from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State:
Land Of The Lost: Texas Bible-Class Teachers Head Down The Chisum Trail — Without A GPSAugust 19, 2009
Texas is headed for more shootouts over church-state separation, pardner!
In 2007, the legislature passed a law encouraging public school districts to offer elective courses on the Old and New Testaments and “their impact on the history and literature of Western civilization.”
H.B. 1287 requires that the courses follow “applicable law and all federal and state guidelines in maintaining religious neutrality” and not “endorse, favor, or promote” any particular religion or nonreligious faith or religious perspective.
But, of course, the legislature allotted no money to train teachers in how to offer religiously neutral instruction about the Bible. So you can imagine how all this is going to work out when the classes begin this school year.
The federal courts have indicated that academic study about the Bible is constitutional at appropriate points in the curriculum. But we all know that the Texas legislature did not act out of concern for better academics. This was initiated as a shameless scheme to appease the Religious Right and curry favor with conservative Christian voters. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://blog.au.org/2009/08/19/land-of-the-lost-texas-bibleclass-teachers-head-down-the-chisum-trail-without-a-gps-2/