Time ran an article on March 22nd, written by David Van Biema, suggesting that public high schools should start offering Bible classes as electives to juniors and seniors, "The Case for Teaching the Bible."
It's a fascinating read and worth a discussion among your student ministry leaders.
According to the author, here's the amount faith needed for this to happen, "And, oh yes, there should be one faith test. Faith in our country. Sure, there will be bumps along the way. But in the end, what is required in teaching about the Bible in our public schools is patriotism: a belief that we live in a nation that understands the wisdom of its Constitution clearly enough to allow the most important book in its history to remain vibrantly accessible for everyone."
What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea?
Monday, March 26, 2007
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2 comments:
It's a great idea. The article makes the point - the Bible is the most influential book of all time, and there's no comparison in relation to influence on the founders of the United States of America.
Christians who believe the Bible recognize the value of the Bible as literature, and also think that the word of God going out doesn't return void - it yields positive results.
Those who don't believe the Bible, think that claiming a Bible verse about the Bible itself as a promise for today is hogwash, but still must recognize the value of the Bible as amazing literature.
The only people who should have problems with this are those who believe that the Bible is powerful and effective in life-change, but are living in rebellion to that.
The idea that this is a secret "in" by the evangelicals claiming that there can be no un-biased presentation of the text and it risks challenging the students' worldviews... this is true of any subject matter truly taught, from sex ed to the US school system's view of world history (ie: "nothing in the world has ever existed unless it led to the founding of America").
I also like that it is dealing with the text as literature not as religion. Jesus didn't act like a good rabbi most of the time either, and the religious nuts were not about to say that he was representing religion.
Jon, first, you would be awesome at teaching this course in the local high school.
Questions for you: First, is this an area where student ministry pastors in the community should/could have a voice, or do believe that to truly teach the Bible as literature(and not trying to be pesuasive as some student ministry pastors might try to be) a high school teacher should present the material? Second, should the church stay out? Third, if they should stay out, besides prayer, what other role could the church play from an "outsiders" perspective?
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