Separating Mustang from the Maverick: Religious Education or Proselyting?

Photo courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang_horse

 Religious Education or Proselyting?

Readers,

I'm sure many of you have been following the rise of Hobby Lobby and its owners, the Green family.  The recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to discriminate against women  based on the religious viewpoints of the owners has made and will continue to make headlines for at least a generation.

In addition to its corporate actions, the Green family is also moving into the public schools with plans for bible classes to teach as they say, the history of the bible.

There are many people who see this plan as a smokescreen for advancing a particular religious viewpoint rather than teaching a generalized history of religion.   

The Mustang public school system adopted a bible class developed by the Green Family Scholars into its curriculum this year.

This adoption has been approved under some doubt as to whether the school board met legally in accordance with Oklahoma's open meeting law.

Jim Huff, one of the co-founders of the OKC chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church & State (okau.org, au.org), has a well-developed radar for spotting shady deals that threaten the respect for religion in a public tax-payer supported school that must accommodate a variety of religious backgrounds.

Mr Huff will be presenting a public discussion this coming Tuesday, July 22, 6:00 pm at the Mustang Public Library that will investigate.what is legal and illegal regarding the teaching  of religion in public schools.   

With his life-long study of religious history from around the world Mr. Huff's presentation will answer many of the questions you might have as well as opening new threads of conversation about the always hot topic of religious observance in America.

These links will give additional information about the developing controversy in Mustang, Oklahoma.

Article in the Mustang Times newspaper:
http://www.mustangpaper.com/contentitem/374165/1586/meeting-to-discuss-district

Did the Mustang School Board meet outside the legal guidelines of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Law:

http://foioklahoma.org/2014/05/22/mustang-school-board-members-circumvented-open-meeting-act/

Washington Post story:
http://tinyurl.com/nmn2byo
clip  "...when the Mustang school board made 220 pages of the book public, church-state experts suggested that its claims and assumptions amounted to teaching the Bible from a particular religious perspective, which the Supreme Court has banned in public schools."

Directions to Mustang Public Library:

http://www.mustanglibrary.org  

map link---  http://tinyurl.com/lan4syj