Mustang School District in Mustang, Oklahoma will not be teaching an elective course on the Bible now or any time in the near future. The Bible curriculum, spearheaded by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green, was being considered by the school district. According to the Washington Post , in April of this year, the Mustang School District voted unanimously to beta-test the first year of the curriculum which is part of a four year elective on the history and impact of the Bible. The Inquisitr previously reported on Green’s efforts to promote the curriculum in conjunction with the Museum of the Bible scheduled to open in Washington, D.C. in 2017.
An atheist activist group , the Freedom From Religion Foundation, is celebrating the cancellation as an important triumph. The Blaze reports Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor defined the Mustang School District rejection of the Bible curriculum as “…a victory not only for reason and the law, but the sacrosanct right of a captive audience of students to be free from indoctrination in a public school setting”.
Gaylor’s group, which was at the forefront of opposition, was joined by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU of Oklahoma in resisting the implementation of the Bible curriculum. They issued an open records request in order to determine what material was included in the planned course.
Dr. Jerry Pattengale, editor of the curriculum and executive director of education for the Green family’s planned Museum of the Bible, confirmed to the Blaze the decision of the Mustang School District not to proceed with the Bible curriculum at this time.
“We understand Mustang’s decision to withdraw the new, elective Bible course from consideration,” he said. “Museum of the Bible remains committed to providing an elective high school Bible curriculum and continues work on an innovative, high-tech course that will provide students and teachers with a scholarly overview of the Bible’s history, narrative and impact.”
Pattengale and Hobby Lobby’s president, Green, are not discouraged in their efforts. Several other school districts have expressed an interest in the elective Bible curriculum. According to the Washington Post, the goal is to have the program in at least 100 schools by September 2016 and in thousands the year after.
Green’s objective is to “show that the Bible is true, that it’s good and that its impact, whether (upon) our government, education, science, art, literature, family… when we apply it to our lives in all aspects of our life, that it has been good.”