The Osmunds might reunite!

Nothing gets people going these days than the idea of teaching religion in schools; and most often what their talking about is teaching the Conservative Evangelical view of Religion in school.  Time has an interesting cover story about this subject, but the what they discuss is the idea of teaching a Bible “literacy” course that discusses the teaching of the Bible in an historical context.

When I was in college I took an elective course called “Religions of the World” and simply loved it.  It was taught by this former hippie history teacher and was my first introduction to other faiths.  I enjoyed the course so much that I took two other electives just for the heck of it:  “The Old Testament” and “The New Testament.”  These courses were taught by a Baptist minister who would, in today’s terms, be defined as a Conservative Evangelical.  The thing of it was, he never taught the class as a religion course per se; he taught the Bible from an historical perspective and he even exposed us to creation and flood stories that predated the Bible.  I just loved these courses, and I really enjoyed the instructor.

I remember one time I was in his office discussing a paper I was writing comparing the Biblical flood story to other flood stories such as those mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Epic of Atrahasis.  I asked him why he didn’t bring more religion into the course and said there were two reason.  First, the university required that he teach the course in that manner.  Second, while he would prefer to teach a course that was more faith oriented, the fact that he could discuss the Bible with young college students was good enough.  Looking back, I have no illusions that he would have preferred a more faith-based approach to the class, but I respect that he never tried to push Christianity, never got all fire and brimstone, never made anyone who disagreed with him seem less of a person or less of a Christian.  I know for a fact he never changed that way of teaching until the day he retired from the university about six years ago because both family and friends have taken his courses over the years.

Time’s article discusses this same concept, but in a new imitative to bring Bible literacy course to high schools.  On the surface, I see no problem with teaching a course like this from a literacy, or historical, perspective as an elective course.  I would prefer a curriculum that included other faiths, but this is a beginning.  My concern is how these course will be taught.  We live in a different time.  It’s not easy to find Conservative Evangelicals who are even willing to discuss the Bible from an historical perspective, are even willing to compare and contract evolution vs. creationism in an intelligent manner.  My concern is these courses would devolve into little more than proselytizing.  Religion has become such a toxic subject these days, and I think we can blame Conservative Evangelicals for that.  As a group, they can be so close minded to any thought or opinion that deviates from what they believe to be God’s word.  No, not all Conservative Evangelicals are like and I’m lucky enough to call some them my friend, but it’s an unfortunate fact that too many are like that.  Any course like this should be monitored closely.