Teaching About Religion: OK and Not OK

It is OK to teach about religion.
This includes academic
consideration of beliefs and
practices, the role of religion in
history and contemporary society,
and religious themes in music, art,
and literature.

It is OK to conduct studies about
religion in a neutral and academic
way. [A public school must
conduct a secular program of
education, presented objectively.]

It is OK to teach about religion
with a view to diversity. [To reflect
the spirit of civic inclusiveness
apropos to a democratic and
pluralistic society, your teaching
about religion can and should
include teaching about
nonreligious as well as religious
worldviews, and about the role of
both religious and nonreligious
individuals and groups in the
history and culture of the United
States and other countries.]

It is OK to consider (in an
academic and age-appropriate
manner) religious influences on
art, music, literature, and social
studies.

It is OK to teach about the revered
scriptures of any religion as
literature, or about the historic
influences of such scriptures within
a culture, if the lesson is secular,
religiously neutral and objective.

It is OK to use holiday themes
based objectively on their
aesthetic or academic value (i.e.,
focusing on origin, history, and
generally agreed-upon meaning of
the observance).

It's not OK to do religious
indoctrination or impose or
advocate acceptance of any
worldview or participate in any
religious activity with students. [A
classroom teacher represents the
state and must refrain from such
actions.]

It's not OK to bias curriculum
selection and instruction about
religion toward worldview(s) that
you hold or favor or against those
to which you are averse.

It's not OK to ignore that the U.S.
is the most religiously diverse
nation in the world, that in many
parts of the nation there are
numerous children from minority
religious traditions and also
children from families holding a
nonreligious worldview, and that
important societal developments
have drawn their impetus from
persons having these minority
religious and nonreligious
stances.

It's not OK to extol, based on your
own worldview rather than an
academic foundation, the
presumed virtues, intrinsic worth,
or cultural supremacy of religion or
a given religion.

It's not OK to teach any religion's
scriptural accounts (e.g., a
biblical rendition) as history or fact
because that is promoting
religious doctrine.

It's not OK to use holiday themes
as a vehicle for advocating any
religion or for advancing religious
belief.