In 1963, in Abington v. Schempp, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Hebrew Bible is “worthy of studies for its literary and historic qualities.” For more than forty-four years as a secondary English teacher, I understood the significance of including lessons about the Hebrew Bible in my plans. During my years in the public classrooms, I worked to help students fill the voids in their minds as they tried to connect biblical references to Western literature. Oftentimes, because of the fear of “separation of church and state laws,” they would walk away without experiencing the wealth of knowledge surrounding biblical symbols, idioms, names, places, quotations, and allusions that enhance English and Western literature. More importantly, they were not fully equipped to engage in religious liberties afforded to them in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because of misinformation, fear tactics, and innuendoes about the Bible in public schools. This is my mission to make a difference.
