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Hobby Lobby President Launches Bible Curriculum in OK Public School

  • Carrie Dedrick Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Updated Apr 16, 2014

Hobby Lobby President Steve Green is making headlines again, but this time the news does not involve the birth control debate.

Green is set to launch a new high school curriculum centered around the Bible, emphasizing the historical elements and impact the book has had in society. The first high school to offer the class as an elective is Mustang High School in Mustang, Oklahoma, a stone’s throw away from Hobby Lobby’s headquarters in Oklahoma City.

The 2014-2015 school year will serve as a testing period for the new curriculum. Jerry Pattengale, head of Green Scholars Initiative, said that they hope to grow the program to 100 high schools by September 2016, and continue to expand from there.

Pattengale reports that the project will cost millions of dollars to implement, but the Bible class is not intended to make a profit.

Religion News reports that teaching Bible classes does not goes against the separation of church and state. The Supreme Court ruled against school-sanctioned prayer in 1963, but allowed a loophole for studying the Bible. The case reads, “Nothing that we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible...when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

The Oklahoma ACLU intends to examine the curriculum “to ensure no students...have their right of religious liberty compromised.”

 

Publication date: April 16, 2014