Holy curriculum

Board OKs high school Bible course

December 9, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Beginning next fall, Mat-Su Borough high school students will have the option to crack open and study the Bible in public schools.

After listening to half a dozen people testify Wednesday night about the historical and cultural importance of the Bible, the Mat-Su Borough School Board unanimously approved a textbook, &#8220The Bible and its influences” and a new academic course entitled &#8220Bible Within Literature & History.”

&#8220In our culture and our society we find references to Bible characters, Bible precepts, concepts, stories from the Bible that repeatedly occur in our literature and history,” Bruce Rowell told school board members.

Rowell is pastor of First Baptist Church in Palmer and the father of two children who still currently attend borough schools. He said the benefits of knowing the Bible are important for religious and nonreligious people alike.

&#8220Our students are in the process of preparing themselves to engage in culture, to live a life out there in public that makes a difference in the world,” he said. &#8220The world is a community and a significant part of that community and that culture are influences and stories and events that are recorded in the history and literature of the Bible.”

Others speakers shared Rowell's conviction that modern U.S. students need a basic understanding of the Bible if they are to understand their society and culture.

&#8220Politics, law, Shakespeare and others in history and literature are influenced by the Bible,” Nancy Homstad said after the meeting.

Homstad said she is a practicing Christian and her two children who attend Palmer High School are familiar with the Bible. Still, she

thinks a high school Bible class will help with their understanding of the religious text.

&#8220Churches and families might not always have the time to cover the political history and the Bible's influence on society and literature,” she said. &#8220At church my kids get spiritual training, this class would be just historical and literary.”

While supporting the course, School board president Sarah Welton warned board members that the course must be taught objectively and fairly to keep from violating the separation of church and state.

&#8220I believe we need to be extremely careful about supporting and pushing a particular viewpoint,” Welton said. &#8220So whoever teaches this course needs to be extremely carefulŠthere is going to be difficulties with parents and students and whoever teaches this course will have their fill.”

Welton said she is concerned that the course could trample minority and non-Christian beliefs.

&#8220A lot of this comes down to the teacher,” she said, &#8220and so I hope that whoever is teaching this will be respectful of minority stands.”

Palmer High School ELP teacher Paul Morley was instrumental in establishing the course. He helped write the curriculum and recommended the course to the school district's curriculum council. Morley said the course is intended to be an academic rather than devotional study of the Bible.

&#8220This is about Bible literacy, it is not about becoming a Christian,” he explained after the meeting.

Morley said he pushed for the course because he believes it is a subject that will challenge students both intellectually and in their belief systems.

&#8220I might challenge a belief system that people have been raised with,” he said. &#8220Some people might be threatened by an academic study of the Bible - I think it is a good thing.”

Students who take the elective class will receive a semester of credit at the junior or senior year in either social studies or language arts, depending on the teacher's area of expertise.

The Anchorage School District currently offers a high school-level Bible literature class and has done so for many years. School board member Rob Wells took a Bible class at West high 34 years ago. Despite the precedent, Morley said he thinks it will be hard to find a teacher willing to wade into the controversies a Bible class could spark.

&#8220Some people may think this is a way to get the Bible into the schools again,” he said. &#8220Getting the Bible back in schools is not necessarily a bad thing if we are careful how we do it.”

The important thing will be teaching the course in an ethical and legal way that neither promotes nor undermines religion, Morley said.

&#8220I think anybody that is halfway aware is going to be pretty reluctant to teach it,” he said, &#8220which is unfortunate, because I think it would be a great class.”

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.