Putting Religion in its Place; Outside of Education

Should religion and bible studies be incorporated into the curriculum in Texas high schools? My answer to this is an emphatic NO. I am not a religious person, and do not believe in god, but that is not the only reason that I agree with Jenny Tran's views in her commentary, "New Bible Requirement Hits Texas Schools This Fall," in which she discusses the issue of recent legislation requiring bible courses in Texas high schools.

Jenny pointedly disagreed with arguments made by teachers and politicians that say that in order to fully understand history and literature, children must also have biblical knowledge. While I admit that history is chock full of references to religion as the cause for many events, such as the surge of immigration to the United States in the early 1900's by Europeans who were fleeing religious persecution, but this does not mean that I need to be able to recite the ten commandments by memory. I believe that the important facts and knowledge regarding our country's past and that of the world can be easily understood without deep religious or biblical knowledge.

As Jenny says, "I'm not against religions that intertwine with the Bible but I believe schools shouldn't have Bible classes because religion is such a personal and culturally touchy topic." She points out an important aspect of this issue, which is the extremely controversial and broad associations that people have with religion. What I struggle to understand is exactly how teachers are going to go about explaining the importance and truth of the bible to their Jewish, Buddhist, and atheist students. Why is it that these students should be forced to learn about something that they may not subscribe to by belief or morals? There is an extremely fine line between teaching facts about the bible and its interplay into history and literature and promoting the beliefs that it preaches. If we really want to be fair and politically correct, then high schools should also be required to teach the writings of the Koran, the Torah, and all other religious documents because each religion has an important place in history.

To me, religion and the bible are completely subjective things because to some they are fact and a way of life, when to me they are simply creations of men who fear death. Obviously, I have specific opinions regarding religion that would have been opposed by the teachings of the bible in school. I think that there are a lot of people like me who would not stand for this in a public curriculum. At least not for long. I went through four years of high school and learned quite a lot about history and literature, and continued studying the topics into college. At no point was the bible discussed, and I feel that I am perfectly knowledgeable about both subjects and would be no better off had I had biblical teachings.

Finally, our first amendment gives us the right to freedom of religion, meaning that we can choose to practice (or not) whichever religion we want. I stress the OR NOT portion of this because I think that it is the part that is violated when schools introduce religion into their courses. I agree with Jenny's opinion that school and religion do not mix, and think that she brought up good points in arguing for this stance. The use of quotes and facts regarding the legislation helped me, the reader, get a good idea about how this issue came about and what its status is in our state. Hopefully, parents and legislators will form a large opposition to this law and remove all religion from public high schools in Texas, and soon.