Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tblake@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Thomas Blake) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: religious courses in a secular school] Message-ID: Date: 1 Apr 91 09:08:14 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: State University of New York at Binghamton Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ta00est@unccvax.uncc.edu (elizabeth s tallant) writes: >... >I was a bit surprised to find that a state funded school cannot teach relgious >doctrine, and I have been told that courses 1 and 2 are taught from sort >of a secular point of view. So, I am a bit puzzled about what to do. >On the one hand, I would love to do a detailed study of the Bible under a >learned instructor, but on the other hand, I don't know if these courses >are really a study of the Bible. >... Here at SUNY-Binghamton (State University of New York) @ Binghamton we have an entire "Judaic Studies Program". (We do not to my knowledge have a "Christian Studies Program" ;-) ). Our student body is largely made up of students from "downstate" (I.E. N.Y.C., Long Island etc.) and we have a fairly large percentage of Jewish students. I have dealt with a few professors in the Judaic Studies Program, ("I'm writing this book, and I want to use English, Hebrew, Greek and phonetics..."). The book turned out to be a text for a class on "The Bible", (O.T.). I asked for a copy, it had some interesting stuff in it, and some stuff that I disagreed with, but isn't that always the case? The university is not indoctrinating students. We have a Judaic Studies Program, a Jewish Student Union, even a Kosher kitchen in the student union. Off campus, (a little way from the Newman House) is the Shabat House (Sp?) We have no chapel on campus that I am aware of. So, teaching *about* a religion is cool, it's teaching the religion that's uncool. Tom Blake SUNY-Binghamton P.S. Sorry, the Newman House is a house of Roman Catholic worship/counseling.