by Pa Rock
Retired Educator
This week the Texas State Board of Education mandated a required reading list for students in grades K-12 of the state's public schools, a list which includes specific passages and stories from the King James version of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. The forced proselytization will be in effect across the entire state and impact over 5.5 million young people by the start of the 2030-2031 school year.
According in information available on-line, the biblical instruction will include: picture book versions of stories such as "David and Goliath" and "Daniel and the Lion's Den" in the early elementary grades, New Testament passages about Jesus in 4th grade, excerpts from the sermons of Jesus in middle school, and specific Bible verses mandated to pair with classic literary works for high school students.
Yesterday three well dressed, exceedingly polite young men came to my door to discuss Christianity through the lens of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I neglected to ask them, but I am sure those well mannered lads would like to see their Holy text, "The Book of Mormon" (aka "Another Testament of Jesus Christ") included in the Texas state required reading list as well. "The Book of Mormon" has some tales which would surely benefit the children of the Lone Star State.
And the Quran, the Muslim holy book, also has stories that roll off the tongue like the finest European literature and capture the most vivid parts of the Islamic culture and history.
There are undoubtedly many Morman and Muslim children in the public schools of Texas who would like to share their religious history with their classmates. And the Bagavad-Gita, the holy book of the Hare Krishnas. A young lady with a tambourine handed me a copy at an airport once and it made my travel experience just fly by!
Texas knows that sloshing some religion into the curriculum of their public schools can be a very uplifting and moral experience that will save their students from a life of sin and debauchery. Just ask the state's attorney general. But they also understand that it has to be the right flavor of religion - and material that will not interfere with the football program.
Yee-haw!
1 comment:
You're nicer to those Book of Mormon thumpers than I am. The last ones who dared approach my door left with their ears ringing. However, I admit to being an equal opportunity offender of proselytizers of all persuasions. I have a cartoon that I wish I could attach to this but will have to describe it. Imagine two neatly dressed young men standing at a residential door in front of the homeowner. The homeowner is holding a piece of paper that the young men had handed to him. The homeowner says, "It's blank." One of the young men says, "We're atheists." Back to Texas: I lived there for five years and only once got into a conversation about religion. It was with a coworker who claimed that she looked forward to her death so that she could go to heaven. Little else was said verbally. The look on my face said it all and the conversation was soon over. One other time was not a conversation but a request for me to say "Grace" at some event. I refused but did not catch any blowback from it. Not everybody in Texas is a Christian Nationalist. Most of them are just dolts who don't have real opinions of their own. The few who do are either all in or too timid to say anything. The really big question is what will the Supremes do when it eventually gets to them. Read the Treaty of Tripoli, you black robed jerks. I apologize for getting so carried away.
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