On 10/8/09 6:43 PM, Tim wrote:
On Oct 8, 4:56 pm, John H wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:





Well maybe not. But seeing the creation, religion,evolution thread is
getting so long, I thought I'd ask a hypothetical question. Well maybe
it's not as hypothetical , but here goes.

If an English lit teacher was passing out assignments assignments for
students to give a book report. Various books are chosen, some long ,
some short.

OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"All Quiet one the Western Front"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Moby Dick"
"The book of Matthew"
"Oliver Twist"
"The Trial"

etc, etc.

Notice included is the Gospel account of Matthew. Would this be
considered as promoting religion?

AND! Even if it was required reading. could it be used for literary
purposes only?

Just curious.

If the purpose of the assignment was to promote religion, then it
would be promoting religion. If the purpose was to have the students
read decent writing and practice writing, then it would not be
promoting religion.

Of course, the ACLU and other atheists would probably disagree with
that. But then again, they would probably applaud the idea of
assigning a book report on Mao Zedong's Little Red Book.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, like I said, I would have probably done a report on Hitlers Mein
Kampf if it was on the list, the "little red book?" That would have
been interesting too.

But today anything biblical or any book that might have a reference to
biblical scriptures probably wouldn't be available.

Some where down the line they've probably been replaced with the works
of Kate Chopin.


You know, I can't recall one class in public school where there was a
reading list of books from which reports had to be made. I recall lots
of reports in my classes based upon Dickens' novels and Austen's novels
in the 7th grade. Fine reads, but after that the reports came mostly on
more esoteric books, some good, some not so good. My 8th grade reports
were on several of Dreiser's novels. In the 10th grade, after two years
of high school Russian, I *dared* to read Dr. Zhivago in Russian, and
then deliver an oral book report on it in Russian in my Russian class.
But I was outdone by a gal who did the same with War and Peace.

--
Birther-Deather-Tenther-Teabagger:
Idiots All

"H the K" wrote in message
m...
On 10/8/09 6:43 PM, Tim wrote:
On Oct 8, 4:56 pm, John H wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:





Well maybe not. But seeing the creation, religion,evolution thread is
getting so long, I thought I'd ask a hypothetical question. Well maybe
it's not as hypothetical , but here goes.

If an English lit teacher was passing out assignments assignments for
students to give a book report. Various books are chosen, some long ,
some short.

OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"All Quiet one the Western Front"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Moby Dick"
"The book of Matthew"
"Oliver Twist"
"The Trial"

etc, etc.

Notice included is the Gospel account of Matthew. Would this be
considered as promoting religion?

AND! Even if it was required reading. could it be used for literary
purposes only?

Just curious.

If the purpose of the assignment was to promote religion, then it
would be promoting religion. If the purpose was to have the students
read decent writing and practice writing, then it would not be
promoting religion.

Of course, the ACLU and other atheists would probably disagree with
that. But then again, they would probably applaud the idea of
assigning a book report on Mao Zedong's Little Red Book.- Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, like I said, I would have probably done a report on Hitlers Mein
Kampf if it was on the list, the "little red book?" That would have
been interesting too.

But today anything biblical or any book that might have a reference to
biblical scriptures probably wouldn't be available.

Some where down the line they've probably been replaced with the works
of Kate Chopin.


You know, I can't recall one class in public school where there was a
reading list of books from which reports had to be made. I recall lots of
reports in my classes based upon Dickens' novels and Austen's novels in
the 7th grade. Fine reads, but after that the reports came mostly on more
esoteric books, some good, some not so good. My 8th grade reports were on
several of Dreiser's novels. In the 10th grade, after two years of high
school Russian, I *dared* to read Dr. Zhivago in Russian, and then deliver
an oral book report on it in Russian in my Russian class. But I was
outdone by a gal who did the same with War and Peace.


We were mostly assigned books as I recall... don't remember what they were.

--
Nom=de=Plume

In article ,
says...

