Should Public Schools Be Allowed to Offer Elective Bible Classes? That’s a question being asked in Georgia right now.
A proposed elective Bible course that was under consideration by a Georgia school district has reportedly been scrapped after atheists complained that its creation would pose a violation of the separation of church and state.
Officials with Oconee County Schools were reportedly considering a proposal to partner with a local Christian organization to launch an optional, for-credit course aimed at better helping students understand the Bible. The class, which was set to be taught by the Oconee County Christian Learning Center, would have been held off-campus during school hours.
The 18-week-long course would have been an hour and a half in length each week and would have included “relevant and rigorous” content. The idea generated a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist group in Wisconsin.
The activist organization sent a letter to the school district detailing its concerns over the Bible course and calling the proposed partnership unconstitutional.
Last summer, local pastors expressed support for the Bible course, citing the need to help students refocus themselves on moral teachings, though some supporters of the initiative said that students might have opted to take the course for multiple reasons, including simply gaining a greater scholarly understanding of the Bible.