Texas Bible Course under Attack

By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent

CBN.com – DALLAS, Texas - Many Americans may find this hard to believe, but for the last 10 years, some 175,000 students have been learning about the Bible in their public high school classrooms.

It is a course that would make most born-again believers proud. It was produced by the National Council of Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. But the curriculum has come under severe criticism in the Lone-Star State.

Lawyer Mike Johnson advises the National Council of Bible Curriculum group.

He said, "In a nation that's ripped prayer out of the public schools and built such a high wall of separation between church and state, you might be surprised to find it's still legal to teach the Bible in public schools. But when it's done - how it's done can be quite controversial."

He also said the Supreme Court ruled it was ok to teach the Bible as an historical and literary document in 1963. "In Stone v. Graham in 1980, they reiterated that theme,” Johnson explained, “and said that the Bible could definitely be used in the classroom."

But a group called the Texas Freedom Network, based in Austin, went public in August with charges that the National Council's Bible course violates religious freedom, even though the course is an elective.

Kathy Miller heads up the group.

Miller stated, "Public schools ought not teach courses which interfere with the rights of parents to pass on their own religious beliefs to their children."

How does the National Council do that?

"The curriculum does promote a narrow Protestant perspective on faith," she said.

Miller's backed up by Professor Mark Chancey, who teaches biblical studies at the Southern Methodist University, but is also in a group closely affiliated with the Texas Freedom Network, called the Texas Faith Network.

Chancey has produced a 38-page critique blasting the National Council's Bible curriculum. "Whoever put it together,” he asserted, “the curriculum really reflects that person's own theological presuppositions."

A main charge of Chancey's is that the curriculum presents the Bible as the inerrant, inspired Word of God. Chancey says as a Christian, he believes the Bible is inspired, but it is wrong to teach that in public schools.

"What if students were being taught to read the Koran with the idea that the Koran is the Word of God?" Chancey asked.

But Johnson insists, no one teaching the curriculum properly would insist to a class that the Bible is the Word of God.

"Every teacher of this course is informed and instructed on the legal parameters,” he said. “They know that they can teach and not preach, they can present the Bible but not proselytize, they can educate but not indoctrinate students."

Chancey also critiques the way the curriculum presents the Bible as the main inspiration for the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents, and how it piles on what he believes are sometimes dubious quotes from Founding Fathers to prove that point.

He stated, "When I see probably fake quotations against the backdrop of the American flag in a Bible textbook, I'm a little uncomfortable with that."

But Johnson says that the history chapter Chancey has the most problems with is accurate, and about half of it "...Consists entirely of direct quotes from the Founders...the men and great leaders of the founding era...and so to the extent he has any gripe with that, he needs to take it up with the Founders, not the National Council."

Chancey has also charged that the curriculum is riddled with sloppy scholarship, and some cases of outright plagiarism.

But Tracey Kiesling bridles at Chancey's critique. She used to teach the Bible course at the high school in Brady, Texas, and liked it so much she became the National Council's main person to instruct other teachers all over the country on how to use the course.

Kiesling insists where critics like Chancey find actual errors, the National Council is happy to correct them.

"We have changed this curriculum at least five times since I've been involved," she remarked.

But Kiesling and other National Council members -- who tend to be quite conservative --have a particular disdain for their main attacker, Kathy Miller's liberal Texas Freedom Network.

Kiesling commented, "They are so far to the left that even most mainline Texas Democrats don't want anything to do with it."

"The Texas Freedom Network is the same group that's called the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional and a waste of the nation's time," stated Johnson.

As for the Texas Freedom Network's dependence on Chancey's critique alone, leading Christian historian David Barton says it is on shaky ground.

Barton said, "Here they've got one professor from a pretty left university, and yet across the nation you have hundreds of school board attorneys from blue states and red states who've looked at this and said, 'You know, if we get sued we'll have to defend this. This is constitutional. We can defend this.'"

National Council attorney Hiram Sasser pointed out that the Texas Freedom Network has no real case "... because if they had a real case, we'd see a case; we'd see a lawsuit."

When asked, Miller said, "Our goal wasn't to file a lawsuit or bash anybody. Our goal was to give information to parents, teachers, and school board members."

Chancey says, as a Christian, he resents the National Council's hard-hitting defense.

"They've said the report was produced by a radical humanist who is for censorship, against academic freedom -- an anti-religious extremist who's trying to ban the Bible from public schools,” Chancey declared.

Miller insisted, "What we're trying to protect here by making this report public is religious freedom. And to call that 'radical' is wrong."

But National Council supporters point out there is no way that its course abridges religious freedom.

"This is an elective course,” Kiesling said. “If parents don't want their children in there, they're not required to take this course. It's totally by choice."

And Johnson stated, "The Texas Freedom Network is ironically coming in as the greatest censor in the state of Texas."

Both Miller and Chancey object, saying they favor teaching the Bible, just not with this curriculum.

Meanwhile, Kiesling says the controversy has not put any dent in the growing popularity of the National Council's Bible course.

"The number of schools wanting to teach this, and calling us and requesting information and that type of thing, is growing every single day," she said.

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