Hobby Lobby president Steve Green is thrilled after the Mustang, Okla., school board voted to adopt a Bible course he helped develop in his capacity as chairman of the board of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Museum of the Bible. The vote was approved by a vote 4-0 on April 14 with one abstaining, said Jerry Pattengale of the Green Scholars Initiative, which is overseeing the project.
"Our hats are off to the Mustang School, because they actually contacted us," Pattengale told Glenn Beck Wednesday. "They were contemplating some kind of a course like this ... and they wanted to be the first one to do it."
Customers walk into a Hobby Lobby Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, in Dallas. The arts and craft supply chain is fighting a part of the Affordable Care Act requiring employers to cover insurance costs for Plan B and other birth control methods. (AP Photo)
Pattengale said the Oklahoma school is one of the largest in the state, and after the test program was announced, a flood of students rushed to sign up. He said everyone involved is 'very excited' about the course.
While the American Civil Liberties Union in Oklahoma has warned that it will be closely monitoring the program "to ensure no students… have their right of religious liberty compromised," the Washington Post notes that there is nothing unconstitutional about an objective study of the Bible or religious topics.
The Post references a 1963 Supreme Court ruling that states: “Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible ... when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”
Beck praised the decision, saying that while it is important to have a comprehensive education, there is no singular book more valuable than the Bible.
"You could use that book and that book alone and teach a man to be a great man," he said.
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This post has been updated.
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