Alabama Adds Textbook about the Bible to Approved List

October 23, 2007-- Alabama’s State Board of Education voted to include The Bible and Its Influence on the state's list of accepted textbooks in a unanimous vote on October 11, 2007. The state-wide endorsement is the first for the Bible Literacy Project textbook. The approval of the textbook is garnering media attention across the nation due to concerns about the legal separation of church and state in public schools, as well as from Christians who believe Bible education should only be devotional in nature. The book authors contend that their text is intended to be used in an academic, “non-devotional” elective course exploring the Bible’s influence on literature, art, and music and that according to national law, teachers can "present knowledge, but neither promote nor disparage belief."