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There’s a push for classes on the Bible in public schools
Legislators across the country have reignited the fight for, and debate over so-called “Bible literacy classes” — elective courses in public schools about Scriptures’ impact.
Alabama, Florida, Missouri, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia are among the states that have seen Bible literacy bills so far in 2019. Several of those efforts have fallen along the wayside.
While advocates for such classes believe students ought to be able to learn about the Bible’s influence on world history, culture and language, opponents tout separation of church and state and their concerns that teachers might possibly stray into proselytizing.
Missouri’s House Bill 267, nearly identical to other states’ drafted legislation, allows and encourages public high schools to adopt elective classes focusing on the history, writing style and influence of “the Hebrew Scriptures or New Testament.”
Doug Jacobson has a unique perspective on the matter: He’s pastor of Eureka Baptist Church in Richland, Missouri, and elementary superintendent at the small public Swedeborg R-3 School District.
Jacobson — who has officiated at weddings of former students and is asked to pray for the families of students — agrees with those who say a comparative religion class could be a less controversial route for educators, rather than emphasizing the Bible.
“Why not open it up to world religions and all different faiths, then you’re not trying to proselytize anyone into any particular religion or denomination,” he said.
The pastor-superintendent said that many of the Bible’s core moral teachings are already ingrained in the way that we teach children.
But backers of bills that promote a “Judeo-Christian framework” for classes were buoyed earlier this year by a January tweet by President Donald Trump, “Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!”
Florida and the King James version of the Bible
Several of the Bible literacy bills have already been struck down or are no longer being considered in current sessions.
Legislation filed in Florida — which recently died in committee — is typical of the debate over the Bible and public classrooms.
“One thing that the Bible does teach is wisdom,” Rep. Mike Hill, co-sponsor of Florida’s House Bill 195, told CNN last month. “I don’t think anyone could deny that we so desperately need wisdom in our public schools right now.”
Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a fellow Republican co-sponsor of the state’s Bible literacy bill, told CNN that classes would focus on the Bible as a work of literature, specifically the King James Bible, an English translation used in Protestant churches.
“The King James Bible is considered one of the two or three greatest works of literature in Western civilization. This is a class that recognizes that and focuses on the language of the book,” Sabatini said.
Mark Chancey, an expert on the political, academic and constitution issues raised by Bible courses in public schools, says selecting a specific translation of the Bible can lead to unconstitutional territory. The professor cited the Philadelphia nativist riots of 1844 that broke out partially over the use of the King James version in public schools and what some called anti-Catholic rhetoric.
“If a course says, ‘We’re going to use the King James,’ then they’re basically — knowingly or not — promoting Protestantism,” Chancey said during an interview with CNN. He said that there is nothing wrong with examining this translation, but the most constitutional approach would include multiple translations.
Linda K. Wertheimer, author of “Faith Ed: Teaching about Religion in an Age of Intolerance,” said while Bible literacy classes could be beneficial, they generally don’t aim to educate students for the sake of critical thinking.
“The question is, are they really creating these courses to improve both biblical literacy and religious literacy?” she told CNN. “Or are these particular courses that are being started right now part of the effort from the religious right or evangelical Christians to push Christianity back into the schools?”
Project Blitz and the backlash
The movement behind Bible literacy classes has ebbed and flowed throughout the past 20 years, but is the most emboldened during the years under a Republican leadership in the White House.
The Republican Party put the Bible literacy push into writing in its official 2016 platform: “A good understanding of the Bible being indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry, we encourage state legislatures to offer the Bible in a literature curriculum as an elective in America’s high schools.”
A key supporter of such classes is the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation and additional evangelical conservative groups, who together created Project Blitz. This aims “to protect the free exercise of traditional Judeo-Christian religious values and beliefs in the public square, and to reclaim and properly define the narrative which supports such beliefs.”
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has been fighting Project Blitz for more than a year, arguing that “church-state separation as the only way to ensure freedom of religion.”
The group sent a letter to Florida legislators in response to the pending legislation, warning of the potential for proselytizing and putting pressure on pupils to take classes “designed to promote a particular religion.”
