This already exists at my public high school Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach California.  I took the bible studies class (about 3 years ago) mostly to see how it was handled, as I am an atheist, and strongly defend the separation of church and state.

It seemed very clear to me that in my class, the bible was handled as literature, and thus satisfied me that there was nothing objectable going on.  That is, rather the class actually focused on the bible text, and much of the class was an open decision on the various interpretations of passages of the bible.  We were not taught what it ment, which is the way all good literature should be taught.  However, in my class was taught be someone who was not Christen, which I think helped ensure that things did not move into a area I would not feel comfortable in. 

However there is cause for concern, while my experience was positive, it’s easy to see that a class like this could easily be abused.

The Bible is far too sexy, lurid, and violent to be taught in grade schools and high schools.

Unlike Shakespeare or Paul Bunyan fables, there are these big buildings called churches that exist on every other street corner all over America that teach the Bible on a weekly basis at minimum.

I also don’t see how, on the face of it, it’s ‘an obvious end run around the Constitution’s establishment clause”.  In theory, studying the bible as literature seems not only acceptable, but necessary to understanding western culture. 

On the other hand, I’d say it sounds like a subject far too advanced for high school study.  I don’t recall semester-long classes dealing with that kind of text exegesis cropping up until the 300 or 400 level in college. Unfortunatley, if you look at current news on the effectiveness of college education these days, it’s probably too advanced for most undergrads as well:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060120/ap_on_go_ot/literacy_college_students

Both the textbook and how teachers handled it would have to be seriously scrutinized.  If they really studied it neutrally, the way you’d study Chaucer or Dickens, it would probably incite more skepticism and questioning of religious dogma than it would promote it.  I bet you would hear more fundamentalist-types complain about these classes than you would progressives.  Once again, I seriously doubt anything like this is going to happen at the high school level, though.

It’s difficult to comment on this particular course, given the absence of details.  However, a course in blblical literacy is a great idea.  Among many other things, it would help people to recognize the origin of phrases used in rock songs and American literature, enriching their understanding of language.  If, indeed, students were to read the Bible on their own, they might even come to understand the ‘spin’ that different interpreters give aspects of it.  The real question is:  will they get to read and think about it, or will it all be mediated by someone with a particular interpretation.

Perhaps I’m just becoming a cynic in my old age—but I highly doubt that these schools are also considering similar “scholarly” courses studying the sacred texts of other religions such as the Hindu Gita or the Islamic Koran.  I personally would be much more inclined to favor the compromise position of an elective course in comparative religion generally rather than one which focuses exclusively on the Judeo-Christian faith.  Having been raised in the Midwest, I know very well that the population of Middle America is predominantly Judeo-Christian and there are many places where a person may live all their lives without ever meeting someone of an Eastern faith (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism).  However, in my opinion, this only serves to strengthen the argument in favor of a comparative studies class since I believe this lack of exposure leads people to develop inaccurate beliefs about members of other faiths because the only sources they have for information are inaccurate and distorted.  How many people in this country believe that violence is one of the essential tenets of Islam itself rather than the distorted belief of an radical minority?  More than a few – why?  There’s no doubt in my mind that this is at least in part because for the past twenty years, Moslems have received very little attention from the American media outside of the sphere of terrorism to the point that the image of the terrorist is the one most likely to leap to mind when many Americans think of a Moslem.  In a world that is as increasingly global as this one, both politically and economically, this sort of isolation and ignorance is really not an acceptable excuse anymore – no matter how much some people might want to return to the days when there was no need to consider such things, those days are over.  It’s partially for this reason that I have reservations about a public school offering a course about the Bible—even as an elective.  You can try to justify it however you like but as far as I’m concerned, it’s simply not possible to present a religion-based course at a public school which focuses exclusively on one or two religions without suggesting – even if only on the most subconscious level – that these religions are the only ones which matter or the only ones which know “the truth”.  I’m simply not prepared to support a program within a public school which – however subtly – seems to endorse one or two religions over others.  Parents who want their children to be educated about religion – or rather, one specific religion – should not depend on the public school system to do that.  That’s what private schools and religious communities are for.

Why wouldn’t the Bible, a major influence in western literature…from Bunyan to Milton to Shakespeare to Faulkner to Emily Dickinson…be an appropriate subject for study in high school?  Studying the Bible as literature seems to me, a long standing member of the ACLU, quite acceptable.  In fact, not allowing such a course strikes me as a strange censorship of allowable subjects.  Don’t most universities have course on the Bible?  Why should one have to go to church to investiage this important influence?