"'There and Back Again'": Teaching about the Bible in American Public Schools
Christian nationalists hope to return America to an era where public schools routinely turn to the Bible for instruction in reading, history, and morals. In doing so, they seek to return to what they imagine as a Golden Age in which all school children read the Bible. The fact that no such Golden Age ever existed has done nothing to dissuade them from pursuing this agenda. This lecture will review key episodes in the story of how public schools have taught about the Bible, putting into historical perspective contemporary efforts to teach Bible stories to elementary school children, promote Bible electives to high schoolers, and place the Ten Commandments in every classroom.