Michele Morrow wants Bible elective in every NC middle, high school. What’s allowed now.

Newly released audio shows Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee to lead North Carolina’s public schools, wants Bible classes offered in every middle school and high school in the state.

A representative from a progressive super PAC approached Morrow at last month’s Republican National Convention to ask her about public schools teaching the Bible. Morrow responded by advocating having Bible elective classes in all secondary schools..

“I absolutely believe that we need to get elective Bible classes back in every middle and high school,” Morrow said in audio posted Tuesday morning by American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC.

American Bridge used the audio to criticize both Morrow and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is the GOP nominee for governor.

“While Michele Morrow might not want to talk to reporters, she’s making it clear to presumed supporters that she wants to push the Bible and Christianity on North Carolina’s children regardless of their religious background,” Philip Shulman, a spokesperson for American Bridge, said in a statement.

“Michele Morrow and Mark Robinson have shown a disdain for religious freedom and, if given the chance, will push Christian nationalism as far as they can in North Carolina.”

Morrow: ‘Expand’ opportunity to study Bible

Morrow is a homeschool parent, conservative activist, registered nurse and former Christian missionary who upset incumbent Catherine Truitt in the March GOP primary for state superintendent of public instruction.

She is running against Democrat Mo Green, the former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, and former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, a group that funds progressive causes.

Morrow made national headlines after CNN reported on her past social media posts that talked about killing former President Barack Obama and encouraged President Donald Trump to use the military to stay in power in 2021. She has accused CNN of “gaslighting the public.”

Morrow’s campaign did not respond to an email from The News & Observer asking for more information on what she wants to be taught in the Bible classes.

In an interview Tuesday with WRAL, Morrow said she wants to ensure students can study the Bible.

“It’s in our bylaws in North Carolina that if we wanted to study the Bible in terms of a historical text or because of legislative reasons or whatever it might be, that that could be an elective that students could choose to take if they wanted to take that,” Morrow told WRAL. “So I just want to expand that opportunity.”

Bible classes in NC public schools

The Bible is allowed to be taught — with some caveats — in American public schools.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools can teach about the Bible as long as such teaching is “presented objectively as part of a secular program of education.” In order to not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, teaching about religion must be educational and not devotional.

Bible classes have historically been more popular in North Carolina public schools than in many other states, according to Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University in Texas.

In 2013, the last year where statewide data is available, 3,911 North Carolina public high school students took 280 Bible In History classes. It’s uncertain how many Bible classes are still offered in the state’s public schools.

Last school year, the Wake County school system said four high school teachers taught the Religions in World Cultures/The Bible In History social studies elective. The district’s high school course planning guide describes it as an introduction “to religious expression across cultures and to the world religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Chinese religions.”

“Students will examine religious tenets, practices, responses, and institutions and their impact upon world history and contemporary life,” the planning guide continues. “Learners will also explore primary religious texts and scriptures, including the Tanakh, the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Analects, the Tao Te Ching, and the Dhammapada, and their impacts on religious traditions, adherents, and the modern world.”

This fall, the Moore County school system is starting “The Bible As History” as a social studies elective in high schools.

Bible courses can ‘lapse’ into religious bias

Oklahoma gained national attention after State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a memo in June ordering school districts to “incorporate the Bible” in classrooms in grades 5 through 12.

Morrow mentions Oklahoma in the leaked audio and says Walters reached out to her and that they met during the Republican National Convention.

Chancey, the SMU professor, said teaching about the Bible in public schools has increasingly become a partisan issue.

“While you can definitely find people on both sides of the aisle who will vote for those courses, they are largely a Republican issue,” Chancey said in an interview.

Chancey has studied how Bible courses are taught in public schools. Unless teachers receive extensive training, he said those courses can be fraught with challenges.

“It’s certainly possible to teach a Bible course in a way that does focus on appropriate reasons of cultural literacy and that is sensitive to issues of religious diversity and that does not promote particular religious viewpoints or disparage particular religious viewpoints,” Chancey said. “I have seen courses succeed in that respect.

”But more often courses lapse into one type of religious bias or another. Whenever they do, it’s almost always to uphold beliefs held in certain Protestant circles but not others.”