Oklahoma school district OKs ‘Bible curriculum’ created by Hobby Lobby president

[Galraedia]

Source: Raw Story

According to the Religious News Service, the “Museum of the Bible Curriculum” created by Hobby Lobby’s President Steve Green (pictured above) will be beta-tested in Oklahoma’s Mustang Public School district beginning in the Fall of 2014.

Green hopes the program — which will be overseen by Jerry Pattengale, head of the Green Scholars Initiative — will be placed in “hundreds” of high schools by 2016, and “thousands” by 2017. It is a four-year elective course in which students will study the narrative, history, and impact of the Bible on Western Civilization. Because the book is being taught within an academic purview, it does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Abington School District v. Schempp.

“Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible,” the Court decided, “when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

Statements made by Green when he received the 2013 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities strongly suggest that the material in the Museum of the Bible Curriculum will neither be “presented objectively” nor “part of a secular program.”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/16/oklahoma-school-district-oks-bible-curriculum-created-by-hobby-lobby-president/

[jtuck004]

1. Gotta get front counter help from somewhere. Oher schools will provide the science grads.

Not like there are gonna be that many good jobs anyway.

Heck, the way it's turning out, we might just be able to use Oklahoma as a low-wage labor pool for the surrounding states. Bus in Okies, dig the trenches, send 'em back to wherever they came from at night.

Their gov is doing all she can to make it so, business being more important than people living and all.

[CBGLuthier]

6. Bus in Okies

That is a clueless and classless thing to say. Okies refers to the time the good sweet dear fucking folk of California exploited the fuck out of the poor and disadvantaged.

[jtuck004]

7. Sarcasm is a more difficult concept for some. But if you need a sign...

Here's your sign.



more or less.

And since I fucking grew up there I will call it what I please.

[TinkerTot55]

10. Gonna just jump in here and say....

...as one born on Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma,
and one who spent my formative years in the OK City area,
that I'm proud to be an Okie, which my family and I do NOT consider to be a pejorative.

Am also a Hoosier, and a Buckeye, and a FL cracker, not to mention Cajun, if that helps put things in perspective.

Many decades ago, had a "Bible as Literature" course in high school that did not warp or damage me in any way, but it was taught well, and included no proselytizing. I imagine if the Hobby Lobbyist's course veers off into the inappropriate, some family and their child will contact the FFRF ( Freedom From Religion Foundation ) or ACLU. Even in ultra-religious sections of the Bible Belt, those back door attempts to make converts/push Christianity in the public sphere don't make it past judicial challenge.

[The Green Manalishi]

40. As much as a loath anyone with a sky friend

knowledge of that stupid book is really (unfortunately) necessary for understanding a LOT of American (and European) history and politics. There are so many events and movements in America past and present that without a good sense of the narrative, language and interpretations of at least two versions (KJV and Catholic) one is going to miss out on being able to appreciate a lot of great literature, speeches and cultural movements.

[Drahthaardogs]

43. it is called the vulgate bible

Not Catholic. Orthdox use it too.

[tularetom]

27. My dad was one of the poor and disadvantaged and he never minded being called an Okie

He never felt exploited either.

He was an orphan who ran away from the church home he was living in and hitched a ride to CA with some neighbors. He was 15 years old at the time and he always maintained that he had opportunities here that he never would have had if he had stayed where he was. His exceptional mechanical skills and friendly manner opened a lot of doors for him.

By the late 40's and early 50's when we kids were old enough to understand some of the history of depression-era America,the older people had started calling themselves okies. Sort of like African Americans referring to themselves by the n-word. A few years later it even led to this song, which my dad always thought of as silly.

[JackInGreen]

33. Part of me

keeps thinking 'None of this shit would be going on if Bart were still alive....grumblegrumble'

[marble falls]

2. And the dumbing down continues. I'd move to keep my kids out of those schools. And have ....

moved specifically to keep my kids in good schools. It pays off.

[SoapBox]

3. That's just creepy.

Hopefully the lawsuits and final court decision will require the same courses for all religions and belief systems...I'll be waiting for the Buddhism classes!

[meegbear]

4. Praise The Lord and Would You Like Fries With That?

[Half-Century Man]

5. And the curriculum includes????

The Pogroms, the persecution of witches and werewolves, the inter sect squabbling that is played off by christianity as anti-christianity, or the anti-science inquisitions?

