Comments on: Can college reject religious high school courses?

By: George

George — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:37:42 +0000

As a science professor who is also committed creationist, it is my goal that my students have a better understanding of evolution than their secular counterparts. You can teach what evolutionists believe without believing it yourself and that is all that should be required.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:46:06 +0000

AJ,
Thanks for telling the “rest of the story”. The article fails to mention that the issue at hand was that the classes that the students were taking were creationist biology courses and did not meet the academic standards required by the university.

“God made it that way” is not an acceptable answer on a biology test and is not in any way preparing the student for the critical thinking skills required at the University or life.

By: AJ Petto

AJ Petto — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:29:09 +0000

To Ralph: Yes; in fact, this began as a dispute over the biology curriculum. See: http://ncse.com/news/2008/08/victory-california-creationism-case-001374

To Phil: Sorry, no. This is a great talking point, until we try to get underneath the term “Christian”. The dispute in California was not over the Christian context of the teaching an learning, but over the fact that the materials used in the courses — particularly biology courses — was scientifically and pedagogically deficient. As Anne pointed out, it is possible to meet both objectives and teach modern science accurately within a theological context. In this case, the result was to leave out or downplay biological knowledge because of a conflict with a theological doctrine about the nature of Scripture.
It is, as Dr J pointed out — and as the court found — a matter of the adequacy of the materials and instruction and was decided by the UC System in the same way as other course prerequisites and equivalencies are decided — on the science, not on the theology,

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:36:43 +0000

The goal of any thorough-going Christian religious institution to teach ALL subjects from a Biblical perspective. From the perspective of such institutions, “multi-disciplinary” is often a catch-word for a secular vs a Biblical perspective on a particular subject. Thus the court’s ruling gives colleges in CA the right to reject ALL courses taught by such Christian high schools. Thus the court’s ruling does indeed suppress protected speech. The end result of such a ruling becoming case law throughout the nation would be the end of Christian high schools.

By: Ralph L. Langenheim

Ralph L. Langenheim — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:58:07 +0000

Could this doctrine be exended to science courses that follow the letter of the Book of Genesis?

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:21:27 +0000

I agree with the court. Also, as a religion minor in college, I think there is a big difference between a “religious course” and a “religion course.”

By: Anne Prokosch

Anne Prokosch — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:50:25 +0000

Having taught religious courses in a Catholic high school, it would seem that it is valuable to have students study morality, the history of Christianity, etc. However, students also took a full load of academic college preparatory courses, amny more than in most public schools. And the school was fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

By: Dr. J

Dr. J — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:12:55 +0000

An offshoot of this policy exists in relation to college transfer credits.

Many schools accept courses that are “too religious” only as open electives. For the course to be considered as fulfilling a humanities general education requirement, it has to be “multidisciplinary”.

I think this is equitable. It’s not unlike a student who has taken a course in “accounting for government agencies” being told that it does not have the breadth to be considered Accounting 1.