MORGANTOWN — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morphed a somewhat controversial bill to allow elective high school courses on the Old and New Testaments into more inclusive courses on any sacred scriptures or comparative religion.
The change followed nearly two hours of discussion about the nation’s heritage, its ethnic and cultural diversity and – these days – its more pluralistic outlook.
As it passed through Education and on to Judiciary, SB 38 was crafted to conform to constitutional requirements for teaching the Bible as literature in an objective, secular academic program. County boards would design the elective course for review by the state board.
The major shift in the bill’s emphasis came at the end of the meeting and most of the talk focused on its original aim to teach the Bible as literature.
The bill was crafted to allow a teacher to choose any version or translation of the Bible and students to choose any version or translation to read along.
Committee member and lead sponsor Michael Azinger, R-Wood, said 12 states have similar legislation and 45 teach Bibile as literature. He played a video presentation by California State University Professor William Jeynes, who has backed similar legislation across the country.
Jeynes emphasized that the Bible is foundational to Western culture and a well-rounded education – Shakespeare cites it 1,300 times – and students with a background of biblical knowledge tend to score higher GPAs.
Sarah Stewart, with the Department of Education, told members that counties can already do this. Two off biblical literacy courses and several offer broader world religion courses. But the bill is in line with standards for elective courses to allow for grading and transcript credit.
Some senators balked at bill’s latitude, saying for instance that the Catholic and Protestant Bible contain different numbers of books, and some kids might feel left out.
Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, said he was raised Catholic. “I’m concerned about my ninth grader in public school being taught a Bible that’s not my Bible.”
Ibtesam Barazi, vice president of the Islamic Association of West Virginia in Charleston, told members about the prejudice American Muslims already deal with. She didn’t see any mention of the Koran or the Torah [the bill used the term Hebrew Scriptures] in the bill.
Muslims have contributed to America’s development and she felt the bill should be more inclusive, she said. “Let’s open that discussion to all students. … We don’t want to perpetuate this ignorance by focusing on one religion.”
Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, talked with Barazi about his military experience in Afghanistan and about learning more about the political conflicts between the two major Islamic sects: Shia and Sunni.
Barazi told him that these are not religious conflicts but power struggles conducted in the name of religion. True Islam embraces Jews and Christians. “Knowledge is power. You gain knowledge of your fellow human beings.”
While Woelfel was skeptical of the issue of various Bible versions, he said he felt the bill provides a constitutional framework for counties to follow, rather than having all 55 winging it in different ways.
Sen. Paul Hardesty, D-Logna, talked about his own experience years ago, as a school board member when he sought to have copies of the 10 Commandments put in every school. He learned the ACLUplaneed to sue over that and pondered what path to take.
So he went to the English departments and vocational school and they created a collage featuring historical Western and U.S documents along with sacred texts from Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity. Those collages remain in the schools to this day.
Sen. Stephen Baldwin, a Presbyterian pastor, offered the amendment to broaden the bill to include any sacred scriptures or comparative religion. Religious literacy is an important tool but has to be used with care and inclusively, he said.
Azinger supported it, turning back to the Bible and its potential influence in today’s troubled classrooms. “What would the two great commandments do to bullying? Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. … Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are the meek.”
The amendment swung those who had been opposing the bill and it passed in a voice vote with only one no. It now goes to the full Senate.
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