'Bring Your Bibles to Public Schools Week' approaching: "Tote 'em & quote 'em!"

[Bluebear]

Bring Your Bibles to Public Schools Week: Sept 23-29

"Tote 'em & Quote 'em! And use 'em in class!" -- Bob Pawson, a Trenton, NJ public school teacher

Contact: Bob Pawson, SIS National Coordinator, 609-610-3522, [e-mail]

MEDIA ADVISORY, Sept. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- The 10th annual, nationwide "Scriptures in Schools Week" is scheduled for September 23-29. Christian students, teachers, and staff in public schools throughout America are encouraged to bring their Bibles to school.

"The only people keeping the Bible out of America's public schools are - us Christians," says Bob Pawson, SIS National Coordinator. "It's not the ACLU, Supreme Court, or school boards: It's just us."

"But, good news! We Christians can lovingly and legally remedy this by simply bringing in our own personal Bibles. Let's fill America's public schools with Biblical information by using legitimate scholarly techniques. By simply exercising our American rights and liberties, we can help fulfill the Great Commission."

Christian students in public schools can practice "Academic Evangelism" by creatively using relevant Bible references to complete a few of their in-class and homework assignments each week. Teachers, especially Christians, should readily accept such assignments. It is legal to display such student-generated work on classroom and hallway bulletin boards.

"Dare to bring your Bibles - all year long. Make Bibles commonplace books in America's classrooms," says Pawson, a Trenton, NJ public school teacher. "Tote 'em and quote 'em! And use 'em in class!"

Every church in America has public school students and employees in their congregations. Please educate, motivate and activate them to bring their Bibles to school. Make it a Youth Group priority to help restore basic Biblical literacy to America's students. Organize now. Hold multi-church rallies before SIS Week. Wear Christian t-shirts to school.

SIS Week inspires bold, visionary participation among students in 12th grade thru Kindergarten nationwide, who realize that they can effectively introduce Bible concepts to classmates in an acceptable manner which is both scholarly and casual.

Christian pastors (from your pulpits), broadcasters, publications, e-ministries, bloggers, bookstores, coffeehouses, and performing artists are exhorted to promote SIS Week. Activate Youth Groups in thousands of churches. SIS Week complements other September events including 'See You at The Pole' and 'Adopt-A-School for Christ'. Parents: bring your Bibles to work.

Christians reading this article: Please exercise personal initiative and leadership to promote/publicize SIS Week in your sphere of influence. Don't wait for a leader: Be one. Recruit others. THINK KINGDOM -- ACT LOCALLY. Distribute copies of this press release at your church.

www.bringyourbible.com has details about SIS Project, student and teacher legal rights, creative action ideas, church-bulletin inserts, etc. Phone: [phone]

http://www.earnedmedia.org/sis0905.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I could have so much fun wiht THIS ONE

and as a Jew I fear I know the Christian bible better than many of these yahoos

Sermon of the Mount anyone?

And that is JUST FOR STARTERS

There are days I feel the best way to fight these guys is to publicly humiliate them

[angrycarpenter]

2. god forbid

that these people should use their energy to help someone.

[riderinthestorm]

4. Oh but they are fulfilling the "Great Commission" doncha know?

Complete with capitalization.... :scared:

[ccpup]

5. do I even want to know what that is?

yeah, I think I do. Anyone?

[Bluebear]

9. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations....

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."

It's the one scripture verse that eggs evangelists on to think that God needs them to convert everybody.

[derby378]

17. I'd argue that the Internet fulfilled the Great Commission in one fell swoop

Not to mention that there's at least one version of the Bible in almost every human language imaginable. Even Klingon.

[SharonAnn]

42. Matthew 25. Separating sheep from the goats. "the least of these"

[Why Syzygy]

10. About the same

as Al Queda. Convert the World.

[ccpup]

14. interesting

because I was having a conversation recently over dinner with some friends and they just couldn't accept that we here in the States have groups who share the same rigid, dogmatic mentality as al Qaeda, etc.

[Why Syzygy]

41. They have

never heard of an abortion clinic bombing? Or hate crimes?

