Dueling Bible Literacy Bills Have Georgia Senator Crying Wolf
by Jim Brown
January 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Georgia Senate is debating competing bills that would allow students to take elective Bible courses in the state's public schools. Georgia's Senate Education Committee will hold a hearing today on a bill sponsored by Majority Leader Tommy Williams that would authorize the teaching of a course from the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS) called "The Bible as History and Literature." Meanwhile, a rival Democratic bill is calling for "nonsectarian, non-religious academic study" of the Bible through a textbook called The Bible and Its Influence, which is published by the Virginia-based Bible Literacy Project (BLP).
Republican State Senator Eric Johnson says his Democratic colleagues are "trying to put a wolf in sheep's clothing" with the rival legislation. "Whether there's a national memo from the Democratic Party to try and act like there's more faith on their side of the aisle, I don't know," he says, "but what they're saying in Georgia is they're proposing to teach the Bible, but they won't use the Bible as a text."
And Johnson has other problems with the Democrat legislation -- not least among them the fact that the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Education Association are in favor of it. "In the bill, it says they can't hire anybody who's ever had a faith experience to teach the course," he explains. "It's endorsed by the ACLU and the NEA, so I just don't think there's much to it."
The Georgia state senator is urging evangelical Christians to oppose the bill that authorizes the teaching of a course based on the BLP curriculum. He suspects the measure is an attempt by Democrats to regain some of the Christian voters their party has lost. Alabama Democrats are sponsoring a similar bill in their state legislature.
"I called them modern-day Pharisees when they introduced the bill in Georgia," Johnson says, "because they know how to say the right words, but they don't have a clue of what the words mean."
The Republican lawmaker says he takes offense that proponents of the "Bible and Its Influence" course claim they are trying to see the Bible taught in high school, "and then they're not teaching the Bible, and they're not using people of faith to teach it. That's a hypocrisy."
Johnson is warning believers against the BLP curriculum and its textbook. He says the course materials contain "politically correct, humanistic interpretations of some scripture passages."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
