The House of Representatives here in Arkansas have recently passed a bill that would put into law that courses on the Bible can be taught in public high schools. It seems that only in the Bible belt would we hear of such a law trying to be passed. The bill was drafted by Rep. Denny Altes of Fort Smith and it passed 71-16. Altes claims it will have no effect on what schools are currently doing. I think it would clearly have an effect on what schools are doing now. I know that even in my small town high school we did not have a Bible course, nor did we learn about the Bible in our literature courses.

Education Commissioner Tim Kimbrell said this law would increase the chance of lawsuits. I’m sure he is right and I completely agree with him. It will increase the chance of lawsuits because it is clearly a violation of separation of church and state. The Supreme Court has ruled again and again on matters concerning separation of church and state and it has become a standard in our country. There is a good reason behind this standard; children and young adults should be able to make their own decisions about religion without teachers influencing their decisions.

The bill will let each school district choose how they develop and teach the curriculum but they can’t explore any other religious doctrine. The exact language of the bill would allow curriculum to be developed that is a “nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture and politics.” How is it possible to teach a history and/or literature class about the Bible without people naturally beginning to explore further religious topics? My point is that this is being led by a state employee. Students should all be allowed to discuss their religious viewpoints outside of the classroom, but in my opinion having a teacher lead a religious discussion is the same as a teacher leading a prayer, which is definitely not allowed in schools.

The Arkansas Civil Liberties Union agrees. They said that the bill appears to be designed to encourage the teaching of religion even though Altes’ language in the bill does not make it appear that way. This group has also pointed out that the bill says nothing about studying the sacred books of religions other than Christianity. This is a good point, if you truly want children to learn about the history and literature that is presented in the Bible, then why not expose them to the same things in other religious texts?

The best thing I have heard about this controversy is Altes’ defense of the legitimacy of the Bible. He was asked if he believes the Bible is literally true and his response was entertaining. “Sometimes I’ll be reading my Bible and I’ll run across something in there like some tribe, and there will be footnotes and they’ll say archaeologists thought for years this tribe didn’t exist, and then they got to studying, got to looking, and they found it, you know? So it’s true, yes,” he said. Was was literally the best defense he could come up with? I’m not saying that I do not believe there is truth in the Bible, but if he was trying to convince someone that there is, he is not very good at proving his point.

The bill was defeated by the Senate on Wednesday. I am thankful that the Senate was smart in their voting decision considering the bill clearly violated the standards the Supreme Court have set in our country regarding the separation of church and state. I hope this is the last we hear of such a law trying to be pushed through legislation because it is a waste of time. There are a lot more important things they could be voting on besides issues such as this. This bill being passed could have cost taxpayers a lot of money when someone sued the state over this subject being discussed in class.