God in the Schoolroom, God in the Lege (Part 1)

So Bible study – sorry, classes in religious literature – will be coming to an independent school district near you with the passage of House Bill 1287 through the Senate.

Of course, the term "religious literature" is wonderfully vague and raises the image of a bunch of kids up in the Panhandle spending a semester brushing up on Zoroastrianism, Aleister Crowley, and Cargo Cultists. A brief war of words during the debate between Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Senate sponsor Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, pointed out that this is more likely to end up with heated discussions of the Left Behind books. Initially condemning the bill as badly written and coming from a pretty obvious agenda, West just wanted Estes to admit what this was: a way to get Bible studies back in school.

Estes tried to flannel through, claiming that it would be impossible to understand significant documents like the Declaration of Independence without understanding the Bible.

Apart from the fact that, well, it isn't. In the late 18th century, there was this little thing called the Enlightenment, where ideas like God and divinity were getting reconsidered in terms of logic and democracy. When terms like "their Creator" and "Nature's God" are used in that document, it's not necessarily as Judeo-Christian as some people would think. We could also mention that the only reference to "Lord" in the U.S. Constitution is in the date and that the Bill of Rights seems real hot on the separation of church and state.

So, if Estes is really hot on people understanding the great documents of American history, should he be getting them to read the Bible or John Locke's Two Treatises of Government?

(By the way, don't worry about West: Even though he said this was a flawed bill, he still voted for it. Only his fellow Dems Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and Mario Gallegos from Houston recorded a nay vote.)