Governor Matt Bevin (R-Ky.) told a conservative radio host that he believes the reason why Saturday’s protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent is because the Bible isn’t taught in public schools. Yes, he really did say that.
Thump The Bible, Prevent Violence?
He was talking to West Virginia radio host Tom Roten, who asked him about a controversial bill he signed that allows public schools to teach Bible studies, Raw Story reports.
Bevin told Roten:
“When you go back a couple of hundred years, in most instances the only textbooks that were in our public schools were in the Bible.”
“And it’s interesting that the more we’ve removed any sense of spiritual obligation or moral higher authority or absolute right and wrong, the more we’ve removed things that are biblically taught from society, the more we’ve seen the kind of mayhem we were just discussing.”
But some critics, like Hemant Mehta, whose blog is The Friendly Atheist, note that Bevin uses faulty reasoning:
“Say it all together now: The Bible was never banned from public schools. What Bevin is referring to are mandatory Christian prayers. How that rejects some part of our history, I don’t know.”
“And why are we trying to replicate our education from hundreds of years ago?”
And there are some critics who have referred to Bevin’s habit of relying on the Bible and prayer as a public policy response as “Kentucky-fried Christianity.”
In his official plan implemented in June, Bevin, an avid member of the Tea Party, implored people to reduce catastrophic violence in Louisville, Kentucky by walking through streets of troubled neighborhoods while praying two or three times a week during the next year, he said.
The Courier-Journal noted that Bevin’s method hasn’t been particularly successful.
“The weekend following Gov. Matt Bevin’s prayer plan was marred by violence, leaving four dead in just three days.”
And since that terrible weekend, nine more people have been murdered, notes LouisvilleKy.gov.
So teaching the Bible in Kentucky schools may be equally as effective as walking and praying.
Just saying.
Check out The Young Turks on having a Bible in public schools:
Featured image via Matt Bevin/Facebook.
