Gov. Matt Bevin signs bill allowing Kentucky's public schools to teach the bible

You can teach the Bible as literature because a lot of things reference or draw from it.

For some reason, I'm not thinking this is what that is, though.
 
gabbo said:
I know this is more a rhetorical question, and the answer is laughable, but what educational value does this actually serve in 2017? Unless it's a critical theory or philosophy course (it isn't), this would have to be tossed out by the courts at the first challenge, no?
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There were times in English class when I would feel lost because biblical references in classic literature went over my head. Done properly, there wouldn't be much difference between a class studying the prose of the Bible and a class focused on something like The Iliad.
 
I had a comparative religion section in my public Middle School social studies class, but in that we compared several religions. It was basically just a single research paper.

But even as careful as they were about it, my teacher still seemed to show some Christian bias. Like I wrote something about Jesus being the son of god and he put a little note next to it saying something like "no, he IS God.

And I made a note about how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were kinda all the same basic "root" religions, they just splintered at certain points (bare in mind, I was like 13 so my analysis is about as basic as you can get) like Judaism+Christ=Christianity, and Christianity+Muhammad=Islam. And again the teacher made a little note like "yeah, not really" and that was it.

I remember a girl being really upset because she felt her paper was unfairly graded (I assume because she was critical of Christianity) and this was with our school being CAREFUL about tiptoeing around the line of teaching ABOUT religion and teaching religion. Just full blown allowing the bible to be taught in schools is just a bad idea.
 
Maker's Mark is the only good thing left in Kentucky.

btw we are edging closer towards being a theocracy every time this kind of thing happens
 
Of course they messed this up. When I was I high school, there was a section of my English class devoted to learned and studying the various religious texts. We read stories from the Koran, I think the Bible, and a lot of other texts. Hell, the class project was choosing a religion that we weren't familiar with and doing a report on it. Hands down one of the best High School courses I took. More schools should follow that approach, but I doubt that'll happen.
 
It's not bad if done correctly, I Read the Bible Senior year of (Public) High School for AP Lit, and it was focused on understanding it as the basis for a lot of literature in either quotation or archetypes, rather than arguing if the stories are true. The Bible should really be taught in schools the same way The Odyssey and Gilgamesh are taught.

Then again that was Massachusetts, and I don't have much confidence in Kentucky's schools.
 
Pretty sure that's against the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment...

That's your cue, Supreme Court.
 
iPorygon said:
It's not bad if done correctly, I Read the Bible Senior year of (Public) High School for AP Lit, and it was focused on understanding it as the basis for a lot of literature in either quotation or archetypes, rather than arguing if the stories are true. The Bible should really be taught in schools the same way The Odyssey and Gilgamesh are taught.

Then again that was Massachusetts, and I don't have much confidence in Kentucky's schools.
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Exactly.

It's a very important piece of literature that should be studied as such. Unfortunately, everything has to be a big fucking mess around anything regarding religion.
 
I look forward to the satanists handing out pamphlets with questions for students to ask like
"So god hated Lot's wife trying to look at this wrath, but was cool with Lot's daughters getting him drunk and banging him?"
 
Opto said:
I look forward to the satanists handing out pamphlets with questions for students to ask like
"So god hated Lot's wife trying to look at this wrath, but was cool with Lot's daughters getting him drunk and banging him?"
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"That was Old Testament God. You a Jew?"
 
Matt Bevin is a fucking moron, as is this stupid law, unless you're going to make it for ALL religion, which they won't. I hope someone sues the fuck out of them and wins the first time they're told they can't teach a Muslim, or something other than Christianity. Hell I'm surprised you can teach astronomy or science in the state. I tried to post this link and a really "nice" post, but I'm not a full member yet.
 
This could be awful or amazing depending on the teacher.

"Hey Paw, it says here we can buy people from other nations and own them as property!"
 
We had religious education in our school (although it was compulsory), it was easily the best and most helpful subject I took. It encouraged critical thinking, we weren't forced to take a particular side, we studied why the Bible was written the way it was and its place in history verse a contemporary society. I found learning about all the different facets of Christianity and their different interpretations of the Bible, including cults, extremely fascinating. It was a mixture of philosophy and history, and taught me how to write better essays than English class.

But I doubt they're envisioning anything close to that, we at least covered other religions in our class
 
Zoe said:
There were times in English class when I would feel lost because biblical references in classic literature went over my head. Done properly, there wouldn't be much difference between a class studying the prose of the Bible and a class focused on something like The Iliad.
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A critical analysis of the Bible from both a historical and literary (and the crossover that exists there) perspective would be excellent, but this: "The purpose is to "provide to students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture" doesn't sound like that.