"H the K" wrote in message
m...
On 10/8/09 6:43 PM, Tim wrote:
On Oct 8, 4:56 pm, John H wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:





Well maybe not. But seeing the creation, religion,evolution thread is
getting so long, I thought I'd ask a hypothetical question. Well maybe
it's not as hypothetical , but here goes.

If an English lit teacher was passing out assignments assignments for
students to give a book report. Various books are chosen, some long ,
some short.

OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"All Quiet one the Western Front"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Moby Dick"
"The book of Matthew"
"Oliver Twist"
"The Trial"

etc, etc.

Notice included is the Gospel account of Matthew. Would this be
considered as promoting religion?

AND! Even if it was required reading. could it be used for literary
purposes only?

Just curious.

If the purpose of the assignment was to promote religion, then it
would be promoting religion. If the purpose was to have the students
read decent writing and practice writing, then it would not be
promoting religion.

Of course, the ACLU and other atheists would probably disagree with
that. But then again, they would probably applaud the idea of
assigning a book report on Mao Zedong's Little Red Book.- Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, like I said, I would have probably done a report on Hitlers Mein
Kampf if it was on the list, the "little red book?" That would have
been interesting too.

But today anything biblical or any book that might have a reference to
biblical scriptures probably wouldn't be available.

Some where down the line they've probably been replaced with the works
of Kate Chopin.


You know, I can't recall one class in public school where there was a
reading list of books from which reports had to be made. I recall lots of
reports in my classes based upon Dickens' novels and Austen's novels in
the 7th grade. Fine reads, but after that the reports came mostly on more
esoteric books, some good, some not so good. My 8th grade reports were on
several of Dreiser's novels. In the 10th grade, after two years of high
school Russian, I *dared* to read Dr. Zhivago in Russian, and then deliver
an oral book report on it in Russian in my Russian class. But I was
outdone by a gal who did the same with War and Peace.


We were mostly assigned books as I recall... don't remember what they were.

Funny, as soon as I started to read the above paragraph I knew it was
our WAFA spinning his tales again... Doesn't he know that nobody but
Donnie believes him when he gets going?? WAFA

On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:


OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Boring.

"All Quiet one the Western Front"

Even more boring.

"Gulliver's Travels"

Incredibly boring.

"Moby Dick"

Ridiculously boring.

"The book of Matthew"

B O R I N G

"Oliver Twist"

R E A L L Y B O R I N G.

"The Trial"

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Can you tell English Lit wasn't my favorite subject? :)

On 10/8/09 7:01 PM, Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:


OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Boring.

"All Quiet one the Western Front"

Even more boring.

"Gulliver's Travels"

Incredibly boring.

"Moby Dick"

Ridiculously boring.

"The book of Matthew"

B O R I N G

"Oliver Twist"

R E A L L Y B O R I N G.

"The Trial"

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Can you tell English Lit wasn't my favorite subject? :)



Tom likes comics and sci-fi, but sci-fi fantasy. Science-based sci-fi is
too, well, evolutionary for his tastes.


--
Birther-Deather-Tenther-Teabagger:
Idiots All

On Oct 8, 6:01*pm, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:



OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Boring.

"All Quiet one the Western Front"

Even more boring.

"Gulliver's Travels"

Incredibly boring.

"Moby Dick"

Ridiculously boring.

"The book of Matthew"

B O R I N G

"Oliver Twist"

R E A L L Y * B O R I N G.

"The Trial"

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Can you tell English Lit wasn't my favorite subject? *:)

uh=huh

Typoing class wan't one of my cravings either.

?;^ Q

On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 16:08:47 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

On Oct 8, 6:01*pm, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:



OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Boring.

"All Quiet one the Western Front"

Even more boring.

"Gulliver's Travels"

Incredibly boring.

"Moby Dick"

Ridiculously boring.

"The book of Matthew"

B O R I N G

"Oliver Twist"

R E A L L Y * B O R I N G.

