Rep. Gino Bulso’s “Protecting Religious Liberty and Expression in Public Schools” Act which would put voluntary Bible studies and prayer times into public schools is set to be heard by the House Civil Justice Subcommittee on Wednesday, Feb. 4.
HB1491 asserts that “deep prejudice” against ecclesiastical and Christian organizations has led to an incorrect interpretation of the idea of separation of church and state, causing a departure from the religious liberties guaranteed by the state and U.S. constitutions “by restricting not only government but also religion and by discriminating against churches and other ecclesiastical religion, in contrast to more individualistic spirituality.”
The bill seeks to remedy that discrepancy by requiring public schools to teach the Bible as literature and in a historical context as an “age-appropriate introduction to the history of Isreal, the stories, and the moral and ethical teachings of the Old and New Testaments, the life of Jesus, the history of the early Christian church, and the Bible’s influence on western civilization.”
