I recently came across an old article that fell out of one of my books.  It was originally printed in Time magazine entitled "The Case for Teaching the Bible." 

The question asked was should the Holy Book be taught in school?  According to the writer's opinion he said yes and made quite a good case for it.  He said it's the bedrock of Western culture and can be constitutional as long as we teach it but don't preach it. 

Hmmmm.  Ok.  But I do believe when this country started it was taught as truth as much as reading, writing and math were. I know my grandmother and mother grew up with the Our Father as starting prayer every morning.  I remember reading The Lord is My Shepherd in school as we recited it from time to time.  I also remember singing "When the Saints Come Marching In" not in church but in school.  Times have changed.  I'm not that old.   

Polls taken suggest that most American are ok with the secular teaching of the bible in schools.  Why not?  The bible so pervades Western culture it's hard to find anyone who hasn't at least given some thought to many key passages.  There's alot of good teaching in there that's just plain common sense.   We know we can all use a dose of common sense from time to time. 

Of course this is a hotly debated subject.  One well known evangelical Pastor  quoted in this article is against the teaching of the bible in a secular way because he feels there would be great damage in the misrepresentation of it.  For instance the students could be convinced that polytheism is as valid as monotheism because both are reported in scripture. 

But yet another  just as popular evangelical was in favor of the bible being taught in school saying:  "Would I prefer a more explicitly biblical Christian teaching?  Of course.  But you can't do that in public education.  What you can do is introduce the Bible so that people are aware of its impact on people and in history and then let God speak through it as he will." 

There's so much of our past wrapped up as a result of this book and it's my opinion that we are doing a disservice in not teaching it.  Unless you are at least somewhat literate in this book, you have no idea what people are talking about.    A bible literacy course is a good thing and might help one come to an understanding about what all the fuss is about when it comes to the ongoing culture war.  For instance, unless you read Genesis 1 & 2 you may not totally understand what all problem is between the Creationist and the Evolutionists. 

The bible, simply put, is the most influential book ever written.  Ever.  It's also been the best selling book of all time.  Every year.  Yet somewhere along the way, it was taken out of the school system where it was once taught.

In this article I read how a 1992 survey of English Teachers determined the top 10 required "book length works" in high school English classes showed plays by Shakespeare took three of these spots and the Bible none.

A comparison was made between these two works of antiquity. 

Beauty of language:  Shakespeare by a nose

Depth of subject matter:  Toss up.

Breadth of subject matter:  The Bible

Numbers published, translated etc:  Bible

Number of people martyred for:  Bible

Number of wars attributed to:  Bible

Solace and hope provided to billions:  Bible

I would say Shakespeare would agree.  According to one estimate Shakespeare alludes to Scripture some 1,300 times.  I wonder how many know this?  If they don't know the bible how would they be able to pick this up? 

Outside of literature, you need the Bible to make sense of ideas and rheteroc that helped drive U.S. history.  Many references in political speeches thru the years came right out of scripture but today's youth have no idea of this.  Martin Luther King quoted the book of  Amos in his "I Have a Dream Speech."  Did you know that? 

Recently I was watching my favorite show NCIS and there was an interesting conversation going on between  one of the main characters who is very Jewish and a guest character whose last name was Edom.  As soon as she found out his name, instant dislike washed over her face. When he noticed the Jewish Star necklace she was wearing he too snarled at her and made an ugly comment.   Now I knew the background of Edom in scripture and how Edom affecteed the Jews.  But for most people it would go directly over their heads. 

From time to time I notice when they have Jeopardy questions centering around the bible, nobody answers.  They have no idea.  Ever see Jay Leno on the street asking about well known bible characters such as Adam, Eve, Noah, Jonah, Christ etc?   The answers given to his basic questions prove to the illiterate nature of most when it comes to this great work of antiquity.  How sad. 

I believe the bible could be taught as a book "poured over rather than blindly accepted." 

It's too bad there are many in the way of this because this truly is the best written book of all time. 

There is nothing in the constitution that would prohibit such a book to be taught.  Afterall the Bible has been and still is the most important book in history and it should be accessible to all who desire to learn about it.  Yes, even in a public school setting open for discussion.    What a great class that would be today.