Bible in the Public Schools

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Bible In The Public Schools

Presentation for the Texas Freedom Network

by Rabbi Neal Katz, Congregation Beth El, Tyler, Texas, (JewishTyler.com) September 13, 2006

Rabbi Katz delivered these remarks at a press conference in the lobby of the Texas Education Commission building in Austin to announce publication of Reading, Writing and Religion, a report by the Texas Freedom Network on the serious problems with Bible courses taught in Texas public schools. Among other speakers at the press conference were a Baptist minister and a Catholic parent of a school-aged child.

Good morning. My name is Rabbi Neal Katz, and I come here today from Congregation Beth El in the great city of Tyler, Texas.

This past Sunday, I was honored to be a presenter at a program in Dallas called Unity Day USA. Along with myself, a Muslim imam, and a Christian preacher, the program was filled with prayers for peace from other religious communities such as Sikh, Jain, Hindu, Zoroastrian, tribal African, Native American, and Bahai. As I sat on the platform listening to the calls for unity and peace, I thought about how wonderfully varied is the state of Texas. We are home to a beautiful assortment of faiths and ethnicities - each doing their part to make Texas a great place to call home.

But while some see this religious variety as joyful, others are determined to marginalize non-Christian faiths in whatever way they can - including inside of our public schools. As we have learned from the Texas Freedom Network's report on how Bible is taught in Texas public schools, it is all too clear that many non-Christians are learning about the Bible with a decidedly pro-Christian bias.

As a rabbi, I am certainly concerned with how this unfortunate reality affects my Jewish students, but I sympathize with all non-Christian faith communities who must struggle with this manipulation of public education.

I imagine a Jewish parent somewhere in Texas who sends his child off to public school every morning where one of these Bible classes is taught. I feel the unnecessary religious struggle placed before the Jewish student as she studies verses from the Hebrew bible and is taught that the Hebrew bible is really just a series of prophecies that were to be fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ. I imagine the pain of the Jewish student who has to sit through a lecture at school that begins with a public school teacher saying, "Jesus Christ is the one and only way."

Hear me carefully: I am not advocating that we stop teaching Bible courses in our schools. These courses can be a wonderful addition to a child's education. What we should not have in our schools are devotional courses that favor one faith over all others.

Personally, I was troubled to hear that a school district in my community, the Lindale ISD, teaches such a course. I have a family in my congregation with three children who attend school in that district. I believe it is tragic to put any child in a position where their faith is contradicted and belittled by their own school. And whether schools and teachers do this intentionally or not, it is still wrong. It is our responsibility to ensure that Bible courses do not interfere with the right of families and congregations to pass on their own religious faith and practices to their children.

When I was a student in the public school system in Virginia, I had to read selections of the New Testament in my English class. I fondly remember reading beautiful passages from Paul's letter to the Romans and Corinthians. I also remember that those lessons were to showcase the literary beauty and importance of the New Testament, not to use the public classroom as a vehicle to promote Christian ideology. It is a fine line for sure, but I join with the Texas Freedom Network's efforts to make sure that this line between academia and religious imposition is not crossed in our Texas public school rooms. This is my hope and this is my prayer.

Thank you.