[AlbertCat]

15. Who knows?

But surely it will include studies on where the original myths and stories in the Bible were lifted from....because there is not a single original idea in the book.

[christx30]

22. Earth History. All 5000 years of it.

From the Big Sentence ("Let there be light!&quot , to the present day of persecution of Christanity. Also Intelligent Falling, the Christian version of the Theory of Gravity.

[CatholicEdHead]

24. Not available online

If you go to their website, it references it but does not show samples. The website asks for money more than anything.

http://biblemuseumgiving.org/

Some "museum".

[JackInGreen]

34. If we could land a colony of Picts

inside the border and let them take care of the missionary movement, we'd probably have a better time cleaning up the mess.

[Cryptoad]

8. Are they going to use

the Orthodox Jewish Bible as the Text Book?

[jwirr]

9. This idea of theology taught in the public school is a idiots dream. There are many denominations

and very few of them agree despite the ecumenical movement.

When I was in high school we used history class to discuss the reformation era. Our teacher separated us into denominations and let us have at it. NOW years later I can laugh at what happened. Not then. We started out fine learning the various religious positions of the time. That was fact. No fighting.

Then we got into who was right and who was to blame. To this day that is what we think of each other. The discussions lasted most of the year.

Our high school reunion was a rerun 20 years later. That is what will happen with religion classes in public schools. Each denomination has its own set of interpretations and the students will be set in their ways to the point that there will never be agreement on the issues.

The year Joseph McCarthy died my Catholic teacher made our 2nd grade class pray for him. When I went home and told my parents about the great man who had died they were furious. To them he was not a great man and secondly our religion does not pray for the dead. Religion in schools is a bad thing.

This is why we have left the religious education to the churches.

[rickyhall]

11. Will they teach Wicca and Satanism too?

[csziggy]

29. The question should be if Wiccan, Satanist, or Muslim curriculum were offered

Would any public school system in this country teach them?

If I were a believer in any religious system and had the money I might be tempted to commission such curriculum and submit them for use.

[EC]

12. I can't see too many students signing up for this... n/t

[LynneSin]

17. Well if the child as to select I agree

but many may be forced by their parents to take it.

[Ilsa]

28. Not college-bound, I would guess.

High schoolers would get more practical information from a shop class, technology program, or business track.

[JackInGreen]

35. Of COURSE they'd be college bound

liberty university needs a well versed band of suckers to spread its mental pathogens.

[sakabatou]

13. *facedesk*

[lark]

14. What the fuck is up with that state lately?

Ae they the absolute bottom of the gravity well? Any intelligence is getting sucked out by the black hole they're in? It's difficult to make FL and TX look good, but OK is making a strong run for the title of stupidest state. My sister lived there for 10 years and thought she was in hell. So glad she made it out alive.

[avebury]

30. "What the fuck is up with that state lately?"

Lately? I hate to tell you this but Oklahoma has been this way for quite some time. I have been in Oklahoma for over 17 years and it it has been like living in a third world country. There are some progressives and sane people here, unfortunately there are not enough to overcome the insanity here. No legislation is worth the time of day to the State legislature and Fallin unless it is 1) unconstitutional, 2) interfers in the lives of the citizens, and 3. it claims to protect our "religious values" and tea party platform. They fail to see that the agenda that they push is nothing more then the Christian version of sharia law.

[lark]

38. Sounds like the christian Taliban is alive and well in OK.

You have my sympathy.

[LynneSin]

16. Coming from the CEO that buys all his hobby supplies from China.....

a country that has a strict one-child only policy for families and will force mothers to have abortions should they be pregnant after having 1 child. So in a nutshell this so-called religious CEO supports abortions.

If parents want their kids to learn about the bible and religion then SEND THEM TO SUNDAY SCHOOL. I know my mother wanted to have religion as part of my unbringing and I got plenty of teaching going to sunday school each week until I graduated high school.

[Politicalboi]

19. Not only do they support abortion

They support the worst kind of abortion, possible wanted babies.

[LynneSin]

20. I've seen documentaries about that - Chinese families who so want to keep those 2nd kids

I don't know how the CEO of Hobby Lobby sleeps at night knowing that he contributes to this.