[ccpup]

46. of course

but, for some Americans, it's difficult to believe -- even with the facts staring them right in the face -- that our Country could have Groups fueled by the hatred of anything different. And my friends are smart, savvy, successful New Yorkers! Their reaction kinda stupified me. :-)

[BlooInBloo]

3. Bibles have no place in school, just like facts have no place within religion.

[opihimoimoi]

6. Now, that I like.....sending beer and ribs.....The Delusion is Spreading...STOP IT

somehow or we are repeating History.....

[spoony]

20. Stealing your lines from bumper stickers now?

[BlooInBloo]

21. Nah. From The Simpsons.

[spoony]

22. From lately? Or when they were funny?

[BlooInBloo]

24. I'd guesstimate it was about 5-10 years ago. Think it was the one where Skinner...

... had to drive the school bus cuz Otto lost his license or whatever.

[TahitiNut]

7. It's sad that some people's faith is so weak that they must parade it.

It's not as though they're a minority under seige. It's the lions that're threatened with extinction, not the Christians.

[opihimoimoi]

11. The Xians wish to impose their Infection on us by using whatever they think will work.

I think Delusion Rules in their Camp.....

[Left Is Write]

34. Remember that "Christian" is a pretty big umbrella.

[opihimoimoi]

58. DELUSION RULES in many quarters

[Why Syzygy]

8. The problem with this

is the "Great Commission" and "The Kingdom". These have meaning for Christians, but no one else. Therefore, "legitimate, scholarly techniques" hardly apply. I doubt the Bible would be approved by most education boards due to the violence and sexual content.

[Disturbed]

12. I hope students also bring the Torah, Koran, & other works.

Zealots of any religion are as dangerous as smallpox.

[daninthemoon]

13. I was thinking if someone brought a quran or torah to the wrong

school during this week, they might be subject to verbal and even physical assault. I call myself Christian, but I don't see how this heavy handed stunt can be helpful.

[Igel]

51. If they took in the OT w/ their Bible ...

wouldn't that include the Torah?

I mean, the entire Tanakh is there, right?

[daninthemoon]

59. There are some slight differences that I can't completely remember

right now. I know the order of some of the books are different, and there are some other verbiage differences that anount to translation as much as anything else. You're right that they are pretty much the same. Just compiled by different groups at different times. I think you're also right that this applies mostly to the tanakh, but I'm not sure if it's all there. Been awhile.

[Left Is Write]

35. I took a Bible Lit class in my junior year (1982-83).

That was, obviously, a long time ago.

[CTyankee]

15. Why just schools? Why not supermarkets, banks, offices, dr.s offices?

Leave your literature around everyplace. How about hair salons, tattoo parlors, bars, book stores?

OF COURSE, we know why. These clowns would be thrown bodily out of private businesses that are looking to increase their clientele of normal human beings, not raving lunatics...

[NMMNG]

16. Heh heh

Wouldn't it be interesting if some people toted in Bibles and quoted some verses the fundies didn't exactly like? :evilgrin:

[mcscajun]

18. Hmmm... I like the way you think.

:evilgrin:

I can think of several passages that would bring the blush to a RW fundie face.

[kineneb]

45. oooh, oooh, I have some!

How about the Song of Songs and The Sermon on the Mount. That ought to get their attention, he, he. Then ask them if they eat shellfish...

[NMMNG]

63. Very nice

Then we could always quote this one.

But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business,and to work with your own hands
1 Thess. 4:9-12, NKJV

Imagine that. The Bible tells them to lead a quiet life and mind their own business. Funny how none of them can ever do that.

[mwb970]

64. I was thinking about the shellfish myself.

And also that bit about killing your neighbor if you catch him working on Sunday.

It seems like there are a lot of Bible quotes that will either (a) make the fundies look like idiots (shellfish) or (b) expose them as total hypocrites (Sermon on the Mount).

Let's quote!

[2beToby]

19. If I were teaching this year

I would bring in multiple copies of the Torah and the Quran and every other religious document I could get my hands on and leave them all around my classroom. It's celebrate scripture week! I could only imagine the "quoting" part.

