A conservative Christian group is pushing Bible classes in public schools — and it’s working
By Julie Zauzmer Julie Zauzmer Reporter covering religion, faith and spirituality Email Bio Follow May 8 at 7:48 PM GLASGOW, Ky. — Todd Steenbergen leads worship services in church sometimes, but today he was preaching in a different venue: the public-school classroom where he teaches.
Activists on the religious right, through their legislative effort Project Blitz, drafted a law that encourages Bible classes in public schools and persuaded at least 10 states legislatures to introduce versions of it this year. Georgia and Arkansas recently passed bills that are awaiting their governors’ signatures.“Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible,” Trump tweeted in January.
Advocates of these classes view the Bible as a key component of a well-rounded education, key to understanding Western literature and American history. Such classes have long been offered by some public schools across the nation, sometimes taught by public-school employees with textbooks paid for by school budgets. Other times, schools have adopted “released time” rules that let students use part of their school day attending church-taught classes.
The model for many of these states is Kentucky, where state standards for elective Bible education became the law in 2017. The American Civil Liberties Union swiftly responded, issuing a letter that said it would closely monitor all school districts in the state. The organization flagged four school districts in Kentucky, warning that the materials used to teach the Bible in those schools suggested they were violating the Constitution and might lead to a future ACLU lawsuit.
Students describe Steenbergen’s Bible class as a chance to do something they enjoy during the school day — Cole Wilson, who took the class in a previous semester, likened reading the Bible in school to getting the chance to shoot hoops during gym class. His consistent message throughout the game was that students should draw moral lessons from the Gospels.
Steenbergen, one of four members of the committee that wrote the statewide standards for public-school Bible education, said he thinks he is toeing a constitutionally permissible line — in an unusual way. His solution is simply leaving out parts of the Bible. All students have a Bible in print as well as a Bible app on their phones or school-issued laptops. Students read chapters for homework and spend much of their class time going line by line through the text together.
Maggie Dowdy said she picked this course because she thought it would be easy. After all, she already knew the Bible from church.
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