Alabama Legislator Hails Defeat of Bill Authorizing State's Use of Controversial Textbook
by Jim Brown
February 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An Alabama lawmaker has successfully refuted claims that a controversial textbook put out by the Virginia-based Bible Literacy Project (BLP) was endorsed by the group Focus on the Family. The Alabama House of Representatives recently rejected a bill that would have authorized schools offering a Bible elective course to use a textbook called The Bible and its Influence. Some Christians argue that the book contains a liberal perspective on scripture and thus should not be used in schools.
Representative Scott Beason, who serves on the House Education Committee, says House Majority Leader Ken Guin falsely claimed the well-known evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family endorsed The Bible and Its Influence.
"So I called Focus on the Family directly," Beason says, "and they sent me copies of letters they had sent to the sponsor and the Speaker of the House making perfectly clear to them that [Focus on the Family] did not endorse this textbook." Armed with this documentation, Alabama representative was prepared to respond when the bill came up for debate.
But even though the letter from Focus contradicted the notion that The Bible and Its Influence had the Colorado-based ministry's endorsement, the state legislator notes, "When we got to the floor of the House ... Ken Guin continued to make that assertion." Then, Beason recalls, when he called the bill's sponsor on that apparent misstatement of the facts and asked him if he had received the letter, then brought the letter to all the members' attention, "the day blew up."
A supporter of the Bible Literacy Project's textbook, Dr. Randy Brinson of Montgomery-based Redeem the Vote!, had asked Representative Guin and Senator Seth Hammett, two Democratic lawmakers, to introduce the controversial legislation that would have required the book's use in Alabama schools. However, Beason and other Christian leaders have criticized The Bible and Its Influence, charging that it, in a number of ways, promotes a liberal perspective on God's word.
For instance, Beason points out, in citing eras, The Bible and Its Influence resists using the traditional descriptors "BC" and "AD," which reference historical dates according to their relationship to the time of the birth of Christ (i.e., Before Christ and anno Domini, or in the "year of salvation," denoting the period after the birth of Christ). Instead, the lawmaker notes, the BLP's textbook favors the use of the corresponding secular identifiers BCE and CE -- that is, "Before the Common Era" and "Common Era."
Also, Beason contends, the textbook asks students to consider complex and potentially troubling theological questions such as "If God allows bad things to happen, can he really be considered good?" and "Did Adam and Eve receive a fair deal from God?"
Those examples, the representative asserts, are among the "multiple references" in The Bible and Its Influence that "question the sovereignty of God, and question whether or not God's Word is inerrant, and many, many things that I don't think K-12 students ought to be subjected to."
For these reasons, Beeson says he applauds the defeat of the bill that would have authorized Alabama's public schools to use the controversial textbook.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
