Oklahoma bible class: sinners must suffer

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Ugh.

OKLAHOMA CITY — A high school curriculum supported by Hobby Lobby chain president Steve Green, billed as a way to teach archaeology, history and the arts through Bible stories, also tells students God is always there in times of trouble and that sinners must "suffer the consequences" of disobeying.

The Mustang School Board in suburban Oklahoma City voted this month to place the Museum of the Bible's curriculum in its schools as an elective for a one-year trial after being assured that the intent is not to proselytize but to use the Bible to explain key principles in the arts and sciences.

While the course does explain the inspiration behind famous works of art and holds a prism to historical events, it also endorses behavior for religious reasons and implies that bad things happen as a direct result of disregarding God's rules.

The Associated Press obtained a draft copy of the curriculum from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, which got it from the school district. The ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation say using the curriculum raises constitutional issues and want the school district to reconsider.

[L0oniX]

1. ...because stoning prostitutes to death is what Jesus would do.

[regnaD kciN]

2. I have a friend who lived in Oklahoma...

She decided to homeschool her four sons -- not, as is so often the case with homeschoolers, to protect them from Godless Liberalism, but to keep them from indoctrination attempts in fundamentalist Christianity from the local school system, where her eldest was ostracized because, as an Episcopalian, he "wasn't a Christian."