TN Attorney General OKs Bible Classes In Public Schools

Attorney General OKs Bible Classes In Public Schools
Study of book's impact is OK; sermons are not

The Tennessean
By NATALIA MIELCZAREK • Staff Writer • April 3, 2008

Tennessee's public school students are legally safe to learn about the Bible's impact on literature, art and politics so long as the lessons aren't sermons, a new opinion from the state's Attorney General says. The judgment, released Tuesday, also declares that a pending legislative bill that would authorize the state to create a nonsectarian Bible elective curriculum passes constitutional muster.

A handful of Tennessee school districts already know that. At least four, including Wilson County, offer such a class approved by the state Department of Education as a special course that counts as a social studies or literature elective.

Still, bill sponsor Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, said he requested a legal opinion to send a clear message that an academic, nonreligious Bible class has a place in public classrooms. "It was not out of my doubt in its constitutionality; it was out of a commitment to making it certain that none can deny its constitutionality," Herron said. "There are school systems all over the state that are afraid to offer on their own a course about the Bible; they're afraid of being sued and they don't have adequate guidance to go forward."

If Herron's bill passes, the state Department of Education will assign a specialist to work on developing the curriculum, department's spokeswoman Rachel Woods said. Tennessee school districts that offer Bible electives now choose their own curricula, she said. Wilson County started offering the class this school year, and more than 200 juniors and seniors signed up for it in the first semester. Their teachers and principals went through First Amendment training. Scores of parents urged the county school board last year to adopt the class and roll it out to all four high schools.

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