CNA Staff December 4, 2024 / 9:45am
The Texas Board of Education is sparking new debate about the role of religion in public schools after the agency approved a new language arts curriculum that includes the Bible.
The K-12 curriculum, available starting this spring, features an interdisciplinary approach that uses reading and language arts to enhance other subjects. The Bluebonnet learning curriculum has come under scrutiny for its references to Christianity and the Bible, including lessons from Genesis and the Psalms as well as the New Testament.
For example, the parable of the Good Samaritan is part of a lesson plan on the Golden Rule. The program is voluntary, but schools receive funding per student to cover the cost of the program if the student participates. Participating schools are expected to begin the program in the 2025-2026 school year.
Critics of the curriculum say it could “entrench religion in public life” and “undermine protections afforded to religious minorities,” the Texas Tribune reported. I’m concerned. Other critics feared this could ostracize students from different faith backgrounds, with one parent calling the curriculum “indoctrination”.
But Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, a group that supports the curriculum, said understanding the Bible can deepen students’ understanding of Western history.
“These materials were attacked for no other reason than to completely remove all references to religion and the Bible from the classroom, creating an environment hostile to free speech,” Castle said in a statement. said.
catholic view
When asked about Texas’ Bible curriculum, Father Steve Grunow, CEO of Word on Fire, said the curriculum’s goal of emphasizing “the cultural impact and moral perspective of the Bible” is ” It’s commendable,” he told CNA.
Professor Grunow emphasized that the Bible’s global influence is “so great that it should not be ignored in any academic curriculum.”
However, he noted that this goal will be difficult to achieve. “The unresolved and often volatile question is how best to do this,” he noted.
“The Bible not only has cultural value, but also holds the status of being God’s revelation to believers,” he noted. “No interpretation of its meaning or significance can be characterized as neutral, and it is clear that the Bible itself does not present its purpose as relative. It is intended to convince us.”
Grunow noted that parochial schools were established with this concern in mind.
“Modern Catholics may not remember, but one of the factors that led to the establishment of parochial schools was the infiltration of Protestantism in the public school curriculum, particularly in the presentation of the Bible,” Gourneau explained. . “The first conflict between Catholics and public schools and other institutions in this country was not that they were secular, but that they were Protestant.”
Has the curriculum crossed the line?
A professor at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law pointed out that while religious conversion is unconstitutional, religious education is not unconstitutional, considering the legal aspects of the curriculum.
(Story continues below)
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“From a constitutional standpoint under current law, there is, in principle, no illegality in Texas’ actions,” said Mark DeGirolami, co-director of CUA’s Center on Law and People.
“What is currently not allowed is ‘proselytization’, which means teaching certain religious views as true and others as false,” he told CNA. “But from what I’ve seen in the proposed curriculum, this is not what Texas is currently proposing. And it does not teach about religion, including the historical and cultural connections between the American republic and Christianity.” is not prohibited.”
However, this can be a difficult line to walk. “Of course, the line between teaching about religion and teaching religion can be blurred. A lot depends on the implementation of these curriculum policies,” Desirolami said.
When asked if he thought the curriculum could be a violation of religious freedom, Grunow agreed with Degirolami. It is unconstitutional only “if the purpose is sectarian and proselytizing.”
“I think most Americans have no problem with the Bible being presented in public schools. That’s not an issue,” Grunow said. “The problem is that the Bible, people who believe the Bible is God’s revelation, people who believe in different interpretations, and people who may understand the cultural importance of the Bible, but they don’t accept any violation of the Bible. It’s about how to do this while respecting those who are on guard.” Religion in public institutions. ”
“The Texas curriculum attempts to overcome these concerns,” Grunow said. “I commend their efforts, but only time will tell the effectiveness of this effort.”
Some critics have threatened legal action, but Mr Desirolami said such opposition was “on the wrong foot”.
For Desirolami, excluding certain religions in education means “a world in which what children are being taught, especially in public schools, appears to be, at least to me, quite profound in their moral and religious education. So that seems discriminatory.”
In other words, excluding Christianity would be discriminatory, since religious and moral values are present throughout education anyway.
“School curricula aim to teach children certain basic skills and develop certain civic, moral, political and cultural views,” he explained. “These civic, moral, political, and cultural views presuppose answers to some very basic questions that are also addressed in Christianity and many other religions.”
For Desirolami, Christianity should not be excluded from civil and moral discussion.
“To say that Christianity should not be included in the discussion because it is “religious” is to exclude certain substantive positions that are unwelcome or that critics think are wrong.” “religion,” he said. “But if they are wrong, critics should just say so and explain why, rather than excluding them as definitively inappropriate or out of scope in the first place.”
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer at Catholic News Service and a College Fix fellow. She has published articles in the Wall Street Journal, Denver Catholic Register, Catholic Vote, and is a graduate of Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.