It sounds like publicly funded Sunday School, or whatever the usual name for that is. IE Teach the Bible, not critique the Bible.
 
The Constitution isn't preventing Trump from doing what he wants, I guess he's setting an example for all.

And people will just sit there and laugh it off because it is hopeless.
 
Is this even constitutional? I thought it was hotly debated issue a long time ago. Either way, I always love the obvious double standard that Republicans always show. It's definitely a signature of the party at this point.
 
Laevateinn said:
We need a hero

michaelreedmug_1498655699669_9922527_ver1.0.jpg
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Captain%20Bible%20in%20the%20Dome%20of%20Darkness_9.png
 
I'm not opposed to elective based theocratic studies.

The problem is making sure more than Christianity is available and that it is taught in a scholarly format. Which obviously is not going to happen.

You know the first thing thats going to happen in bible 101: "Okay class, bow your heads for the opening prayer, take notes after!"
 
Meh, I mean it's an elective and people who are actually interested in having their kids brainwashed by that kind of thing already send them to religious private schools that don't teach evolution and such.

It's still gross but I don't think it's worth a disproportionate amount of outrage or anger. I'm glad the ACLU says it'll be waiting to jump on anything over the line.

My private middle school was only technically religiously affiliated and it had a class like this as an elective that was separate from the comparative religions elective. It was actually taught by the reverend from my parent's church (and mine at the time, I guess) and it was actually a well-taught objective critical analysis of the language of the scriptures. Was basically a literature course focusing on the Bible.

I'm sure it won't always be this way in these classes, though.
 
Now everyone can enjoy the Song of Songs:

Wikipedia said:
Scripturally, the Song of Songs is unique in its celebration of sexual love.[6] It gives "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy".[7] The two each desire the other and rejoice in their sexual intimacy. The "daughters of Jerusalem" form a chorus to the lovers, functioning as an audience whose participation in the lovers' erotic encounters facilitates the participation of the reader
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MisterShine said:
In a vacuum, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this.

The bible is the most influential text probably in human history, or at the very least in the English language. Having an elective high school class dedicated to it is reasonable. Sadly we don't live in a vacuum and this will probably be terrible.
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Well put, from a literature perspective I know I miss a ton of references and themes from having a very loose knowledge of the Bible when reading classics. But yeah, no way this is meant to be taught like a normal theology class in college is...

Also, not having more options for other religions as others have mentioned. A survey class with more strict language on what is to be taught would be better.
 
MisterShine said:
In a vacuum, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this.

The bible is the most influential text probably in human history, or at the very least in the English language. Having an elective high school class dedicated to it is reasonable. Sadly we don't live in a vacuum and this will probably be terrible.
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I agree. But in kentucky i wouldnt be surprised if a teacher got in trouble with some kids taking the class expecting bible study by trying to play it straight by saying things like "now many scholars do not think he literally lived this long" or "there is debate as to the meaning of this". I can just see the clash with some kid that just knows it's all true raising their hands after every attempt by the teacher to bring the stories into the realm of reality.
 
I learned about the Bible in school and that helped me immensely with US history and literature.

Caveat is that my teachers were good and knew what they were doing.

This tho...
 
Why does it need to be in public schools though? Universities and colleges have some great courses in Theology and when kids are older and have more adept minds wouldn't that be an even better time to compare it to contemporary society and culture because they will have a better understanding of it?

Or am I expecting too much out of Kentucky?
 
I took world religions in high school and college which led me to become the atheist I am today.

Somehow I think Kentucky will just preach Jesus and totally infringe on separation of church and state.
 
TheSchwab_7 said:
I took world religions in high school and college which led me to become the atheist I am today.

Somehow I think Kentucky will just preach Jesus and totally infringe on separation of church and state.
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Yea, I don't trust what their approach is going to be. If it's going to be a completely historical document and how it affected cultures throughout the world, then sure go ahead. But I'm absolutely certain somewhere in Kentucky there's going to be a delving into the book and they're going to state what happened in that book as fact.
 
Pretty sure that if you're going to teach kids about any religion in Kentucky it should be Islam, right? Because they're going to be exposed to Christianity throughout their lives regardless. They don't need the extra education on that, they should learn something new.
 
Should have "other theories" presentable like they've done for science class. If you have to consider creationism in science class, then alternative texts and books should also be taught in a Bible class.
 
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