"The Trial"

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Can you tell English Lit wasn't my favorite subject? *:)

uh=huh

Typoing class wan't one of my cravings either.

?;^ Q

ROTFL!!!

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:


OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Boring.

"All Quiet one the Western Front"

Even more boring.

"Gulliver's Travels"

Incredibly boring.

"Moby Dick"

Ridiculously boring.

"The book of Matthew"

B O R I N G

"Oliver Twist"

R E A L L Y B O R I N G.

"The Trial"

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Can you tell English Lit wasn't my favorite subject? :)


Well, I never thought any of those were boring.

--
Nom=de=Plume

On 10/8/09 9:14 PM, nom=de=plume wrote:
"Tom Francis - wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:


OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Boring.

"All Quiet one the Western Front"

Even more boring.

"Gulliver's Travels"

Incredibly boring.

"Moby Dick"

Ridiculously boring.

"The book of Matthew"

B O R I N G

"Oliver Twist"

R E A L L Y B O R I N G.

"The Trial"

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Can you tell English Lit wasn't my favorite subject? :)


Well, I never thought any of those were boring.



Tom's literary choices are more along the lines of Stan Lee comics.

--
Birther-Deather-Tenther-Teabagger:
Idiots All

On Oct 8, 9:15*am, Gene wrote:
On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:24:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:





Well maybe not. But seeing the creation, religion,evolution thread is
getting so long, I thought I'd ask a hypothetical question. Well maybe
it's not as hypothetical , but here goes.

If an English lit teacher was passing out assignments assignments for
students to give a book report. *Various books are chosen, some long ,
some short.

OK, the list has several *options* None are specifically required.
Here's a sample list:

"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"All Quiet one the Western Front"
"Gulliver's Travels"
"Moby Dick"
"The book of Matthew"
"Oliver Twist"
"The Trial"

etc, etc.

That is a rather complex question.

Would we be describing the reading assignment as a selection of one
out of seven fictional books? Or, can you choose the non fiction book
versus one of the six novels.....

On the face of it, given that there are choices, it would seem to be
acceptable. However, I would cry fowl on the basis that the class is
*English Literature* which, by definition, are those texts written in
English. If we are going to offer everything translated into English
as fair game, we might as well just change the course title and
syllabus to World Literature.

Given the course title, if the teacher is compelled to offer some sort
of link to a religious text, I think the Book of Common Prayer would
be more appropriate.



Notice included is the Gospel account of Matthew. *Would this be
considered as promoting religion?

Probably, due to the limitations of choice.

Christianity is a religion developed from Judaism, all of which
developed in the Middle East, a region that spans southwestern Asia,
southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa.... and as far as I can
tell really has little to do with "English Literature" either
geographically, culturally, linguistically, philosophically, etc.
Thus, why offering a Christian text as an acceptable "English Text"
without also including the (surely translated) Jewish, Buddhist,
Mormon, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Confucianism, Shinto, etc.,
etc. texts.... without even an honorable mention to Classical Paganism
which WAS the original English Religious Literature.... is a bit
cloudy.

AND! Even if it was required reading. could it be used for literary
purposes only?

I doubt that it could be, in this context.

Authorship/Style? Nobody knows who wrote the Book of Matthew and one
can't really discuss Matthew without inclusion of the other three
gospels, most notably Mark (and the non-extant Quelle source), from
which the Book of Matthew was plagiarized.

So, what are you going to ask the students to *do* with that text in
an English Literature course?
--

Forté Agent 5.00 Build 1171

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by
the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover." * - Unknown

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
*http://pamandgene.tranquilrefuge.net/boating/the_boat/my_boat.htm- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

First off, it wasn't a "bible study", Gene. and it wasn't to be such.
It was like any other book report. to give an over all critique of
what the author was trying to convey. And honestly, I really don't
rememebr what I wrte about. that was in 1972 and I dont' have the
paper.

No one *had* to chose the Matthew account.