....I would probably get in so much trouble...

[EstimatedProphet]

23. Much ado about nothing

There has never been an effort from the government to prevent students from bringing, reading, or praying with Bibles in public school. Never. What is prohibited is the school or the government mandating that they are used. Not the same thing at all. So go ahead fundies - be really noisily brave and proceed to not break the rules at all.

[angrycarpenter]

33. when I was in 9th grade

I went to A small public school in ala. We had a class called "bible lit." We looked at the stories in the bible as literature. It was a legal Loophole that allowed the public school to teach the bible.

Well the teacher was not thrilled by having to teach the bible so we looked at it strictly from the idea that it was written by men alone and was full of contradictions.

This sneaky way of bringing scripture into the classroom backfired in my case. I quit going to church and eventually became an atheist.

I learned more about the bible in half of a school year than I had in all of my church going life. Knowledge of the bible gave me the courage to give it up as a guide to life.

[Left Is Write]

36. I went to a school that also offered a Bible Lit class.

It was most definitely not an attempt to "teach the Bible" at my school. It was strictly a lit class, viewing the Bible only as a piece of literature to be explored.

[angrycarpenter]

40. I belive it was

If we spent half of a school year on any one single book besides the bible that would be kind of odd. Why would they even offer it other wise.

[Left Is Write]

49. If you believe it was in your school, I'll take your word for it.

I'm telling you, it wasn't pushing religion in my school. I took the class. It was an elective, among other electives like British Lit, American Lit, Shakespeare Tragedies, Shakespeare Comedies, and Creative Writing.

Bible Lit was a full trimester class because there are many books within the book. The class was treated the same as any other Lit class. It was taught neither as truth nor history.

[JerseygirlCT]

39. Where they seem to go off the rails in this article is the

recommendation to teachers to accept whatever biblical passages are offered as answers in class. That's the line.

As you say, any child can bring his/her bible to school -- so long as reading or praying is not disruptive to the school day. So go ahead and spend your lunch hour that way, but during class time, you pay attention to class.

I agree with you -- this is more about the press release than anything real.

[Bluebear]

48. You' really hurting their feelings. They want to be "in your face", EP!

[Igel]

53. Depends on what "the government" means.

Baltimore County, in the early '70s, had a rather restrictive policy, at least one year. There was some SCOTUS decision, and as with many policies, the school system overreacted in a particularly nasty way.

That was the year we had "winter break", "spring break", and "winter holidays" activities. We sang a Coke commercial in music class--"Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" was suddenly banned. The "winter concert" had nothing religious about it.

One girl in 8th grade brought in her Bible one day and left it on her desk. She didn't open it. The teacher told her if she saw it again, it would be confiscated and her parents would have to petition to have it returned.

Next day, the girl put it out again. It was confiscated. And the student complained. We got a lecture, and the girl got what was probably the first detention of her life. Don't know, really--she always kept to herself, polite, and until that shenanigan I never even knew she went to church. I digress.

Praying, the teacher explained, she couldn't stop--if it was silent. Pray out loud, and you're in the principle's office. Having a Bible out in class, no. Against school policy. If you had to bring it, leave it in your schoolbag or locker, but it wasn't even allowed to be out in the cafeteria. Allowing displays of religion by students was interpreted as governmental support for that religion.

The girl tried it in other classes, other teachers. Same reaction. But it was with the cheap throw-away NTs/Psalms, as a test, and she avoided detention. It wasn't just that one teacher.

The only other thing I remember from 8th grade English was the teacher, a thin, frail, pale, Snape of a woman, telling us about practicing some theatre method in which she had to pretend to be a banana, to emote as a banana would emote as she peeled herself.

[EstimatedProphet]

56. OK, that's on the extreme side

The fundies are using articles like the one in the OP to make a false case that any religious expression, Christianity especially, is prohibited far worse than the examples you're talking about. And that's simply not true - it's part of their persecution complex.

