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A survey of world religion, including the great texts, as an adjunct to social studies seems reasonable to me. It is a huge part of many people's lives. I am Je
by emchammer 2y ago
A survey of world religion, including the great texts, as an adjunct to social studies seems reasonable to me. It is a huge part of many people's lives. I am Jewish, and I have looked inside the New Testament, the Quran, and the Book of Mormon. Perhaps if approached hermeneutically, like my own religion may be descended from a Yahwistic cult developed through monolatry, or maybe God transmitted the Torah letter for letter via teletype b'har Sinai, but I still keep it next to my bed.
- krapp 2y ago>A survey of world religion, including the great texts, as an adjunct to social studies seems reasonable to me. That very clearly isn't the goal or agenda behind what's happening in Oklahoma, however. And even if it were, the subject would be too complex and nuanced to teach to fifth graders, which is why most such courses are available at higher levels and as electives, and they don't exclusively focus on Christian doctrine.
- emchammer 2y agoI missed that when I read the article. But that is part of it, it just says "the Bible". For me, I just think of the Tanakh, or what Christians call the Old Testament. It did not occur to me that this could mean a Christian scriptural-literalist interpretation until I read of Walters' background. Like Sarah Silverman said, in this country, if you are sworn in court or government office, "it's not even my Bible". When I visited a county fair in Texas once, somebody handed me a booklet that was just the New Testament, which blew my mind. I did not know that Christians just drop the Hebrew Bible.
- seatac76 2y agoFair enough, but I’d wager that people pushing this would flip out if other religious texts were being taught.