Georgia Passes Bill to Fund Bible Courses in Public High Schools

For those interested, the text of the bill can be found here:Georgia General AssemblyA couple minor points first. This seems to leave the door open for churches to fund the classes. Maybe its commonplace, but it strikes me as odd to include in the wording of a law an assertion that the law is constitutional. It doesn't mention whether its referring to the Georgia or the U.S. Constitution, either.The main problem I see with the bill is this: Its purpose is give permission for schools to teach a course on the Bible. Presumably without such legistlation schools cannot teach a course on any religious text. Therefore, by permitting teaching of the Bible without also permitting the teaching of other religious texts, the bill promotes one religion over another.

I suppose you're right. Its purpose isn't to give permission for teaching classes on the Bible, but to provide funding.Still, while technically the funding could be used to teach a class on the Koran or some other religious text, given the bill's detailed guidelines for teaching classes on the Bible, it will be difficult to argue that the purpose and effect is not to promote one religious text over others.

The legislators appear to have anticipated this issue. The bill reads:

"No student shall be required to use one version as the sole text of the Old or New Testament. If a student desires to use as the basic text a different version of the Old or New Testament from that chosen by the local board of education or teacher, he or she shall be permitted to do so."