Okaaaaaaay....

[conuly]

Here's one on Texas schools being required to teach the Bible. I'm sure it'll collapse soon enough.

You know, my father was from Texas. It was a big part of his identity. He's actually buried over there. Must be spinning in his grave. I wouldn't be surprised if he got up and started walking to march on the capital either!

And here's one about a bunch of whiners complaining that people wonder WHY, exactly, they felt the need to bring guns to a presidential event.

"I still have some freeeeeeeedoms!" they declare. I think the following comment sums it up:

Let's make sense of this. Wear a John Kerry shirt to a Bush rally and get arrested. Carry an assault rifle to an Obama rally and you are a Freedom Fighting Revolutionary.

Comments

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Ayup, nevermind. >:(

[conuly]

Indeed.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

I don't necessarily have a problem with schools having Bible classes so long as they're in the context of religion classes as a whole, and being taught as concepts alongside other religious concepts.

(My sister went to a school where she was required to take Bible classes. I went to one that just required a "humanities" credit in religion, so I got to learn about all sorts of interesting things, like Hinduism and Buddhism alongside Christianity! I can't help but feel that not only was my education more rounded than hers as a result, but also so much more interesting.)

[leora.livejournal.com]

My public high school discussed Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in social studies as part of learning about the history and culture of various places. My English class did a segment on the Bible. We were told that while people could disagree about whether or not it was true, it is a huge influence on our culture and literature and an educated person should be familiar with it whether they believe it or not. I think this is quite true. I am fine with Texas teaching the Bible as literature, so long as they never try to tell the kids it is true or false or teach it in an environment that encourages that.

I also tend to feel that actually reading the Bible would help dispel some of the religious lunacy of the US, but that's just my personal belief.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I read that article about Texas, and I am wondering if they are actually teaching the Bible as literature rather than as a religious text. I am against religion being used in schools, but I don't object to using religious texts for their literary merit, especially since so many classical works of literature refer to the Bible. I studied both English and French literature in university and I was rather surprised to find that most of my classmates were completely unfamiliar with all the Biblical references in the texts we studied.

[conuly]

I can see the argument (and it's a good one) that it's useful to know what's referred to in the Bible because, like it or not, it *is* a major part of cultural literacy in the West.

However, I'm really not sure I trust the schools to uniformly treat it fairly unless they handle it with other religious texts of equal literary value. Besides, that same argument could be just as well used to justify spending a term on Classics - or the Simpsons and Buffy, for that matter!

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

They could include the Bible with the Classics, couldn't they?

I'd have no objection to including the Koran or other religious texts as well; however, they are not commonly referred to in Western literature.

[conuly]

No, they're not, but you could have a class that generally covers major world religions and deal with them that way.

And no, I don't think you could include the Bible with the Classics. Could you?

as Douglas Adams said...

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

"to summarize the summary of the summary: people are stupid."