# Bible classes in US public schools. Unconstitutional? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 22, 2017, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-classes-in-us-public-schools-unconstitutional/782743 "2017-03-22T11:24:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-classes-in-us-public-schools-unconstitutional/782743/101 "2017-04-03T02:34:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > So, it’s literature. Nothing wrong with a course on the thing as literature in a public school. Theoretically, that’s true–as an elective in the secondary schools. The Texas Freedom Network has done lots of work on various curricula–some fairly OK & others braindead Fundamentalist. [Study up.](http://a.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_religious_freedom_bible_courses) The course mentioned in the OP begins in **the first grade.** A student wants to skip it? OK, she can sit on the Group W bench. It’s a stupid idea & I hope the courts end it. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-classes-in-us-public-schools-unconstitutional/782743/102 "2017-04-04T01:55:26Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I, for one, don’t care much one way or another what a few of the the Founders would think if they were here today. I’d listen to them, of course, but I would not consider their opinions to be determinative. Why would they be? There were, literally, hundreds of Founders, all who voted on the Constitution and all who had slightly different ideas of what they thought the text would mean. We’re left with the text (which can be confusing enough as it is). The issue is when people make claims based purely on the foundation that we were established as a purely christian country. While it is an informal fallacy, proof by repeated assertion, when this patently false proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction or contrary evidence is an effective form of rhetoric. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-classes-in-us-public-schools-unconstitutional/782743/103 "2017-04-04T02:31:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What is the purpose of your posting this? After all the different times in this thread people have shown you that it is definitely _not_ being taught as literature, but as fact, are we supposed to pretend that your’s is the first response to the OP and that the links provided never happened? My point is that it’s not the content of the tome being studied, but the content of the course. The idiot fundamentalists will never outgrow their hysterical attempts to indoctrinate all students. Also certain anti religious folks will always say that any religious book cannot be studied in a school. Of course the fundies in question here are teaching their religion. > [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Theoretically, that’s true–as an elective in the secondary schools. The Texas Freedom Network has done lots of work on various curricula–some fairly OK & others braindead Fundamentalist. [Study up.](http://a.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_religious_freedom_bible_courses) > > The course mentioned in the OP begins in **the first grade.** A student wants to skip it? OK, she can sit on the Group W bench. It’s a stupid idea & I hope the courts end it. Yeah, that’s blatantly teaching religion and it’s also setting kids up for bullying when their parents opt them out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-classes-in-us-public-schools-unconstitutional/782743.md?page=5)