The Bible in schools

Terry Gilliam

When I first heard about a bill in the Florida legislature to require public schools in that state to offer an elective course on the Bible, my first reaction was probably similar to that of most others: Why should public schools teach a religious text? Isn't that the responsibility of churches, synagogues and parents? Is it even constitutional? Then I had a second reaction.

I remembered something Terry Gilliam, film director and former member of Monty Python, wrote in his memoir. Not a religious person himself, although he attended a Christian school in his youth, he said he wished young people were taught more about the Bible. Why? Because Bible stories are important to our culture.

We often come across references to the Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit, to David and Goliath, to Noah's Ark, to Sodom and Gomorrah, to the pillar of salt, to the Judas kiss and 30 pieces of silver and to countless other biblical images. In most cases the use of such metaphors has nothing to do with religion. Yet without some knowledge of the Bible, these references could be meaningless.

In his book The Art of X-Ray Reading, Roy Peter Clark discusses more than two dozen great works of literature, many of which have important biblical references in their texts or even in their titles. Consider, for example, Moby-Dick, The Sun Also Rises, Paradise Lost, the poetry of W.B. Yeats, the stories of Flannery O'Connor and so on. Understanding biblical imagery is vital to understanding much literary imagery.

Also important in western culture are metaphors that come from Greek mythology (such as Achilles' heel) and fairy tales or folk tales (such as the tortoise and the hare). Yet these essential stories are taught in public schools, or at least they were when I was in school. At one time significant numbers of children attended Sunday school or learned Bible stories at home, so there was no need for the schools to cover this ground. Perhaps today there is.

I can't speak for the specific bill proposed by the Democratic state representative in Florida. Is it a good bill? I don't know. But I think it may be a good idea.