Ignorance about religion is still fairly common around the world.
New curriculum guidelines set by the Texas Education Agency include biblical principles, and one reference is the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ most famous sermon on how to live a life full of love and grace that is pleasing to God.
But the new guidelines, which include biblical references, have sparked public backlash.
A recent news report by Austin’s CBS 5 called this historic event a “sermon on the mound,” and the Texas Public Policy Foundation believes this is a prime example of the cultural ignorance that still exists in the media and the country.
Shelley Sylvester, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said the new curriculum guidelines will help people better understand major historical events.
“What’s important to recognize about the content of the Texas Education Agency curriculum is that it provides a variety of historical reference materials that are extremely important to Western culture,” she said.
The “Sermon on the Mount” introduced the idea of being kind to people and treating everyone fairly, and Sylvester said it’s scary that people don’t know about arguably the greatest sermon of all time.
“This is part of Western culture, so educated Jewish students and Muslim students know this,” Sylvester said.
Sylvester said the guidelines were not meant to encourage school children to become Christians, but to teach them about the historical event in which Jesus gave a key speech and how it influenced Western civilisation.
“This is about giving people an understanding of the culture and the philosophical framework that we believe in as Americans,” Sylvester said. “Anyone who doesn’t know this is illiterate.”
