Americans United Urges South Carolina School District To Discontinue Biased Bible Class

Excerpted from Americans United for Seperation of Church & State:

The elective at Fort Dorchester High School is based in part on two textbooks that Americans United charges promote a mostly Christian interpretation of the Bible The Bible and Its Influence published by the Bible Literacy Project and material produced by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.

“The purpose of public school classes should be education, not indoctrination,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “Some of the material being proposed for classroom use in South Carolina reads more like a Sunday School lesson than objective academics.”

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...portions of the curriculum produced by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools have already been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court, and use of the group’s materials is currently being challenged in a federal lawsuit in Odessa, Texas.

It also points out that academic experts have criticized the Bible Literacy Project’s The Bible and Its Influence for pushing a Christian perspective, lacking rigorous scholarship and relying on writers and editors who are not biblical scholars...

The argument long held by apologists who endorse teaching a course on the Bible has always been a plea for balance and education, yet everytime they offer an elective to do so they use unqualified hacks instead actual scholars who have spent their academic lives studying the matter. Why is that?

Editor's note: Emphasis added by editor.