WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABP) — While the cultural debate about religion in schools is nowhere near settled, the Supreme Court has resolved at least this much: Students should know what's in the Bible.
In the Supreme Court's 1963 ruling on Abington vs. Schempp, Associate Justice Tom Clark wrote, “It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities.”
Other court rulings, notably Epperson vs. Arkansas in 1968 and Stone vs. Graham in 1980, underscored the constitutionality of teaching about the Bible and religion.
“Because biblical literacy is an important part of what it means to be an educated person, study of the Bible should be included in the public school curriculum,” said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center. “Much of art, music, literature, law and history in Western civilization are incomprehensible without some knowledge of the Bible.”
The challenge, he said, is to make sure that any study about the Bible in public schools is both constitutionally and educationally sound.
“That means providing teachers with materials and lessons that are objective and balanced, and offering in-service training to any teacher selected to teach a Bible elective. It can be done. But it takes work,” said Haynes, who has been involved in helping develop a forthcoming high school curriculum for the Bible Literacy Project.