There are some truly bad ideas in the world: Pineapple on pizza, for example, is a very bad idea. Not wearing sunscreen when at the beach is not a very good idea, either. Trust me, I know.

But some ideas are epically bad, and the great state of Texas has stumbled into one — or perhaps, ran blindly into it. As best I can understand what has been decided is public schools will require students, starting in the year 2030 for students in the seventh grade, and eventually will include high school, to read excerpts from the Hebrew Bible. It looks like there is a focus upon the Psalms, the minor prophet Jonah, Lamentations, and Genesis. The emphasis in the New Testament is the beatitudes, The Prodigal Child, and 1 Corinthians 13. Other Bible stories, like David and Goliath, seem to be sprinkled in.

Reading these passages, and children reading these passages, is a VERY GOOD IDEA. I love all of these, because I love and treasure the Bible. The INCREDIBLY BAD IDEA is having these passages taught in public school. There are several reasons why, I think, any clearheaded person of faith would want to avoid such a disaster.

First, and perhaps foremost, is the issue of responsibility. It is the responsibility of parents and local churches to teach religious lessons. The move by the board seems like a shifting of responsibility onto the public schools. This is part of the ever increasing trend toward centralizing child rearing through the school and taking it away from parents. The only difference is this is coming from the extreme right rather than the usual suspects, the extreme left.

Second, I object to the way in which this biblical material is being characterized as ‘literary’. Yes, the Bible is literary but look at the list — it is being taught along side Aesop’s Fables, Greek mythology, and Dr. Seuss. When you teach the Bible alongside these subjects, you turn it into a bloodless fable that really has no bearing other than metaphorical, moral, or as entertainment. Do you really want people growing up thinking David slaying Goliath was not any different than Achilles killing Hector and dragging his body around? Or that the beatitudes are like … checks notes … anything else?

Third, there is nothing more frightening to me, as a person who has studied the Bible for five decades and loves it dearly than to hand it to people who may not love it, treasurer it, or care for it, and expect them to teach it. That would be like asking me to teach the Koran or Aggie fight songs. More to the point, I don’t want a Catholic, a Mormon, or worse, an atheist, teaching my children what Paul means when he says, ‘faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.’ Can you just imagine that sentiment in the hands of a heathen? This is how you get a whole generation to believe the Bible is all about, ‘follow your heart.’ Ugh.

Fourth, this decisions is an attack upon the authority of the local church. Politicians are sticking their fingers in our eyes, saying, ‘we don’t need you, we can take care of religious education all by ourselves’. That is a a big step toward a popularized religion that is devoid of prophetic thunder or spiritual transformation. If faith is appropriated by the state in this way it will not be long before it sticks a legal sword into the throat of the church and demands it abdicate.

Fifth, people will think they are Christian, and therefore eternally secure, because they read a little Bible in school. That hasn’t worked out well in parts of the world where culture and church are intertwined — I’m look at you, England, Germany, and France.

Sixth, and I will finish with this, today Christian leaning politicians run Texas, but it is not hard to see a future, maybe in fifty or sixty years, where due to cultural decline and the feckless habits of a neutered church, it is people of no faith or other faith in charge of this kind of curricula. I only shudder to think what might happen.

As you can tell, I think the TEA has made a tragic mistake. I do not necessarily believe they are bad people or have nefarious goals. I do believe they have not though this through and have been bullied by loud-mouth politicians who are trying to prove how spiritual they are by using the law for things the law cannot, and indeed should not, do.