Teaching the Bible in public schools

The editors of the WSJ let a live one through today.  I responded in its spirit:


To the Editor;

re: "Why public school teachers should teach the Bible," Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, March 1, 2013)

Imagine that public school teachers take the Supreme Court's 1963 Abington decision as rationale to teach the Bible.  How might a teacher present the Bible "objectively as part of a secular program of education"? 

Students would be asked to think critically about the claims being made. They would be asked to evaluate, challenge and debate the text in order to treat the evidence as objectively and secularly as possible.  Like all great literature, the Bible would be analyzed for motivation, subtext, metaphor and symbolism.  It would be presented as fiction, authored by humans for distinctly human goals.  Any literal truth would be abandoned in pursuit of aesthetic, moral and psychological lessons.

I second their notion.