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Journal of the American Academy of Religion Advance Access originally published online on August 16, 2007
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2007 75(3):554-581; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm036
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A Textbook Example of the Christian Right: The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools

Mark A. Chancey

Mark A. Chancey, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, PO Box 750202, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0202, USA

E-mail: mchancey{at}smu.edu


  Abstract

According to the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a Christian Right organization, "the Bible was the foundation and blueprint for our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, our educational system, and our entire history until the last 20 to 30 years." The group claims that over 1,000 American public high schools use its Bible curriculum, which it characterizes as nonsectarian and scholarly. In fact, the various editions of this curriculum have been filled with factual errors, fringe scholarship, and plagiarism. With its promotion of a fundamentalist Protestant understanding of the Bible and a revisionist history of the United States as a distinctively (Protestant) Christian nation, the curriculum appears not to pass legal muster. Its growing use reflects the increasing influence of Christian Americanist ideology as well as the need for greater involvement of religious studies scholars in the issue of religion and public education.


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