Bible class divides a small Colorado town
By Erin Emery
"Denver Post" Southern Colorado Bureau

Jan. 15, 2001 - WESTCLIFFE - In this small town at the base of mountains
named for the blood of Christ, a holy war rages.

On one side, there's a former Catholic priest who has a chapel in his home
that includes a photo of John Wayne next to one of St. Teresa. On the
other, a semi-retired UFO buff who produced a documentary about suspected cow
mutilations in the Sangre de Cristo region. At the middle of the
controversy is a former guard for the Denver Broncos.

The factions are split over a 3-2 decision Dec. 14 by the Custer County
School Board to offer a high school elective course titled "Bible in a Historical
and Literary Context." Proponents say the course, to be taught by the wife of
a local minister, will use the Bible as a textbook to explore history,
literature and geography. Opponents say the course is being used to
introduce Christian teachings through subterfuge.

The Bible and prayer were removed from schools in 1963, and the
Constitution guarantees against the establishment of religion by government. The study
of religion in public schools is permitted by the Constitution as long as it
is presented as a secular education program. The National Council on Bible
Curriculum says that the Bible is taught as secular study in 29 states.

The controversy has attracted the attention of outsiders, including the
American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League. Insiders
have lit up the editorial pages of the weekly Wet Mountain Tribune with letters
to editor and publisher Jim Little.

Given the commotion in town, the school board may likely retreat on the Bible
course at its board meeting Tuesday and instead opt for a course on the
law.

"With all the brouhaha that has come about, I'm certain there will be further
discussion about the wisdom of this and there will be discussion about what
we're prepared to endure," said Harvey Goodman, principal of the secondary
school in Custer County and a man who played guard for the Broncos in
1976.
"If push comes to shove, will we go to the mat? I don't think so."
 
 

Understanding the Bible So far, 17 of the 68 juniors and seniors in the school have signed up to
take the Bible course, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 22, the first day of
the second semester. "The course would be taught in an academic context - that
the Bible has had a profound impact on the development of civilization,"
Goodman said. "To have an understanding of our evolution as Americans, it's
important to understand our religious foundations and beliefs as well. The course is
not designed to indoctrinate or proselytize or anything of that sort." He said
a keen understanding of the Bible helps students understand current conflicts in
the Balkans and in Israel, and would enhance their study of geography.

One of Goodman's first goals when he came to Custer County from Cheyenne
Mountain High School in Colorado Springs two years ago was to offer more
electives. He asked veteran history teacher Marty Slonaker what course she
would like to teach, and she said she'd like to teach a course on the Bible.
She is married to Gary Slonaker of the new Lift Him Up ministry in the
town.

Last April, in an earlier attempt, Goodman told the board that he was
going to teach a course called "Introduction to Bible," which was then changed to
"Bible as Literature." The course was scrapped for one on Western history
because of heated public sentiment.

Rayna Bailey, a school board member who works as a reporter for the weekly
newspaper, said she opposed the course because she believes it is a veiled
attempt to teach Christianity in the school. A former Sunday school
teacher, she became suspicious when the name of the course kept changing.

"I felt like the administration kept changing the name to make it more
palatable to the board," Bailey said. "If we've got a teacher and a block
of time, there are better things we could offer our students than Bible
studies."

Argument grows heated

She said the county of 3,700 residents hasn't been this riled up since 1998,
when she wrote a story about a licensed psychotherapist who was diagnosed with
cancer and sought a cure through alternative therapies, including reiki, an
ancient approach to healing that involves massage. She included in the story
that a woman had taught a course on alternative medicine in a high school
health class.

"Yikes!" Bailey said. "That was devil practice, you know. That one sentence
was all it took and it hit the fan." The Custer County commissioners
eventually banned all types of alternative medicine, including massage
therapy, from a county health fair.

David Clemens, a distant relative of Mark Twain who has produced a documentary
about sus pected UFO activity in the area, views the reiki controversy and the
one involving the Bible course as cause for concern.

"I would say you have two polarized groups - the Christian fundamentalists - I
would say that is the largest group; and then you have people like me who are
saying, "Wait a minute, there is this thing called the First Amendment and
we're saying: Wake up and smell the coffee,'- " Clemens said.

He said the school offers no elective course on any other type of literature,
including Shakespeare, and no comparative religion course that examines the
fundamentals of all kinds of religions.

"With 20 churches, they don't need to expose the children to any more
Christianity, because there already is ample opportunity. ... If anything,
they should be exposed to alternative churches and cultures," Clemens said.
"These people have to be watched. Maybe they think we're so isolated out here,
maybe nobody will notice. Either that, or they're not familiar with the
Constitution."

Clemens said he thinks that the true motive - to introduce Christianity in the
schools - has been revealed in letters to the editor written to the local
newspapers.

"If you read the letters to the editor, they're not talking about teaching a
course on literature and history. ... They're talking about teaching about
Christianity, and that is blatantly unconstitutional," he said.

Separation "a myth" The Rev. Dan Jones, who has the Our Lady of Mount Zion
Chapel in his home, with many pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus
along with John Wayne memorabilia, said he believes the school should teach
the course, saying it is "a courageous step."

"I'm convinced that separation of church and state is a myth that's really not
true," Jones said. "We have a secular society as a whole, but we still have a
Christian base. In all of the first schools in the country, the Bible was one
of the courses that was taught. There are a lot of Christians in Westcliffe.
We're Christian taxpayers locally and we want to have Christian courses in our
school. Why not?"

It is fitting to teach the Bible, he said, and not other religions because
they're not part of American heritage.
"Because we as a country have the heritage and good fortune of recognizing the
truth of the Bible and have benefited so much from the Christian foundation of
this land, it is only fitting that the Bible and Christian values be taught in
our public schools!" he wrote in a letter to the Tribune.

"Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., is not part of our heritage." Jim
Little, the editor and publisher and a Democrat in a Republican-dominated
county, said the county is conservative but is not far to the right.

"We're not Colorado Springs," he said. "We don't have a well-organized
right-wing extreme group that is trying to accomplish things. It's not a
religious-right community by any stretch of the imagination."

Jacqueline Crider, 17, a senior at the school who signed up for the Bible
course, has listened to the controversy in town.

"I think it's kind of bull," Crider said. "It's not like she'd (the teacher)
be teaching us religion. She'd be teaching us facts about the Bible." Crider
said she'd like to take the course to learn more about the minor characters in
the Bible. It would help her put into context some of the readings she hears
during Mass on Sundays.

Autumn Butts, 16, a junior, signed up last year for the course.

"I'm a very strong Christian," she said. "I think if we had a class about God,
about the Bible, I think it'd be really neat. It'd be cool if other kids could
see it."

Oryginal: http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0115a.htm