In the LA Times (reg. req.), computer science professor and conservative commentator David Gelernter argues that the Bible should be taught in public schools (Why the Bible Belongs in America's Public Schools). He makes the standard arguments that it is important to know the Bible in order to understand American history and literature. He's absolutely right. He's also right that it would be perfectly constitutional to teach the Bible in public schools as literature. In fact, I agree that we should teach the Bible as literature in the public schools. Indeed, I've recently been studying the Bible as literature myself.
The problem is, however, that I think it unlikely that the "Bible as literature" would long remain that way. It is a struggle already to keep certain states from bringing in supernatural/mystical explanations for ecological diversity; how hard would it be to police the inevitable corruption of "Bible as literature" courses?
Teaching the Bible as literature is secular. However, Gelernter himself betrays that what he really wants is religious teaching in schools, not secular teaching.
And let's not be coy about the underlying cultural context. Bible-reading used to be routine in public schools. [Michael] Novak again: "Beginning about 1948, one Supreme Court case after another turned the judiciary (and the law schools) into aggressive enemies of religion in public life." The Bible began to seem tainted no matter how you planned to teach it.
Well, Bible-reading used to be routine, but it certainly wasn't secular. It was done in a religious context. The Supreme Court wasn't banning "Bible as literature" courses, but Bible as faintly camouflaged religious indoctrination. To characterize the courts as "enemies of religion" makes sense only if you intend to teach the Bible as religious document, not as secular literature.
Gelernter finishes his op-ed with this:
The great thundering secularist tide that swept the Bible out of public school education is about to turn. Tides always do. Odessa is a portent.
Once again, if you're teaching the Bible as literature, what you are doing is secular. If the Bible is being taught in a secular manner, how is it that the secularist tide will be turning? Wouldn't the secularist tide be rising higher? If not, it would be because religious teaching was being brought into the school.
As for citing Odessa, Texas as a sign of the shifting tide, what a surprise that such a conservative and religious community would make such a choice. The effort in Odessa was spearheaded by the National Council On Bible Curriculum In Public Schools, which states on the front page of their website that:
The world is watching to see if we will be motivated to impact our culture, to deal with the moral crises in our society, and reclaim our families and children.
And how, exactly, is a simple literature course supposed to do all that?
Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
Ernest Miller's blog postings can also be found @
1. Juke Moran on May 27, 2005 06:26 PM writes...
You can put it off as long as you want, but sooner or later the validity of the beliefs of the other side are going to be what the issue is. Because that's what the real issue is already.
Permalink to CommentYou can't expect someone who believes fundamental Christian tenets to not want the Bible put in front of every child in public school.
It's the equivalent of polio vaccine.
So really what you have to say is their beliefs are invalid. But since their beliefs can't be provably demonstrated as false, they have to be legislated against. But since the nature of their beliefs entails a trivialization of earthly human life, and a kind of disposablity to the earth itself, not to mention a disgust at the arrogance of human political institutions that don't recognize their gods, they'll not only resist that legislation, they'll see it as at best misguided, and at worst demonic.
It's almost impossible to confront and disagree with that level and kind of fundamentalism without playing right into it. The sub-structure has a little dynamo built into it that runs on negative energy and resistance.
So legislation against the Ten Commandments and the Bible and creationism is proof of the evil forces at work in the world.
All the logic in the world won't change that, only confirm it. Nothing but superior force will keep them from social dominance. And the force behind them, weak and scattered as it is now, ran the governments of the West for over a thousand years; it's more than willing to destroy the world if it's thwarted.
There's the real dilemma.
2. Jay C. Smith on May 29, 2005 12:55 PM writes...
A good post, which highlights how disingenuous Gelenter's essay really is. I also believe that IF schools taught the Bible as literature in the same way schools teach other literature--noting its origins and flaws, internal contradictions and so on--religious parents would be up in arms in no time flat. They don't want a critical presentation of the Bible, they want a foot in the door, just as you noted. A REAL "Bible as literature" class is that last thing they want.
Permalink to Comment3. C.I. Dreyfus on June 1, 2005 04:31 PM writes...
I think the Bible is truly amazing if you read it as literature. Like Herodotus's Histories, it shows historical consciousness arising from it's roots in mythology. It's also got lots of beautiful poetry, tons of sex and violence, and some pretty fascinating characters. I'm speaking of the Old Testament of course. In the sequel they introduce this unnecessary "Jesus" character, cut out most of the sex and violence, and basically ruin the storyline. If we really taught the Bible as literature it would destroy fundamentalism in America.
Permalink to Comment4. Ruby Coleman on June 10, 2005 10:59 AM writes...
As a Teacher of metaphysics and an ordained minister of Universal Harmony Foundation. I teach the bible and all world religion texts as literature. We happen to be followers of Jesus Christ. God made man and Man made religion! all religions come down to one thing. LOVE!Stop fighting and start loving. -PEOPLE- We must learn to study the Bible as literature in order to grow spiritually and intellectually. As science has now begun to acknowledge that "living force""that devine spark of energy" that is the core of all living things,we must sooner or later grow up spiritually and let go of ignorance by studying the truths of the great minds of the past and present. We must lose the fear and control of ignorance and accept the unconditional Love that is God
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