The rise of Christian Nationalism and its influence on public policy is a troubling development in the current political climate in the United States. I fear for the future of that which makes our country a free and open society. While many times throughout our history religious zealots have held positions of authority it seems different today. I remember a few years ago a local city councilman in a small town in Indiana wanted to have city parks closed on Sunday so people would go to church. It was met with giggles by many. Today I wonder how many votes it would get in US Senate for that regulation of Yellowstone.
One of the most interesting results of this shift in power is the growing attempts to put the 10 commandments and the Christian Bible in schools and have them be used as teaching instruments. One state Superintendent said the Bible is an historical document and used to help the development of the nation. I am not sure what he means by the Bible being an historical document, while it cites people, places and some things that we have evidence for existing, much of it cannot be proven and in fact can be disproven easily. As for the founding of the country, while the great minds that created our government were influenced by post-Enlightenment thinking and were influenced by an intellectual exploration of Christian and Jewish thought of the time; they were not nearly the religious people that so many suggest. In fact they would be appalled by the efforts of some of today's so-called Christian leaders in government.
It is easy to understand why teaching the Christian, and particularly the Protestant understanding, of the Bible could be troubling to non Christians. There is no reason to ask a person of different faith or no faith to learn and somehow be held to the religious laws of another faith. In fact it would be detrimental to such a person to have to sit in a classroom where posted on the wall is an indictment of their beliefs and the 10 commandments would do. While the Bible was used in the early days of public education as a tool to teach reading, small local schools were made up of a far more homogenous population. Today our country boast a rich tapestry of beliefs and understands both across many faiths and within faith communities. Within a few miles of my offices there are very conservative and remarkably liberal United Methodist Churches. How they approach the Biblical narrative would be very different. As a liberal Jew I too see the text differently than the Orthodox synagogue I can see through the trees in back of my shul.
And that is the problem. The Bible can be sacred to a number of people and the translation chosen and the discussion of the meaning of the words can actually be disturbing to very people who are pushing this on the schools. Imagine if you will if you think the Bible is the univocal, inerrant, word of God. Then while studying it in a classroom you come across a contradiction that is hard to rectify. You ask the teacher who gives a viewpoint that doesn't meet the doctrine of your fundamentalist church. Should the teacher have to adhere to your faith's position, what of the child in the next desk who has a community that views it differently? Would someone in the room have to have their faith attacked to meet the need of other? This is the problem with using sacred text, they cannot be studied in the same way you explore Shakespeare or Alice Walker. It can't be picked apart like you might the theories of Piaget versus Vygotsky. The notion that you can will always hurt someone. That is just what will happen.
Deeply religious Christians should be more troubled with the text being handed over to high school students who will look for the problematic passages, the contradictions and of course the translation errors and poor choices. (For example: The first line of the Bible should not be translated In the Beginning and the commandment says Don't Murder not Thou Shalt Not Kill.) But smart kids will challenge things they have read and smartass kids will push harder. What does a teacher do in a class where discussing space exploration brings up the idea that we are living under a firmament. You don't have walk very far down the information superhighway to meet a person saying that space isn't real. We live on a flat earth and there is a dome at that protects us from the waters above. Do they acknowledge the Biblical cosmology to tell the truth?
Atheists and others will challenge these attempts to sneak a particular religion into a public school. The supreme court has ruled on this in the past. While this court might overturn the concept it will really seal their legacy as the most anti-Constitutional court. But if we allow for the Bible to become a classroom text books those who understand it is not will be fine, those that reject it out of hand will just challenge it and those that truly hold it sacred and the word of God will be the ones who have to balance how they learn it in their house of worship and how it is discussed in school. They, I think, are the ones who will suffer from this most of all. Oh the irony.
