Hey Rum, guess what your favourite Tory is up to now..,

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Aw! He's sending the kiddies a little present.

Prime Minister to send a Bible to every school

The Times Educational Supplement is reporting this morning that the Prime Minister is planning to send a King James Bible to every school in the country, complete with a foreword by Michael Gove, the Education Minister.

Mr Gove is quoted as saying that the King James Bible was the most important book written in the English language. “It‘s a thing of beauty, and it‘s also an incredibly important historical artefact. It has helped shape and define the English language and is one of the keystones of our shared culture. And it is a work that has had international significance."

The National Secular Society’s President, Terry Sanderson, is also quoted in the article, criticising the cost of such an exercise. While not doubting the significance of the King James Bible for the language and culture of Britain, Mr Sanderson made the point that schools are already awash with Bibles, with evangelical groups queuing up to hand them out to pupils.

“It‘s not as if Bibles are in short supply in schools," Mr Sanderson said. “But if (Mr Gove) intends to go ahead with this, will he also please ensure that a copy of On the Origin of Species is sent out on Darwin Day. This book is much harder to find in schools and would be in line with his policy of promoting science and evidence-based education. I‘m sure that he could write an excellent foreword to this, too."

http://www.secularism.org.uk/133155.html

[Xamonas Chegwé]

That's going to go down so well in islamic faith schools.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

That's going to go down so well in islamic faith schools.

Ah but remember, he's not proselytizing, he's giving out an "important historical artefact"

[Jason]

“It‘s a thing of beauty, and it‘s also an incredibly important historical artefact. It has helped shape and define the English language and is one of the keystones of our shared culture. And it is a work that has had international significance."

I can't really argue any of that. It's composed of many reasons why Christianity/the bible ought to be introduced to schools as a secular study. On the other hand, I'm not sure what he intends to accomplish by sending a single copy to each school. Is it supposed to be symbolic?

[redunderthebed]

Also used by my old church to say things that nowhere in the bible says anything about because noone could fucking understand KJV.

[Geoff]

That's going to go down so well in islamic faith schools.

Ah but remember, he's not proselytizing, he's giving out an "important historical artefact"

The churches have more money than the Government, let them waste their money instead of ours.

[HomerJay]

They already do, these wankers specialise in primary schools, at least the gideons used to wait til secondary.

http://www.biblesforchildren.org.uk/content/

[Warren Dew]

A

Mr Gove is quoted as saying that the King James Bible was the most important book written in the English language.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/133155.html

Anyone know what he thinks is the most important book not written in the English language?

I'm thinking it might not be Mao's little red book.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

“It‘s a thing of beauty, and it‘s also an incredibly important historical artefact. It has helped shape and define the English language and is one of the keystones of our shared culture. And it is a work that has had international significance."

I can't really argue any of that. It's composed of many reasons why Christianity/the bible ought to be introduced to schools as a secular study. On the other hand, I'm not sure what he intends to accomplish by sending a single copy to each school. Is it supposed to be symbolic?

By all means study it. In the same way as Beowulf or the Iliad is studied! Kids seem to manage those without growing up worshipping Grendel FFS!

[JimC]

As long as every package also has a copy of The God Delusion...

[Santa_Claus]

Has anyone told him it's 2011?

Funnily enough I do think that religion should be taught in schools - as a part of History / social history.

The transition from sun worship to the worship of "modern" religions is quite a fascinating topic And throw in a bit about the enlightenment and that the seperation of preists and wizards from the State allowed the West to progress

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That's going to go down so well in islamic faith schools.

Ah but remember, he's not proselytizing, he's giving out an "important historical artefact"

Coprolites?

[Geoff]

Has anyone told him it's 2011?

Funnily enough I do think that religion should be taught in schools - as a part of History / social history.

The transition from sun worship to the worship of "modern" religions is quite a fascinating topic And throw in a bit about the enlightenment and that the seperation of preists and wizards from the State allowed the West to progress

So do I, I just object to him singling out that particular book to be given, instead of, say, a complete Dickens, Shakespeare, Tolkien or Chaucer.

[Rum]

Besides the inappropriateness of this I wonder about the cost in these straightened time. In my county alone there are over 200 primary schools (above average - a bit anyway - as we are a large mostly rural one). Then there are the 27 secondary schools. Fifty education authorities - let's average it down a bit to be generous and I come up with 11000 book,

Considering they all have bibles in them to begin with I could think of 50 better things to do with the money.

It is symbolic though. The Tories are always banging on about 'traditional values'. They are talking about making History compulsory to the age of 16. I for one, I am kind of sorry to say as I hate the Tories with a vengeance, support that. You can't know what the present is about until you know a little about what got us here.

[Svartalf]

“It‘s a thing of beauty, and it‘s also an incredibly important historical artefact. It has helped shape and define the English language and is one of the keystones of our shared culture. And it is a work that has had international significance."

I can't really argue any of that. It's composed of many reasons why Christianity/the bible ought to be introduced to schools as a secular study. On the other hand, I'm not sure what he intends to accomplish by sending a single copy to each school. Is it supposed to be symbolic?

By all means study it. In the same way as Beowulf or the Iliad is studied! Kids seem to manage those without growing up worshipping Grendel FFS!

WTF? Study the bible as a historical and mythological work, ok, but by golly, not the KJV...

The PoS is turgid, and already completely archaic by the time it was redacted, although I understand the goal was to introduce a hieratic style (totally absent fromm the original, and having nothing to do with a decent translation). and that's not mentioning the number of mistakes that crept up in it (like mentions of unicorns that are not recognizable in the original test either)