Religion and the Curriculum

Efforts to understand the relationship between religion and the public school curriculum require a review of the larger issue of religious liberty. For the past 2 decades, religious liberty has intersected public education in America in ways more divisive than uniting. The polarization of conservative Christians seeking to advance particular [Page 767]interpretations of the Bible within the public school arena versus those citizens advocating for a religion-neutral and secular arena has grown wider and wider.

This entry reviews the current state of the debate concerning religion and the curriculum with a cursory look at the larger context of the debate—religious liberty. The two major groups participating in the debate are highlighted along with their arguments for and against religion in the public school curriculum. A recommendation to thoughtful reformers for a more balanced approach to religion and the public school curriculum concludes the entry.

Many American school systems and their communities are at odds over educational philosophy, faith-based curricula, the teaching of the Bible as a literary course, and the role of religion in U.S. public schools. The controversies have moved from the subject of the debate to the manner of the debate. The shrillness, anger, and antagonism have moved beyond dissent in a democratic society and become one more element of the so-called culture wars. The battlefield of choice for many Christians is the U.S. public schools.

Public schools face a difficult challenge from evangelical Christians who have made public education the rhetorical “devil” for their cause. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Baptist denomination, has agitated to remove Southern Baptist students from public schools. Some critics have pointed out that the underlying religious motives are tinged with racial attitudes that are, in some ways, as deeply entrenched as ever, in the South. The danger is that “religious liberty” will be used to make a scapegoat of the public schools.

There are two basic sides in the current debate over the relationship between religious liberty and the public school. One side insists that America was founded as, and continues to be, a Christian nation. Arguing on the basis of such beginnings, these Christians advocate prayer in public school, the teaching of the Bible in the curriculum, and the priority of Christianity over all other forms of religious instruction, including secularism and atheism. In addition, this side of the argument asks for the teaching of a particular Christian theology: fundamentalism as opposed to any of its alternatives.

The emotional argument of the conservative attempt to establish Christianity in the public schools of America is that the Supreme Court has “kicked God out of the public schools.” In response to such statements, critics have pointed out that this is not only a presumptuous argument but a patently false one. What the Supreme Court actually did was to ban state-sponsored religion from public schools. Religious activity is allowed in public schools, and this includes voluntary prayer, studying religious holidays, Bible clubs, and certain religious attire. The majority of American denominations and religious bodies have officially adopted statements of support for voluntary use of religious activities in the public schools.

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