WASHINGTON — “Why is it hard for a non-Christian to understand things about God?”
This question is not from a Sunday School class but from a “Bible History” course being taught in Florida public schools.
People For the American Way (PFAW), a civil-liberties group, contends 14 Florida school districts that have used the curriculum in high schools since 1997 are violating the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
“There is a right way — a constitutional way — to teach about the Bible in the public schools, and there is a wrong way,” said Ralph Nees, president of the Washington-based PFAW.
According to a PFAW report released Jan. 13, up to 20 percent of Florida’s public schools are doing it the wrong way.
Courts have ruled that public schools may teach about religion in an academic sense, but they cannot teach the Bible devotionally or seek to proselytize or advance a particular faith.
PFAW charges that groups such as the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools have been urging local school boards around the country to adopt curricula that teach the Bible from a Christian perspective and its content as historical fact.
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