‘Anti-Christian’ Passages in Texts Could Embarrass Students, Prof. Tells Court

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. —  A Roman Catholic psychology professor testified today that Christian children could “feel embarrassed or ashamed” if forced to study textbooks that portray Christian religions negatively.

Paul Vitz, a psychology professor from New York University, testified on behalf of fundamentalist parents in the third day of a lawsuit against the Hawkins County Board of Education.

About a dozen parents object to the use of the Holt Basic Readers, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, on the ground that they are “anti-Christian.” The parents have demanded their children be taught from alternative books.

Vitz, the second witness to testify in the trial, pointed to one story called “The Scribe,” in which a young girl says her mother studies the Bible, but the girl says, “I don’t go for all that.”

“I think this line demonstrates a disparaging attitude toward her mother’s Bible study,” Vitz said.

Vitz received a $74,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study the apparent lack of religion in texts. The families who sued Hawkins County schools also commissioned him to examine the Holt reading series.

Vitz said he studied 600 articles from 60 textbooks and found God was mentioned only five times, while stories of other religions, especially American Indian worship, abounded.

In addition, he said, “There’s a very clear feminist theme and emphasis throughout the texts, grades one to eight. But there’s no story which shows Biblical Protestantism as an important way of life.”

One of the parents, Vicki Frost, testified Tuesday that she objects to the teaching of “alien philosophies” because it confuses the children. “My children have to be taught from a Christian perspective,” she said.

The case is being heard by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hull without a jury just 150 miles from the site of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial.”

In this trial, Tennessee is defending the teaching of evolution, which along with witchcraft, sexual equality, humanism and gun control are among the “anti-Christian” themes Frost claims she has found in the textbooks.

During cross-examination, Frost said she disapproved of “The Wizard of Oz” because it showed witches can be good. She said she objected to the fairy tale “Rumpelstiltskin” because it teaches that one should tell the truth most of the time, instead of always.

Frost was arrested for trespassing in 1983 after barging into her daughter’s second-grade reading class to demand a different book. The charge was later dismissed, and Frost subsequently won a $70,000 civil judgment against school officials.

She and her husband have since enrolled their four children in a private Christian school, and she testified she is uncertain whether they would allow their children to return to public school, even if they win the case.