Home » About » Newsletters » February 1998
New Testament Bible Curriculum Halted in Lee County Schools
By Andrew H. Kayton, Legal Director
February 1998
Our most important success thus far in 1998 has occurred in Lee County, where a federal district court has preliminarily enjoined the teaching of a New Testament "Bible History" curriculum in the public schools. The court also ordered monitoring of a course designed to study the Old Testament. The action presents the first court test ever of a controversial national public school Bible curriculum developed by the Christian right, and could set an important precedent on the constitutional use of the Bible in U.S. public schools.
The case was filed last December by Lee County residents, including parents, ordained clergy, leaders in local religious communities and community activists on educational issues. We are representing them in cooperation with Steel Hector & Davis, one of Florida's oldest and largest law firms, and attorneys from People for the American Way. Lead counsel is Thomas Julin, of Steel Hector & Davis, who is one of Florida's most respected First Amendment attorneys.
A Christian Coalitionbacked majority was elected to the Lee County School Board in 1996, and promptly authorized development of a course designed to teach the Bible as "history," with the Bible as textbook. Many residents, parents and leaders in the Lee County school community expressed alarm. The school board's own attorney, for example, resigned after warning that the curriculum "plainly contravenes the Constitution." The school board superintendent also had her contract bought out after she resisted implementation of the curriculum.
Development of a Bible curriculum fell to a local advisory committee controlled by religious political activists and Biblical literalists. One member of the committee's majority stated that "it would make sense to change from secular humanism to Christianity" in the public schools. He also explained that those who did not support the Bible course were "Jews . . . and others who you wondered if they had any religion at all." He even provided an explanation that "this is a Christian Nation...how can we understand our own country without a knowledge of the Bible?"
Another member of the curriculum committee who later became a school board member engaged in this colloquy in an October television interview:
A: These things happened. We may or may not believe em, but they happened.
Q: Jesus turned water into wine?
A: He did.
Q: Jonah lived in the belly of a whale?
A: Right.
Q: There was a resurrection?
A: That's right.
Q: All fact?
A: All fact.
With this type of intent to teach the Bible as literal history, the Lee County School Board adopted two school curricula, an Old Testament "Bible I" course and a New Testament "Bible II" course. Last summer the school board's new lawyers instructed them that the Old Testament course would elicit a successful legal challenge and recommended extensive revisions to which the school board reluctantly agreed.
However, the lawsuit was filed after school board members, against the express advice of their own attorneys, voted to adopt a "Bible II" course developed by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in the Public Schools, of Greensboro, North Carolina. The National Council is a religious right organization that seeks to convince students that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that the principle of separation of church and state is a "myth." The organization's supporters and advisors include leaders of organizations such as Coral Ridge Ministries, the Conservative Caucus and the Campus Crusade for Christ International.
When we brought suit in early December, the Lee County School Board did not turn to private attorneys for a defense of its Bible courses. Instead, the school board accepted legal representation by the American Center for Law and Justice (or the "ACLJ") a law firm founded and funded by Rev. Pat Robertson, chairman of the Christian Coalition. (The nearlyfamiliar acronym is, of course, not a coincidence.)
In the first key court decision in the case, U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich enjoined any teaching in Lee County public schools of the National Council's "Bible II" curriculum. She noted that it "is difficult to conceive the account of the resurrection or of miracles could be taught as secular history." She also authorized the plaintiffs in the case to videotape classes in which the "Bible I" curriculum is being taught, and to report back to the court on monitoring activities within sixty days.
When suit was filed, lead attorney Tom Julin stated that in essence the problem is that the school board has tried to impart a Sunday school class into the public schools, rather than using the Bible legitimately in a comparative religion or literature course.
We intend to ensure in this instance that the Bible not be taught as history, just as, little more than ten years ago, the ACLU successfully maintained that "creationism" could not properly be taught as biological science.
