parents and religious leaders, not government employees, should teach religious beliefs to children.”
The course, mandated in Senate Bill 278, focuses on enhancing students' knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, law and narratives, with the intention of providing students with analytic skills and historical context which would serve as a foundation for understanding contemporary society and culture.
State legislators insistently gaslight that the course will be more educational than religious in content.
"Senate Bill 278 would not teach the Bible — it would teach about the Bible," said State Sen. Gerald A. Neal. "The Bible isn't something we should run away from"
The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Robin L. Webb, introduced the bill to the state Senate on March 3. She said that the proposed Bible class would not be much different than any other literature course, Webb, who boast that she practiced constitutional law for 30 years recently pandered to the Lexington Herald-Leader that the measure "passes constitutional muster."
Thankfully there are those looking out for separation of church and state here. Opponents, such as the ACLU of Kentucky, have pointed out that it could be harder to implement truly unbiased lessons.
"Because although there certainly are acceptable ways to teach about the Bible to public school students — such as teaching comparative religion classes or about the Bible’s relationship to literature, art or music — the fact remains that it is difficult, in practice, to do so in a constitutionally permissible manner," said William E. Sharp, the legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky. "Moreover, the ACLU of Kentucky maintains that parents and religious leaders, not government employees, should teach religious beliefs to children.”
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