[Swamp Rat]

25. Bring your Qur'an, Torah, Vedas, Avesta, Star Trek manual, whatever

:)

[XemaSab]

31. Book of Mormon

:P

[spoony]

37. That's a great idea.

A day of open expression of and reflection on religions and beliefs. Sounds wonderful to me.

[kineneb]

44. bring your Sutras, the Gathas, etc.

Om me padme hum.

"And now children, we will discuss the Eight-fold Path and the Five Precepts."

Watch wowsers run screaming from room -"Discrimination against Christians, Discrimination against Christians!"

Then how about: "And now children, we will discuss the Rotary Four-Way Test:

The Four-Way Test
"Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"

http://www.rotary.org/aboutrotary/4way.html

Tell the nutters to leave their Bibles at home and discuss Ethics and Life, using the Four-Way Test.

[Warren DeMontague]

52. Finnegans Wake. nt

[treestar]

26. And when the teacher wants to get back to the lesson plan

They will claim they are persecuted.

:nopity:

[ulysses]

32. my students are welcome to bring Bibles with them if they choose.

They won't be proselytizing at school, but if they can complete more than a small handful of assignments with a Bible, more power to them. :D

[Homer Wells]

27. An interesting idea, that

Now there needs to be a big push for all the little Jewish children to cart in their Torahs, the little Islamic children to lug their little versions of the Q'uran, and so on.

I think this would make the Fundies heads explode, if these children insisted on quoting the wisdom of their religion at all of these faux christists. Whats good for the goose......

:freak:

[SharonAnn]

43. Let's see. The Torah, the Q'uran, the Book of Mormon. Lots of fun with this.

[msongs]

28. well this tactic should generate a high level terror alert nt

[tanyev]

29. I hope those Bibles are very light.

Kids' Heavy Backpacks Still Causing Back and Spinal Injuries
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/348016/kids_heavy_backpacks_still_causing.html

Guess they'll need to leave the science or the math book at home that week.

[and-justice-for-all]

30. " teachers, and staff in public schools "

They can bring them to the Teahers lounge, but they can not have them in their classrooms.

Until the Constitution is changed; Public Schools are no longer publicly funded or are ran by churches, it is tough shit for the fundies.

Someone needs to intitiate a DARWIN DAY, when everyone is encourged to wear a something that clearly displays their support for reason and science or carries a book with them; like THE GOD DELUSION or ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

[DemGa]

38. Jeez, I hope they leave out that stoning people to death stuff

Fortunately, I don't think they get to that part.

[pop goes the weasel]

47. In 10 years of college teaching

I never once had a Christian student able to answer a bible-related question, such as "What was Golgotha?" or "What are the ten commandments?" Even students who tried to answer essay questions by resorting to church-speak were always piteously ignorant of scripture, confusing it with the Declaration of Independence and Poor Richard's Almanac. If toting their bibles to school will get them to actually read what they say they believe, good. And if they bring it up in conversation and find that they are regularly getting shot down, and thus need to think more about the meaning of the verses they sling around so ineffectually, even better.

[Bluebear]

50. I like your post very much. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

54. Yep, and I'd love to get into a discusion

with these fine Christians about oh... Leviticus (and slavery)

Perhaps the Sermon of the Mount

And of course James and the Apocalypse (A little line about it is up to teh father to know when the time will come)

[BlooInBloo]

60. In fairness, that's the combination of mythology-belief with being an American...

... it's a double-whammy for stupid.

[Left Is Write]

61. Any Christian who can't answer a question as basic as "What was Golgotha?"

has some serious gaps in their Christian education.

[Bryn]

55. Bible can be used as a weapon

it is just wrong to mix bible with school courses because bible is full of stories from mythology and many of stories are ugly stories of perverted priests, angry punishing, murdering god, yeah, sex between daughters and father.

[Bryn]

62. on second thought

offer bible stories as mythology course along with greek, roman, egyptian, etc. mythologies

[kestrel91316]

57. Over thirty years ago whenever one of the local fundies tried to

proselytize me in High School, I politely declined and then made a point of basically shunning them forever.

I would have NOTHING more to do with them. If everybody did this is just might stop them.