The following story, which appears immediately after my comments, is just one of several that I have come across in the past year about defunct Bible classes in high schools. . . . The Excitement of the Bible . . It is really pathetic that Bible courses do not attract crowds of students instead of almost no students. It would be useful to know the exact reasons why, so the best that can be done, with no such studies available, is to guess the reasons for the failures. Here are my conclusions about why Bible classes in the schools usually come to an end : . ( 1 ) Classes are taught from the perspective that the Bible is cut and dried ; that once you know the traditional interpretation of the book, there is little else to say. This might also be called the "Potemkin Village" view of the Bible, or --with apologies to some really good Sunday school teachers I remember from years ago-- the Sunday school version of the Bible. . ( 2 ) Students have no conception at all about the excitement that is current in the field of Biblical studies, about scholarly debates and what is at stake, about Atheist attacks on the Bible and controversies that result, about the neo-Gnostic movement and its use / misuse of the Bible, about the history of Hollywood use and abuse of the Bible, and about the pervasiveness of the Bible in American literature and many of the arts. . To offer my personal view as a lifelong student of the Bible, and as a scholar of the Bible, it takes a really unimaginative man or woman NOT to communicate the excitement that is in the book, the sheer adventure of seeking answers to a great many mysteries in its pages, not to gain a sense of pride in the enormous and continuing influence the Bible had and still has in literature, political speeches and expressions, philosophy and critical thought more generally, and personal lives of innumerable people. . But I will also say this : If you are a Biblical literalist you will miss the excitement, you will not begin to see the adventure, and you will be oblivious to the impact the book has had, and continues to have, upon popular culture and the arts. Indeed, if you are a literalist and you read these comments the question that may well come immediately to mind might be : What in the world could he possibly be talking about ? . So, let me refer, briefly, to just a few selected themes : . ( 1 ) Where does the Genesis story come from ? It turns out that early versions are now known from ancient Mesopotamia, ca. 2500 BC and before. The differences and similarities to the Bible are fascinating and instructive. They also raise all kinds of basic questions, like : Why was a Goddess prominent in the first versions of Genesis ? Why was there such variety in those Mesopotamian versions ? To what extent does the version of Genesis in the Bible presuppose understanding of Mesopotamian history ? . ( 2 ) There are three versions of the Great Flood story known from Mesopotamia. Why did the people of the world's first civilization create three different version of this saga ? Why did the Bible authors adopt this story as their own ? Each story has a different setting and presumes at least somewhat of a different set of religious values. What can we learn that is useful to us in the here-and-now from each of these stories ? Including and especially the Noah version from the Bible. And how has the Flood story been made use of in movies, humor, and morality tales ? . ( 3 ) The book of Job is a literary masterpiece that still raises fundamental questions about human nature and the human mind. The impact of Job on literature has been important generation after generation. But Job, too, has antecedents in ancient Mesopotamia, with the earliest version being Sumerian and dating to almost the beginning of writing itself , ca 2700 BC, followed by the Babylonian version that seems to be the most likely source for the rendition of Job we find in the Bible. What do each of these versions of the Job story tell us about human psychology ? About morality ? About standards of judgement ? And by way of mystery, just where was the fabled land of Uz ? Hint : If you are satisfied with encyclopedia answers or summary conclusions of various scholars, you really "don't get it." . ( 4 ) Song of Songs. Ever actually read this short book of the Bible ? It is, simply, the most beautiful love poem ever written. And if you like Song of Songs, you also should like the similar love poetry of ancient Sumeria. But Song of Songs is so superlative, so Excellent, that it is in a class by itself. . ( 5 ) Was Jesus married ? One thing is certain, he had many women companions. Exactly what his relationship was to Mary Magdalene is unclear, but one thing that is as obvious as things get, is that women had importance among the very first Christians that goes largely unacknowledged in traditional Christian faith, Catholic or Protestant. There are endless possibilities for exploring issues pertaining to women and the first Christians from reading Luke, or Matthew, or the book of Acts, or Paul's epistles. And there is the Valentinian composition written maybe a generation after Luke, the Gospel of Philip. In that version of the Christian story, Mary Magdalene is either Christ's wife or at least his mistress. You are free to disagree, of course, and maybe disagree vehemently, and that is OK. But the point is that this is fascinating stuff and it can easily provoke discussion and debate. . . . These examples are just a warm up. They make it clear that the Bible is exciting from the first book in it to the very last books in it. But only if you really know the scholarship, only if you are open-minded enough to find good in searching