Sometimes I wonder if Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) has any brain function at all. The bills he introduces certainly don't show any evidence of it.
Chisum has now authored a bill that would mandate school systems to offer an elective course on the Bible. Chisum said the course would be taught "from a secular point of view", would need no books other than the Bible, and the teachers would need no training. What a bad idea!
First, just who's "secular" point of view is the course to be taught from. I seriously doubt he would want it taught from the secular point of view of an atheist, showing the Bible as an evil force that has caused much bloodshed and hindered the progress of mankind for centuries. But his bill as it is written would allow just that, along with a thousand other interpretations.
Surely he doesn't think that everyone believes in his own interpretation of the Bible. The huge number of different sects of christianity shows that the Bible can be twisted to justify thousands of differing beliefs.
While Chisum's bill would mandate the book be taught from a secular point of view, it is obvious that an untrained teacher would be poorly prepared to do that. Instead, they would teach it from their own, very probably religious, point of view. This would be guaranteed to irritate parents in nearly every school district, and probably produce a rash of lawsuits.
John Ferguson, a Howard Payne constitutional scholar and Baptist minister, gets it right when he says, "Without the training, without the financial support they need (for training), school districts across Texas are going to be riddled with lawsuits. Everyone would rather you spend your money on textbooks and teachers rather than attorneys and court fees."
School boards are doing a poor enough job of educating our youngsters without throwing lawsuits and religious roadblocks in their path. We need to concentrate on teaching secular subjects like math, science, geography, literature, history and political science. Leave the religious instruction to families and the religious institution of their choice.
Chisum needs to start thinking these bills through before offering them up. He was not elected to shove his own religious views on his fellow Texans. He is free to practice any religion he likes, but he needs to keep his religious beliefs out of our schools.
Chisum has found a tried and true method of throwing red meat to his voracious, salivating constituents. They eat it up every time.
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