We must restore Bible to classroom

How much longer do these tragedies of innocent victims have to continue before we realize that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart? Jesus said it quite clearly, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts such as murder...” Matthew 15:19.

People wonder why our country is in such an upheaval: all levels of divisions, and the rise in crime and violence. The Year of the Bible describes the Bible as “catalytic,” an agent that can produce enormous results. The Bible has inspired artists, poets and even Christopher Columbus to discover the New World. Likewise, when it was removed from the public school classroom, and public arena, the repercussions have been enormous. We are no longer considered “people of the Book.” Lawlessness has skyrocketed and our Constitution is being shredded.

Children have been most affected. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition that advocates ancient solutions to modern problems (www.towardtradition.org), claims that depriving children of the Bible is a “form of child abuse.”

Our Founding Fathers saw the need to inculcate God’s Word in the lives of the children, the spring board for public education. They took stock in the words of Jesus, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” Deuteronomio 8:3 and Matthew 4:4. They realized that we not only have a body and soul, but even more importantly, we have a spirit, I Thessalonians 5:23. That spirit needs to be fed with the Word of God just like the body needs food. Deprived of either one, can lead to weakness and illness.

We see this sickness even on the college level, where students are literally crying out for help in their mental anguish. College administrators have overlooked this key factor, a curriculum that included the Bible and made “American education, the envy of the world,” according to Rabbi Lapin.

It is time we got back to basics before more tragedies, scandals and violence that are destroying our children and ultimately our country. Parents, teachers and administrators need to stand together to see that the Bible is once again restored in the classroom.

Alice Leishman

New Haven