Bible Textbook for Public Schools Planned

An interfaith nonprofit group called the Bible Literacy Project from Fairfax Virginia is releasing a new textbook aimed at teaching public high school students about the Bible while avoiding legal and religious disputes.

Five years and $2 million was spent developing "The Bible and Its Influence." The textbook apparently has the approval of a fairly wide range of legal, religious and literary experts. One advisor was quoted as saying "And it will short-circuit people who would take religion entirely out of the public school curriculum."

Which to my mind is the problem. I don't see anything wrong with teaching about the bible for literary purposes. Simply the fact that it is referenced so widely in Western Literature almost requires a knowledge of the scriptures. Unfortunately people don't spend $2 million dollars to produce a $50 textbook in order to educate America's Youth out of the goodness of their hearts. These books invariably turn into an attempt to endorse, if not a specific religion, then religion in general as something worthy of admiration and respect.

And who says it is worthy of admiration and respect? Not the persecuted pagans. Not the witches burned and hung during the middle ages. Not the victims of the Inquisition and not the Native Americans brow beaten into accepting a foreign religion and who had much of their cultural heritage destroyed by overly zealous missionaries. Tell me are they going to tell the stories of the attempted genocide commited against the native peoples of Canaan, Jephthah's sacrifice of his virgin daughter, the Rape of the Concubine and Lot's incest or just the "feel good" bible stories? Would you like me to render a guess? Shall we ask the gay community how much they appreciate the bible?

American High School students probably know as little about Shakespeare as they know about the bible, and maybe less. There are quite a few Shakespearian references in western literature too. You see a Shakespeare Literacy Project putting together a textbook? Alas poor Yorick, methinks something is rotten in the state of Virginia.

I'm also concerned about the even handedness of the historical presentation. For example, I see in the sample pages the standard hoopla about the Hebrew Exodus out of Egypt being a victory for freedom with chapter titles like "Out of Slavery" and "Exodus and Emancipation." I hope they also include the arguments from the bible in Genesis 9:24-27 used in the American South to justify first slavery and then segregation.

There is some speculation that the Exodus is in fact the expulsion of the Hyksos out of Egypt. The Exodus may therefore have been a retreat before a victorious Egyptian army rather than a flight to freedom. Does the book mention this historical perspective from the writings of the Egyptian historian Manetho or only the Hebrew version of events?

Has the bible been influential? Absolutely, but not all of its influence has been positive. As a matter of fact, one could make the argument, that on the whole, its impact upon humanity has been more negative than positive. You think the book considers the negative influences?

Ok, the fact is these are some of my concerns and not criticisms because, obviously, I haven't actually read the book. It may in fact be a perfectly fair handed, literary treatment of the bible. Yeah, right, and we still might find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq too. You'll excuse me if I refrain from placing a wager on this one.