L.V. “Butch” Foreman, a member of the Ector County school board in Odessa, Texas, has three words for parents who say the district’s Bible course crosses the line from teaching about the Bible to promoting sectarian beliefs: “kiss my butt.” Said Foreman:
“If they don’t have children in the class, they can kiss my butt,” Foreman said. “They’re just looking to impose their beliefs and their views on everybody, and we don’t put up with that crap out here.”
If the plaintiffs did have children enrolled in the classes, then Foreman said he would tell the students to drop the class and take another course since it’s an elective.
On Wednesday , the parents – represented by attorneys with People For the American Way Foundation , the ACLU, the ACLU of Texas, and the law firm of Jenner & Block – filed a lawsuit against the school district, charging that this particular Bible course violates their religious liberty. Odessa schools are using a controversial course based on the program promoted by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBSPS) – a private group backed by religious-right activists including Jesse Helms, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, the Eagle Forum, and even Chuck Norris. The NCBCPS curriculum fails to present the Bible in an objective manner, a requirement for any public school course about the Bible. Instead, it presents the Bible as history, and also from a particular sectarian perspective.
After the board voted to adopt the NCBCPS curriculum – and create a course that the Texas ACLU’s Lisa Graybill called “basically a Sunday School class within the walls of a public school” – the district’s curriculum director exclaimed in an e-mail,
YES, WE ARE USING NCBCPS :) :) :)! HA! Take that you dang heathens!
