In a report issued this week, TFN claims to have reviewed all the various elective Bible courses recently offered in Texas high schools, and finds none to its liking. The report takes particular aim at NCBCPS’s elective course materials, The Bible in History and Literature. But for the second time in two years, TFN cites several passages from the teacher’s guide to the curriculum out of context, and clearly misrepresents the curriculum's contents and objectives.

“It’s disappointing that TFN has invested so much time and expense to challenge the teaching of the Bible in Texas schools,” said Elizabeth Ridenour, president of NCBCPS. “As far as we are aware, everyone involved in teaching Bible curricula in Texas has only one goal: to present the Bible objectively and appropriately so that students can be exposed to what is arguably the most influential book in history.”

The NCBCPS curriculum, which has been approved for use as an elective course by more than 370 school districts in 37 states, strictly adheres to the provisions of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. An extensive opinion letter attesting to the curriculum’s legality and objectivity has been written by some of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars, including law professors at Princeton and Notre Dame, and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. It is endorsed by a wide variety of scholars, public officials, and clergy from diverse backgrounds.

Moreover, literally hundreds of school board attorneys and school board members, from different political parties and a wide variety of perspectives and religious backgrounds, as well as a host of curriculum specialists in many different localities, have reviewed and approved the NCBCPS curriculum. The NCBCPS curriculum has never been legally challenged.

As TFN concedes, the curriculum does not suggest, and the NCBCPS does not recommend, that any public school teacher ever take a personal position regarding the truth or falsity of any Biblical passage, nor commentator’s positions about such passages. The NCBCPS carefully instructs teachers of the course that public schools must remain objective and neutral in their treatment of religion. NCBCPS recommends that this elective be periodically monitored for constitutional compliance.

NCBCPS pointed out that TFN has little credibility because of its well-known radical agenda. In the past, TFN has gone on record to oppose such widespread events as the National Day of Prayer. People for the American Way, a group whose work is endorsed in the TFN report, is an infamous leftist organization that supports same-sex marriage and the right to burn the American flag, but opposes the posting of the national motto, “In God we Trust,” in public schools.