They don't mind sharia law as long as it's their christian nationalist flavor of it.
They're cool with the christian caliphate.
Fitting alliteration, that.
This is the reason they went along with the George W Bush administration when they started the 9th Crusades which we experience today.
The criticism is mostly jealousy.
Y'all Qaeda
I'm ready for Shakira law whenever, wherever.
At least hips don't lie.
So if they aren't adhering to the Constitution, then why should they keep benefiting from any part of it? Why should they even be part of the Union?
I would be fucking FURIOUS if I was a tax payer in Texas. What a shithole.
There’s nothing better for turning Christians into atheists than making them actually read the Bible. I approve.
They'll be selectively read to. American kids can't actually read well these days, and this will do nothing to change that.
Yeah its ironic that the actual teachings of jesus and the gospel are about as far from Christo-fascism as one can be.
AFAIK they won't read the Bible directly, they'll read excerpts. So basically Republicans are curating only the parts they think fit their needs and are leaving out context that could completely flip the lesson on its head.
The teachings of Jesus are extremely woke at the same time. "Loving everyone unconditionally", "not caring if someone's doing religion wrong or thinking differently"?
Closer?
That is literally Sharia law (at least what bigots think sharia law is)
So not literally? Words matter.
I'm all over this post correcting. It's not for them, it's for hopefully us. Messaging matters, words matter.
Tighten it the fuck up.
if Sharia law refers to religious laws made by religious fundamentalists, then it's literally true
In my Texas high school, many decades ago now, my English teacher made us read the bible, saying that it was only for its literary and historical value. It had nothing to do with how she was an extremely religious Mormon.
Apparently.
At least it wasn't the official curriculum. Just her being an awful human.
Oklahoma was all set to hand out the Trump Bibles, at full retail cost of $60 per. But they got talked down from that.
Oklahoma also has an anti-establishment clause stronger than the one in the US constitution. That would have probably helped get in the way.
Yeah, well at least it's not some Middle Eastern religion, with funny hats and a sacred book, that builds big towers to noisily advertise itself to the people around it...
That worships the same god.
The Christan Taliban are rather active in the US.
but it's "our flavor of sharia law so it's good".
This can't be real. Tell me this isn't real.
I fucking hate it here
If it helps, the rest of the world hate your country too.
I mean the pro is if they actually read the Bible maybe they'll realize its not all anti everything, and stop using it out of context. Actually care about others?
There's a dangerous difference between critical bible analysis and guided bible study.
With how cryptic it is and how heavy on metaphors and parables, interpretation and contextualisation are important aspects of actually understanding the text, and the context sometimes isn't directly in the text but in the environment (time, place, recent events, social group) it was written in, or in other texts the writers expected their peers to be familiar with.
Critical analysis needs to investigate and consider thay extra-textual context. Guided study can explain it, but it can also omit or twist it. Critical analysis shouldn't just pick out individual passages. Guided study can cherry-pick the parts I want you to read.
For example, consider the story of the good Samaritan: A guy gets robbed, beaten half dead and left in the ditch. Two priests walk by and ignore him. Then another guy (the titular Samaritan) comes by, helps him, cleans his wounds and pays for an inn to take care of him. The whole thing is told in response to the question "if I'm supposed to love my neighbour, who is my neighbour?"
I could frame it as Jesus telling that Rabbi "neighbour means peers, and the priests walking by had no obligation to help the peasant because he's not their peer; let the rabble take care of each other and worry about your own". I could also, however, point out that Samaritans and Jews had a religious conflict, oil and wine weren't as cheap as they would be today and two full days labourers' wages are not a sum of money to sneeze at. In that context, the point isn't about peers and obligations but about how this guy helped a potential enemy at some expense, because that's who you're supposed to love: People whose humanity transcends borders, religious enmity and personal profit.
So depending on how I spin it, I can use it to encourage division and elitism, or to tell you that Muslim immigrants deserve your kindness and help too.
This is a bit of an extreme example (I hope; though I wouldn't be surprised to learn otherwise), but having been in "bible study", I can tell you that there absolutely are people willing and able to make the text fit their agenda quite convincingly.
I have zero faith thay this will actually be reading the bible critically so much as cherry-picked indoctrination.
"The devil can cite scripture for his purpose."
I am strongly against pushing any religion to anyone. This is fucked up.
Cherry picked parts of the book spiced with conservative lies being stuffed into young minds is pure evil.
But if they actually managed to get the kids read the entire book, that could be a good thing. I read the Bible out of curiosity when I was in school and it was the most effective inoculation against theism I can think of.
Damn Texas really looks like a shithole
I'm over here in California where we aren't violating the Constitution, weed is legal, and my girlfriend has the same rights I do.
Sux to be from Texas.
Reading fiction was required in my schooling as well. This particular thing doesn't feel that different.
If it moves on to mandating prayer and citing a pledge daily, well that would be a wonderful time for protest or violence.
The irony is that might even produce more atheists than not reading the Bible, especially depending on which sections they read. That book is fucking awful and most Christians don't actually know what's in it...
especially depending on which sections they read
I think you can spot the issue.
If it's a class in school, I assure you they'll walk out knowing that women shouldn't lecture men and serve their husbands and if you doubt, you'll fall in the lake, so better just believe real hard.
It’s wild that Texas even wants to mandate a reading list at the state level. Aren’t there just simple regional differences to account for?
I wouldn’t expect a school in San Diego to mandate reading John Steinbeck whose stories are mainly set in Central and Northern California for example.
I wonder if all those SECOND AMENDMENT nutballs in Texas will get just as worked up over the FIRST AMENDMENT being violated here
Dude, they cheered on the boots as they executed and maimed protesters, right to not be harassed/detained without reasonable probable cause, and went full throttle on building a surveillance state. We already know the answer to this.
Unpopular opinion but I think the bible should be taught in schools not as indoctrination but discussed and covered. It really is a foundational document of Western Civilization.
I've started reading the Bible for the first time recently for similar reasons (NRSVUE). I talk a lot of shit, i should probably have some kind of idea of what it actually says. Then I'll move on to the Quran if I'm still motivated.
I'm only some way into genesis and it's not great.
Edit to add: Though, I am an adult who made that decision for himself..
Pro-tip: Skip all of the genealogy passages (Abraham begat Ishmael, etc.), there's nothing there of interest and you won't miss a thing. I recommend the King James version, as it's been around for 400 years or so; also, a concordance is very useful.
Never got the idea of 'studying' a book when no one in the room has read it front to back, even the priest.
If you want a solid leg-up on Christians, "I have" is the best comeback to "read the Bible".
People who have read the bible are largely atheists.
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