Text 9075, 88 rader
Skriven 2005-02-13 16:35:06 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Bible lessons for public students
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Didn't a former Fido political echo poster live in Staunton?  
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/printedition/bal-te.virginia13feb13,1,1085713
.story?coll=bal-pe-asection
Va. parents challenge weekly Bible lesson
Board asked to review public school's tradition of taking pupils to church


Associated Press

February 13, 2005

STAUNTON, Va. - When Heather and Logan Ward's son entered public kindergarten
this fall, they were stunned to discover that pupils were taken from class to a
nearby church for weekly Bible lessons.

The Wards moved to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from New York four years ago
and were unaware of the tradition that has remained in Staunton and other rural
schools for more than 60 years.

"My reaction is exactly like the reaction of those who come here from a
different place - shock and disbelief that we have Bible classes in public
schools," Heather Ward said.

Now the Wards and other parents are asking the school board to eliminate or
modify the program, which shuttles first-, second- and third-graders to
churches during class time for voluntary half-hour Christian lessons and
activities.

But the would-be reformers have run into staunch resistance. More than 400
people showed up to weigh in on the issue at a school board meeting in
December, and more than 1,000 signed a petition urging the school board to keep
the classes.

The six-member school board is scheduled to decide the issue tomorrow.

Jack Hinton, president of the local private group that offers the lessons,
attributes the opposition to a small minority, many of them newcomers to the
valley. Without religious classes, he said, "kids get into trouble and have no
moral structure on which to combat drugs, sex, pornography and all that."

But many opponents are Staunton natives. They argue that children who opt out
are stigmatized and have little to do while their classmates are in Bible
classes, taking away time for academics in the age of standardized testing.

The Bible classes began in Virginia in 1929 after a majority of students failed
a Bible test.

The lessons were conducted inside public school classrooms until 1948, when the
Supreme Court ruled that the lessons violated the principle of separation of
church and state. A few years later, the court revisited the issue and approved
classes held away from school premises.

Most towns have eliminated the classes, but the 20 school divisions that have
kept the classes stretch along Interstate 81 in western Virginia, known to some
as the state's "Bible Belt." In the Staunton area, more than 80 percent of
first-, second- and third-graders participate.

"The people in those communities still have strong Christian faith and want
their children to learn this," said JoAnne Shirley, state director of Weekday
Religious Education, the private group that offers the lessons.

Although no lawsuits have been filed, the local chapter of the group has hired
a lawyer, Gil Davis, who once represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment
lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. The group also is working with the
Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville center that defends Christian rights.

Rutherford President John Whitehead said the classes "are wholly consistent
with the First Amendment and this nation's religious heritage."

But opponents argue that the classes are divisive, and the schools already have
character-education classes, which teach children about right and wrong without
religion. Beverly Ridell, who grew up going to the Staunton schools, teaches
first- and second-grade Sunday school at church and opposes religious classes
during school time.

"I asked them whether Jesus was a Christian, and they said 'yes.' When I said,
'Jesus was a Jew,' one girl said, 'But Jesus was a good person,'" Ridell said.
"If Christians are good people, what are Jews?"

Hinton acknowledged that the struggle to keep the Bible classes might be partly
based on a desire to cling to tradition in the face of a changing community.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun

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