by Nicole Allen

Created on: May 20, 2009   Last Updated: May 22, 2009

Including the bible as an educational text to be taught from, presents several disadvantages exclusive to religious texts that outweigh any possible advantages. Mainly, the challenges that arise from using the Bible in such a public and state sponsored environment deal with the bureaucracy of the education systems. Should elected officials who are elected on the basis of politic and not religion be imbued with the power to make religious decisions and advocate for certain interpretations? Because the answer to this question is undoubting NO!, we must disregard the idea of using the Bible in an educational setting.

Many people point to the massive distribution of the Bible as an argument to encourage its incorporation into the education system; however, the massive distribution goes to prove a major disadvantage. The billions of Bibles in print are not the same. Very few are identical. In direct translations and language barriers that prevent literal translation plague the majority of printed Bibles. Unlike Islam which has protected the holiness of the Arabic language in the Quran, Christian Bibles have never been unified. Some interpretations differ in word choice and others in concept. Even more complicated and perplexing is the fact that each interpretation or version tends to arise from a different divisions within the Christian world. When a Roman Catholic reads the Bible, the words and conclusions differ from those drawn by a Greek Orthodox of equivalent education and intent. Thus, we arrive at the problem of using the Bible as an educational tool to be taught from. If a teacher is to use a specific teaching and relate it to the class, first that same teacher is required to choose an interpretation to disperse throughout their class. A person who is not hired on religious question would be deciding which version of Bible teaching, and by extension which denominations, should be publically accepted and taught. So it seems the support for using the Bible in an educational setting is contingent on the fact that is their version or interpretation that is accepted by that state. The state should be imbued with the powers to make far impacting decision because it is not their job. If one would like to argue that this should be their job, that is a different article. However, the fact is that currently the majority of our politicizations and education ministers are hired and elected because of proficiency in their individual field not because they represent our religious beliefs.

It is because that Bible should not be open to state interpretation that caution should be employed when advocating for its use in the education system. This decision would be tantamount to a state advocation of certain type of Christianity. In the end, the decision to include the Bible as a literal education tool would be most controversial between the various Christian sects. This would reinforce religious sect identification, instead, of identification with the democratic-republican values on which the US is founded. As a result of this unavoidable barrier, Bibles should not be included as education tools.

Learn more about this author, Nicole Allen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.