Starting Friday, public schools in Kentucky will be able to teach about the Bible to their students.
Thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Matt Bevin and sponsored by Rep. D.J. Johnson, public schools in Kentucky can now teach the Bible as part of their curriculum.
The aim of the bill is to educate students about the role the bible played in American history and increase Biblical literacy, according to WDRB.
“[The Bible] really did set the foundation that our founding fathers used to develop documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,” Rep. Johnson told WDRB. “All of those came from principles from the Bible.”
Before any angry atheists armed with lawyers start getting triggered – God forbid – the class is voluntary.
“The idea that we would not want this to be an option for people in school, that would be crazy. I don’t know why every state would not embrace this, why we as a nation would not embrace this,” the Kentucky governor said during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.
But the ACLU of Kentucky has already expressed concern and says they will be monitoring the bill closely, as if we didn’t already know that.
“A Bible literacy bill that, on its face, may not appear to be unconstitutional, could in fact become unconstitutional in its implementation,” said Kate Miller, advocacy director for the ACLU.
According to The Blaze, Kentucky joins a list of other states that passed similar legislation allowing for an elective Bible literacy course in public schools, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Kentucky State Senator Jared Carpenter summed it up well to WREG:
“[Students] can tell you who a pop culture figure is, they can tell you all these type things, but they can’t tell you basic principles of why we are where we’re at and the foundation of the United States.”
If God’s name is being used on public school grounds anyway, shouldn’t students be able to learn and understand the way our Founding Fathers used it?