[Dawson Leery]

18. DO NOT shop at Hobby Lobby.

[Blue Idaho]

21. Welcome to Dumbfuckistan.

At the same time folks are howling about the failures of the educational system these bozos want to turn their future citizens into ChristoTaliban true believers. I say put up a fence to keep these mouth breathers inside their new state of ignorance.

Since when did running a cheap ass hokum store like Hobby Lobby make anyone an educational expert?

[kwassa]

23. And how objective will the course materials be?

would they pass muster in a legitimate university course?

Or is the devil in the details?

[yellowcanine]

32. Judge for yourself from Green's own words:

“The goal is to show that the impact of this book, when we apply it to our lives, has been good, because it has. So it’s good, and it’s true,” Green said, before moving on to discuss the other section of the curriculum, which would be “the story of the Bible.”


In other words, not only are they using the Bible to teach morals, but history and science also.

Which Bible? Are they going to include Jefferson's New Testament, the Book of Morman or Clarence Jordan's Cotton Patch Gospel? Are they going to talk about why the Roman Catholic Bible and Eastern Orthodox Bibles include the Apocryphra and the Protestant Bible doesn't? Or how the canon was actually put together and why some groups reject certain parts and others have added parts?

And how does the Bible compare to other religious texts, such as the Koran or the Bhagavad Gita? How do the Genesis origins stories and flood stories compare to those of Babylonian origin and what might be the reason for the similarities or differences?

I have no problem studying the Bible in a scholarly fashion in public schools, possibly as a High School Literature elective - I don't think it could be required, because the fundies would scream bloody murder about that. But I suspect that this is the last thing that this curriculum does.

[Initech]

25. Fuck Hobby Lobby!!!!

[chillfactor]

26. from the top..the governor

and down to the lowest politician..Oklahoma has become a state full of stark-raving mad idiots...

Oklahoma is such a beautiful state...so sad the idiots are destroying it....

[allan01]

31. not the first amndment, however , something called the sepration clause may come into play here

[yellowcanine]

36. The legal brief for Federal Court practically writes itself.

You cannot teach sectarian religious beliefs in public schools.

The only way the Bible can be taught is as literature or as part of World History, in which case one would have to get into comparisons of the many different kinds of Bibles as well as comparisons of Bibles to other religious texts. If a truly secular and non-partisan curriculum were offered, I suspect there would be many fundy parents who would object as soon as the kid brought the text home.

[workinclasszero]

37. Parts of this country are going batshit

insane!

A damn private business is going to dictate what is taught in schools!? WTF is wrong with American?

These cultist teabaggers want to turn all of America into Brownbackastan!

[herding cats]

39. All the non-batshit crazy citizens of Oklahoma have my sympathy.

The state is definitely going through a bad time as far as its leaderships decisions go. It's as if there's some competition as to what red state can produce the most over the top RW headlines lately.

[blkmusclmachine]

41. Straight-up Christian Dominionist/New Apostolic Reformation theology (Christian Reconstructionism)

Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism

[geretogo]

42. The camel's nose is 3/4 s under the tent . Soon the Bible will be mandatory by force .

[lbrtbell]

44. I stopped shopping at Hobby Lobby

It's the only craft store for many, many miles, but I order craft supplies online now. I will not support Christofascists.

[weissmam]

45. the bible is a work of fiction put together for political reason

that's how it should be taught and if you want to scare the fundies tell them they have to teach the Budhist, Islamic and Shinto along with the bible and watch their heads spin

[Anymouse]

46. This Reminds Me Why We Abandoned Oklahoma.

When Mary Fallin was elected governor with a whole slate of Tealiaban in Oklahoma, my wife and I decided to abandon the state for greener tumbleweeds in Nebraska. (Nebraska may be conservative but has fewer wackadoodles in the state government.)

My wife, a long-standing claimant to the phrase "traditional conservative" couldn't even take Oklahoma's government any more. She has gradually shifted her position to a more progressive one (I guess I am rubbing off on her).

She about choked when she received a mailing from People for the American Way last week. In the form letter, they said they could count on support from "a progressive like you."

For two days she lamented the "progressive" label. Then she embraced it (and sent a donation to PFAW).

[KinMd]

47. My college(non religious) offered a course "The Bible as Literature"

as long as it's not being offered as a history book could be interesting