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TENNESSEE APPROVES BIBLE CURRICULUM

The Tennesseean carried on its front page Friday this headline; “Tenn. approves Bible curriculum.” The state says it has developed a Bible curriculum that it hopes will avoid legal pitfalls. Beginning next fall, Tennessee high schools that want to offer “Bible for an elective social study credit will have a state approved guideline to do so. As expected, Hedy Weinberg, director of ACLU in Tennessee responded in somewhat of a suspicious and negative manner.

Some high schools in Tennessee already offer Bible as an elective and have their own curriculum. The problem I see with this new state curriculum comes from Kent Richards, Old Testament professor at Emory University, who assisted in developing Tennessee’s Bible guidelines, and who says that the teachers must not take the position “That the Bible is the only road to take.” Is Mr. Richards taking the position that the Islamic Koran is as good as the Bible? The Bible is the guide-the only guide for Christianity. The Koran rejects the Bible and Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Any teacher of the Bible is just one several guides to Christianity would be taking a false position. It doesn’t make sense to teach students the Bible, then turn around and tell them that there are many other reads to Christianity.



It would be good to teach interested students the Bible, but the time comes when they must be taught the Bible itself. There is a vast difference in teaching about the Bible and teaching the Bible.

Thought: “The Bible should be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions of need.”

A little boy was sitting on a curb reading the New Testament when a priest came by and asked him what he was reading.

“It’s the New Testament.” he said.

“But that’s not for a little ignorant boy like you to be reading,” the priest said.

“Oh, but I have a search warrant to read it,” the boy replied.

“A search warrant! What do you mean?”

“It says here ‘Search the Scriptures,’ and I’m doing what I’m told.”

We all need to Search the Scriptures. And our children need to grow up being taught the Bible.