Quoting ChristianPost.com:

In a narrow vote, the Texas State Board of Education on Friday approved a controversial resolution that calls for the rejection of textbooks that are “pro-Islamic, anti-Christian.”

I will avoid the low-hanging joke playing off the word “narrow” and “Texas State Board of Education.”

The resolution passed in a 7-6 vote during a reportedly contentious meeting. Although the resolution has no impact on current standards, it sends a warning to publishers that Texas – the nation’s second largest textbook market – will reject all schoolbooks that are favorably biased toward Islam while painting Christianity in an unfavorable light.

“This resolution will ensure upfront that potential biases are taken care of before these books reach the board,” said board Chairwoman Gail Lowe, according to the Dallas Morning News.

It may avoid one kind of bias…

But board member Lawrence Allen, a practicing Muslim, said Friday that the allegations are “baseless” and the resolution is “unfair,” according to Agence France-Presse.

Meanwhile, fellow board member Rick Agosto commented, “This makes us look cuckoo. It’s crazy.”

“We are allowing ourselves to be distracted by this narrow-minded resolution, which is itself biased. We should have taken the higher ground on this.”

I quote this section to show that at least some of the folks there were thinking reasonably on this.

This resolution is the equivalent of voting against legalized wife beating. Anyone who tried to take a reasonable stance against it could be faced with “Oh! So you think it’s fine to be biased against Christianity and favor Islam?!?”

I wonder what the vote would have been on books that are favorably biased toward Christianity while painting Islam in an unfavorable light.

In fact, I’m quite certain that if I was asked to vote on such a resolution, I would have suggested modifying the motion to avoid either unfavorable or favorable bias towards any religion. After all, Texas is still part of the USA, right? And these are public schools, right?

Texas Freedom Network – a group that seeks to counter the religious right on issues of religious freedom and individual liberties – accused the drafter of the resolution of ignoring sections of the textbooks that focus on Christianity. Current textbooks, the network argued, include passages on the Reformation, Christian influences during the Renaissance, the Holy Roman Empire, and church reform, among other topics that the resolution failed to mention.

Good luck and godspeed, Texas Freedom Network.

For anyone who is going to suggest that religious references should be stricken from education at all: I had a seminary professor in Christian History who used to teach “History of Western Civilization” at the University of Pennsylvania. He said the classes were almost identical. Why? Because religion has influenced history. It’s an unavoidable consequence of studying history that one also ends up hearing about religion.

“It is hard not to conclude that the members who voted for this resolution were solely interested in playing on fear and bigotry in order to pit Christians against Muslims,” said Kathy Miller, president of Texas Freedom Network, in a statement Friday.

“This is the 21st century. Education is more important than ever for the future success of our children. Yet board members continue to ignore sound scholarship and mire themselves in every hot button political issue they can find,” she said as she slammed supporters of the resolution.

“Have you stopped beating your wife?” the resolution was heard to ask.

Jonathan Saenz, attorney for Liberty Institute, rejected Miller’s arguments.

He told board members, “The board is doing the right thing to have a resolution before them … to send a message to publishers to prevent any type of religious discrimination or [treatment of a] particular religion in a way that’s not complete.”

Except that’s not really what it sounds like the resolution said. It sounds like the resolution said “you can’t make Islam look good and Christianity look bad” instead of saying “You must be fair and even-handed in your treatment of all religions regardless of your personal biases.”

If that resolution had passed, no one would be talking about this. Well, except for the “WHOA, REALLY?!?! IN TEXAS?!?” comments.

The impact of the SBOE’s decisions is expected to be felt nationwide. Publishers usually cater to the textbook demands of the larger states and offer those schoolbooks to students in smaller states. Texas is the second-largest textbook market in the country, behind California.

Can you imagine the hew and cry if California’s Board of Education started pushing a liberal agenda as strongly as the Texas Board of Education pushes a conservative Christian agenda? I fully expect Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck would explode.

Hrm.