The fight never ends. Here's a story about people trying to push their own, narrow interpretation of the Bible into the public school curriculum and trying to pretend it's not religion...just a non-religious text studying the bible as literature and as a historical document. Some highlights of their foolishness:
Elizabeth Ridenour, a commercial real estate broker who said she formed the nonprofit organization in 1993 after deciding that she had long been "duped" into believing the Bible could not be taught in public schools, said the course has stayed within legal limits. "Our teachers are not to say, 'This is the truth,' or that the Bible is infallible," she said. "They are to say, 'This is what the Bible says; draw your own conclusions.'"Of course, that's teaching the Bible, not teaching ABOUT the Bible, but she doesn't want to understand the difference.
But a growing chorus of critics says the course, taught by local teachers trained by the council, conceals a religious agenda. The critics say it ignores evolution in favor of creationism and gives credence to dubious assertions that the Constitution is based on the Scriptures, and that "documented research through NASA" backs the biblical account of the sun standing still....Don't these people even have the courage of their convictions? They WANT prayer in the public school. They WANT to teach their own fundamentalist faith in the public school. They WANT to ban any science that conflicts with their religious beliefs -- even if it means our kids falling farther and farther behind the rest of the world. Why can't they be honest? At least the good Christians and Jews and Muslims and other people of faith and even the agnostics and atheists don't try to lie to the American people. So why do these people lie? Because they know if they were honest about what they really want they know that most Americans would say, "No thanks."
Some of the claims made in the national council's curriculum are laughable, said Mark A. Chancey, professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who spent seven weeks studying the syllabus for the freedom network. Mr. Chancey said he found it "riddled with errors" of facts, dates, definitions and incorrect spellings. It cites supposed NASA findings to suggest that the earth stopped twice in its orbit, in support of the literal truth of the biblical text that the sun stood still in Joshua and II Kings.
"When the type of urban legend that normally circulates by e-mail ends up in a textbook, that's a problem," Mr. Chancey said.
