Faith Freedom And The Public School Final Submission
Quiz 1 Study Notes
Teaching about the Bible and Christianity
1 Eric Buehrer is the course instructor. He heads up an organization called Gateways to Better Education. The mission is to help public schools become faith friendly places where students learn about the Bible and America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. The intent of this chapter is to show educators how to teach about the Bible and Christianity within legal boundaries and with academic integrity.
2 first issue is the idea of legal support for teaching about religion in a public school setting. And specifically about the Bible and Christianity’s influence. A lot of educators and a lot of administrators just assume that it’s off-limits—you can’t talk about it. You just don’t address it because you will be, supposedly, violating a separation of church and state. So let’s take a look at that issue and what the courts really have said.
3 Many people think that the Supreme Court has thrown the Bible out of public schools, has thrown prayer out of public schools. They are surprised when they actually look at what the Supreme Court has said. It’s actually encouraged by the Supreme Court to read and study the Bible. Let’s take a look.
4 There is a famous case called Abington School District versus Schempp, which was back in 1963. This is the case where a lot of people erroneously had thought the Bible had been thrown out of public school. It hasn’t, and we’ll take a look at that. The Abington School District is north of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. At the time, Pennsylvania, as a state, had a law that said… [Read the slide] Now a man named Edward Schempp challenged that and the court took a look at it and agreed that you cannot require somebody to read—even if its their faith—the state should not be in the business of requiring students to be devoted to a particular religious faith.
5 So on June 17, 1963, the Court decided in an 8-1 decision in favor of respondent, Edward Schempp. They declared this type
Teaching about the Bible and Christianity
1 Eric Buehrer is the course instructor. He heads up an organization called Gateways to Better Education. The mission is to help public schools become faith friendly places where students learn about the Bible and America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. The intent of this chapter is to show educators how to teach about the Bible and Christianity within legal boundaries and with academic integrity.
2 first issue is the idea of legal support for teaching about religion in a public school setting. And specifically about the Bible and Christianity’s influence. A lot of educators and a lot of administrators just assume that it’s off-limits—you can’t talk about it. You just don’t address it because you will be, supposedly, violating a separation of church and state. So let’s take a look at that issue and what the courts really have said.
3 Many people think that the Supreme Court has thrown the Bible out of public schools, has thrown prayer out of public schools. They are surprised when they actually look at what the Supreme Court has said. It’s actually encouraged by the Supreme Court to read and study the Bible. Let’s take a look.
4 There is a famous case called Abington School District versus Schempp, which was back in 1963. This is the case where a lot of people erroneously had thought the Bible had been thrown out of public school. It hasn’t, and we’ll take a look at that. The Abington School District is north of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. At the time, Pennsylvania, as a state, had a law that said… [Read the slide] Now a man named Edward Schempp challenged that and the court took a look at it and agreed that you cannot require somebody to read—even if its their faith—the state should not be in the business of requiring students to be devoted to a particular religious faith.
5 So on June 17, 1963, the Court decided in an 8-1 decision in favor of respondent, Edward Schempp. They declared this type