CNN reached out several times to the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation for comment but received no reply.
Are classes a Trojan horse for a bigger agenda?
Schools districts that currently or may one day offer Bible literacy classes are walking a potential tightrope.
Who would be qualified to teach such an elective course?
The Missouri bill would have instruction in a social studies setting and establish guidelines “in maintaining and accommodating the diverse religious views, traditions and perspectives and students in the school.” A student would be able to use his or her own translation of the text.
Chancey, a professor at Southern Methodist University, said that regardless of a teacher’s intent, missteps happen — which can land them in legal trouble.
He first began examining classroom curriculum for dozens of Bible classes across Texas during the 2005-06 school year, then even more in 2011-12.
Chancey said that his studies found most of the classes were problematic. Throughout his report, Chancey laid out examples of proselytization of students, teaching elements of the Bible as fact, use of pseudoscience, among other things that some teachers were practicing. Two Texas school districts dropped the classes several years ago.
Opponents see such school offerings as a Trojan horse to bring far-right Christian views into schools.
Heather Weaver, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, says it’s rare that these classes hold legal muster.
“Although they are often dressed up in neutral terms and they say these courses are not allowed to promote religion, these schools know that when it comes to implementing these courses, students are subjected to religious proselytizing and minority students are subjected to feeling excluded when these courses are offered,” she said.
State Rep. Aaron McWilliams co-sponsored North Dakota’s Bible literacy bill, which failed to advance to a final vote earlier this year.
It would have allowed students to replace any half-unit of their three required social studies credits with Bible studies. The North Dakota division of the ACLU called the bill “blatantly unconstitutional” and said school districts would likely be subject to litigation.
McWilliams told CNN he introduced the bill for his “mainly Judeo-Christian” constituency. “You can like or hate Christianity, but it’s very hard to expel the influence that it’s had on world history,” McWilliams said.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/07/theres-a-push-for-classes-on-the-bible-in-public-schools/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Joe Budden Goes After Kanye West: “Justifying Bigotry and Scamming… God Help Us All”
Kanye West recently held a ‘church sermon’ at Coachella. Odd enough, but that’s Kanye’s MO: take things to the next level. But many feel that this was just another stunt in a long line of offenses from Kanye. This includes Kanye endorsing Trump, ranting during his concert about how Jay and Bey do not set up play dates for North and Blue, and the infamous ‘slavery is a choice‘ situation.
The Sunday service merch included $50 ‘church socks’, in addition to the expensive Yeezy gear. Just as many were outraged at the Yeezy clothing prices, many were even more enraged when Kanye started making ‘money off the church’. Joe Budden, one of those people, tweeted “From justifying bigotry on your ppl to Church merch and Coachella choirs… God bless us all,”.
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Southern Baptist Leaders Promise ‘Change’ After Report Uncovers Rampant Sexual Abuse
Article via HuffingtonPost
Almost 400 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct since 1998, according to a damning report.
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest faith group in the U.S., have vowed real “change” in the aftermath of a damning investigative report by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that uncovered decades of sexual abuse by hundreds of church leaders and volunteers.
According to the three-part investigation, the first installment of which was published on Sunday, about 380 Southern Baptist pastors, ministers, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, deacons and church volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct since 1998. More than 200 of them have been convicted or took plea deals, the newspapers reported, and nearly 100 are currently in prisons across the nation.
The victims of the accused number more than 700, the report said. They include teenagers and children, some as young as 3, who were “molested or raped inside pastors’ studies and Sunday school classrooms.”
Many victims said their stories of abuse were ignored or silenced by church leaders. One victim, who alleged she was raped and impregnated by her pastor when she was a teen, said her church leaders had urged her to get an abortion. When she refused, they threatened her and her child, she said.
Dozens of pastors, employees and volunteers were reportedly allowed to return to work in Southern Baptist churches despite being dogged by sexual abuse allegations.
In the aftermath of the Chronicle’s and Express-News’ report, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have promised to crack down on abuses in the church and to provide a safe space for victims to come forward.
