The Book of Daniel

Georgia Bible Bill Heading For Governor’s Desk

“Public school students will be able to take state-funded courses devoted to the Old and New Testaments under a bill that received final legislative approval Monday, making Georgia the first state in the nation to legally sanction Bible classes. "I am confident that the course will pass constitutional muster," Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) said after the Senate approved his proposal 45-2.

"We cannot live in fear of possible lawsuits every time we pass a piece of legislation." If Gov. Sonny Perdue accepts the bill, the State Board of Education must adopt curricula for two high school electives — "History and Literature of the Old Testament Era" and "History and Literature of the New Testament Era" — no later than February.

Local school systems then could decide if they want to offer the classes, which would be optional for students in ninth through 12th grades.” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Bill for school Bible classes sent to Perdue,” 03-28-06)

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This is not a bad idea.

My sister-in-law attended a Catholic girls school (by her choice) and says that one of the great things she got out of it was a deep knowledge of world religions. Her curriculum included study of all the major world beliefs as an important part of knowing human history, which the Catholicy educators considered critical. Today, years later, she finds it amazing how little most Americans know about -any- religious faith.

"Try telling a conservative Christian that Jesus didn't speak Roman or Hebrew", she says. "Well, what else would he speak?", they ask.

You really can't understand American culture without understanding the role religion played in its development, both good and ill. The Puritans weren't necessarily looking for "religious freedom" as we understand it. They wanted a place they could practice their own little theocracy without bother. Good for them but bad for anyone who wanted to live near them. On the other hand, the basis of the ideal of human equality comes from the ideas that when God judges on the last day, he'll do it evenhandedly, that all are "equal" in God's eyes, so why shouldn't governments work the same way?

This is also why American slavery could be so brutal. Africans couldn't be "men" without compromising the idea. Besides, the Bible seems to tolerate slavery, right?

The religious right is easily the worst offenders. The Bible proscribes homosexuality, right? It also says that you can kill anyone who works on the Sabbath. So if you're just raring to knock off that noisy neighbor, just catch him in your gunsights while he's mowing his lawn some Sunday and you're doing the Lord's work. (Numbers 15:32-36)

So a little jumpstart here couldn't hurt. The challenge then becomes extending it to other world religions. Even the Muslims. After all, they have something in common with extreme Christians. Many object to pictures of the Prophet. Extreme Xtians don't want anything more than pictures of the Messiah. As the producers of the short-lived TV series Book of Daniel found out, anything more than that brings down fire nd brimstone. So there should be enough for even a fair academic to find common ground between our homegrown religious nuts and those around the world.

"Comparative Jihadism", the course could be called. Yeah, that'll work.