among many different approaches to find the truths in its pages. Those truths are there, one after another, a multitude of truths. But maybe the best way to say what needs to be said is that you need two things to feel that excitement : . * Living faith that no matter how many questions you ask and no matter how many unexpected answers you find that are not orthodox and not traditional, you will find so many truths that a lifetime cannot exhaust them all. . * Utter contempt for most of popular culture, especially for most Hollywood movies, especially for Rap music and for the abortion which has become modern Classical music as well, and from this, an overwhelming desire to re-create American culture on Biblical foundations that are not just Biblical in the traditional sense but in the most fundamental sense of all, that of the "original Bible" that gradually came into being, written by the people who gave us the world's first civilization --the Sumerians and the Mesopotamians who followed them and lived in cities like Ur. Which, of course, was Abraham's home for many years. . To be very subjective about this and express a strong personal feeling by way of overstatement : If you don't feel the excitement of the Bible you must be dead from the neck up. . Billy . . . __________________________________________ Lubbock Avalanche-Journal School districts closing book on Bible courses
Increasing demands, lack of student interest cited LAUREL L. SCOTT February 24, 2013 Public school officials in the South Plains say offering Bible courses no longer adds up. A new report is critical of courses offered by the Lubbock Independent School District and the Lazbuddie Independent School District, including them on a list of “Most Problematic Courses in 2011-12.” But neither district still offers the Bible courses. The Texas Legislature passed a bill in 2007 that allowed school districts to offer elective courses focusing on the Bible’s influence on literature or its role in history. Lubbock ISD Chief Academic Officer Kelly Trlica, who was not employed by the district at the time, said the district started offering a Bible course as an elective in the 2010-11 year because school districts across the state thought the law, House Bill 1287, required them to offer it. “We did it because we had to,” Trlica said. “We followed suit with the rest of the districts in the state.” Lazbuddie ISD Superintendent Joanna Martinez said the district offered a Bible class for one year. Three or four students enrolled. It was a good number for Lazbuddie, a district of about 160 students. The teacher, a former pastor, left and the course was not offered this year. Martinez said even if there were interested students and a qualified teacher, the district has “moved in another direction.” This past spring, the Texas Education Agency launched a new statewide testing program known as STAAR — an acronym for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. Among the changes, the STAAR program requires high school students, starting with last year’s ninth-graders, to take 15 end-of-course exams that are intentionally more difficult – or more “rigorous” — than the TAKS program the STAAR is replacing. “We have had to start offering electives like (agricultural) math,” Martinez said. “It’s (agriculture) instruction but it’s extra practice in math. We’re doing that with home (economics) classes and offering remedial classes. With the end-of-course exams, the expectations are just astronomical.” Martinez said funding is also an issue. Career and technical classes not only help prepare students for life after high school graduation, but also draw “weighted funding” from the state. “The system is really set up so it doesn’t offer a lot of opportunity for these kinds of classes (on the Bible),” she said. After state Attorney General Greg Abbott clarified that a district “may” offer Bible courses, Lubbock ISD moved its Bible students into a course called Special Topics in Social Studies, a state-approved elective, Trlica said. The report, “Reading, Writing & Religion II” by Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, examined only the Bible courses offered in 2011-12. The new report criticized the Lazbuddie and LISD courses for promoting a particular religion through lack of teacher training and the use of textbooks and materials deemed biased and inaccurate. Chancey pointed out in the report the Texas law says a Bible course “shall not endorse, favor, or promote, or disfavor or show hostility toward, any particular religion or nonreligious faith or religious perspective.” Trlica said the standards for the new course at LISD “are not offensive.” Chancey said potential problems remain. “Nobody is really monitoring this. I suspect we’ve had a lot of courses close down but we’ve probably had some open up here and there,” he said. “I think it’s better not to offer a course than to offer a course that even inadvertently promoted a particular religion in the classroom.” At LISD, the course drew little interest from students. Trlica said a procedural rule allows a district not to offer a course if it doesn’t draw at least 15 students. Andy Penney, director of public relations and information for the Frenship Independent School District, said lack of student interest is the reason the district doesn’t offer a Bible course. Chancey, a religious studies professor, sees the value in Bible courses. “I really wish our education system handled religious literacy better,” Chancey said. “I think there are very good civic reasons for teaching religious literacy. But I do think as a society we don’t do a good job at that.” -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