In a multipart tweet on Sunday, J.D. Greear, SBC’s president, said he was “broken” by news of the rampant sexual abuse and vowed to “pursue every possible avenue” to “stopping predators in our midst.”
“We — leaders in the SBC — should have listened to the warnings of those who tried to call attention to this,” Greear wrote, though he did not indicate whether he had been approached personally by victims. “I am committed to doing everything possible to ensure we never make these mistakes again.”
“As a denomination, now is a time to mourn and repent,” Greear added. “Changes are coming. They must. We cannot just promise to ‘do better’ and expect that to be enough. But today, change begins with feeling the full weight of the problem.”
Russell Moore, president of SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said in a blog post on his website that “no church should be frustrated” by the newspapers’ reporting but should instead “thank God for it.”
“The report is alarming and scandalous, the courage and grace of these survivors is contrasted with the horrific depravity of those who would use the name of Jesus to prey on them,” Moore wrote.
Michael Criner, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bellville, Texas, tweeted that he was “grieved” by the report and called for change in the convention. Hance Dilbeck, the executive director-treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, said in a statement that he welcomed the investigation’s findings.
“Jesus teaches us to be more critical of ourselves than we are of others. In as far as this article helps us to deal more honestly and clearly with sexual abuse in our churches, and more redemptively with survivors, I welcome it. We need strong voices from within our fellowship and from the outside pushing us to strive to do better,” Dilbeck said.
The SBC, which was also shaken last year by a series of sexual abuse allegations, is a fellowship of more than 47,500 autonomous Baptist churches. With 15 million members across the United States, it’s the country’s second-largest faith group after the Roman Catholic Church, The Washington Post reported.
In his blog post, Moore insisted that “church autonomy is no excuse for a lack of accountability.”
“Yes, in a Baptist ecclesiology each congregation governs its own affairs, and is not accountable to anyone ‘higher up’ in a church system. And yet, the decisions a church makes autonomously determine whether that church is in good fellowship with others. A church that excuses, say, sexual immorality or that opposes missions is deemed out of fellowship with other churches. The same must be true of churches that cover up rape or sexual abuse,” he wrote.
Feds Launch Sex Abuse Probe Of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church
The Department of Justice has launched an investigation of child sex abuse within Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church, sending subpoenas to dioceses across the state seeking private files and records to explore the possibility that priests and bishops violated federal law in cases that go back decades, NPR has learned.
In what is thought to be the first-ever such inquiry into the church’s clergy sex-abuse scandal, authorities have issued subpoenas to look into possible violations of the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, also known as RICO, according to a person close to the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The source did not elaborate on what other potential federal crimes could be part of the inquiry, which could take years and is now only in its early stages.
RICO has historically been used to dismantle organized-crime syndicates.
Officials at six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Scranton and Harrisburg — have confirmed to NPR that they have recently received and are currently complying with federal subpoenas for information. The two remaining dioceses did not return requests for comment.
A Justice Department representative in Washington, D.C., would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the investigation.
Legal experts said accruing enough evidence to build a RICO case against the Roman Catholic Church — basically treating the influential institution as a crime syndicate — will be a burdensome task.
Hamilton of Child USA, for one, said she thinks using federal RICO as a weapon against the church would be a stretch, since the 1970 law is not designed to deal with problems such as sex abuse and other personal injury cases. Instead, she said, most RICO cases involve financial crimes. “I hope that they can find a way to make it fit, but it will be challenging,” she said.
However, Hamilton said a federal statute called the Mann Act, which prohibits moving people across state lines for the purpose of illegal sex acts, could be a more promising legal avenue.
“As we know, there have been plenty of priests who took children across state lines,” she said.
Tobias, the law professor who specializes in federal courts, said whatever comes of the investigation, the issuing of the subpoenas has likely sent a jolt across the country. If the inquiry of the Pennsylvania church results in criminal charges, it could be used as a road map for federal prosecutors hoping to pursue abusers in other states.
“Pennsylvania might be the first state where the federal government does this,” Tobias said. “But then they build on the lessons they’ve learned there, as DOJ often does when they have a national issue, and go to the other states and use that template again.”
Article via NPR