re: #159 Anymouse 🌹

Nope. Unconstitutional. Fails right out of the gate.

It can be taught as literature (as the Bible is important in English literature), or as part of a comparative religion class (where no religious cult is favoured over another).

All it should take to kill that bill is add an amendment to require it be part of a comparative religion class.

As for public schools, I’m not aware of any that teach that sort of class; that is usually university-level.

And it probably should be. Religion is one of the prime movers in human society, for good and ill. Why shouldn’t it be taught in high school? One of the big problems all of humanity has is fear of the other. It didn’t used to be that pervasive a problem in the US, but with the rise of Conservative dogma, and especially after 9/11, it is front and center.

And I’m not not trying to minimize the latent anti-Semitism that has always existed in this country, nor the slow boil that Christian sects have had toward each other since our founding.

Ignorance breeds fear, and fear is the mind killer. What do Christians in this country *really* know about Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism (or any of the offshoots of any of these faiths), or any other of the myriad faiths that various peoples believe across the globe? What do they know about the inherent schisms within Christian faiths?

I mean, really, get a Unitarian and a Texas hard-core follower of the Church of Christ in a room and they will look at each other like aliens.

So, yeah, teach comprehensive comparative religion in high school. Teach the first class junior year on Christianity, Judaism, and Native American beliefs, their sects and their history in the US the first year. Teach other world religions, their flavors, and their arrival and impact on US history senior year.