Idaho’s history used as a basis for new bible reading act in schools proposal

Whether or not the Bible should be read in public schools was discussed in the Idaho legislative session on Jan. 6, 2025. The School-Sponsored Bible Reading Act would give educators the option to read 20 verses from the King James edition of the Bible daily. These verses would be read “without instruction or comment” by educators. 

Currently, the citizens of Idaho have more questions than answers about the School-Sponsored Bible Reading Act. Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center said that for students who opt out of the reading, it will be up to the educator to dictate what students do with that time. 

Conzatti stated that although teachers who choose to include these readings in their curriculum are not permitted to answer questions or provide context, there is nothing in the policy regarding how this will be enforced. 

“Ultimately, it would be up to the teacher,” Conzatti said. “We don’t require the teacher to inform the students that they cannot ask questions. However, if a student does ask a question, that question is to be referred to the student’s parent or guardian, and that is a requirement of law, so the teacher would be required to refer any question received from a student to that student’s parent or guardian.”

In 1963, Idaho State Statute 33-1604 was adopted. The statute stated that “selections from the Bible, to be chosen from a list prepared from time to time by the state board of education, shall be read daily to each occupied classroom in each school district. Such reading shall be without comment or interpretation. Any question by any pupil shall be referred for answer to the pupil’s parent or guardian.” 

The following year, The District Court of Idaho ruled the statute as unconstitutional, citing the First and Fourteenth Amendments and Idaho’s State Constitution. 

However, Conzatti stated that he believes the policy is not in violation of the First Amendment, a criticism many individuals have made, as it does not conflict with Idaho history. Due to the policy’s wording and the U.S. Supreme Court’s steady decline in the use of the “lemon test” (a test used to ensure the separation of church and state) the policy could potentially be in line with Idaho law. 

“A lot of the social problems that we’ve seen in the last 60 years can be traced to declining biblical morality, and bringing the Bible back to schools will help reverse that trend. It’s not a panacea, it’s not a fix-all, but it will certainly help reverse that trend,” Conzatti said.

Reverend Benjamin Cremer, wholeheartedly disagrees with Conzatti’s approach. 

Cremer’s comment on CBS2Boise’s account, which Instagram later marked as hidden, read “As a Christian pastor I find this abhorrent. Separation of church and state protects both the church and the state. This isn’t ‘Christian’. This is Christian Nationalism. Only a dead religion has to legislate beliefs on everyone else.”

Cremer received his graduate education in Church History and noted the dangers he believes would coincide with implementing this policy.

“You don’t have to look back too far to see how dangerous and violent the church crawling into bed with the Empire becomes,” Cremer said. “Just look at the inquisitions and slavery and genocide of Indigenous people, the treatment of women and minority groups, that are all done in the name of the Empire’s power when we are claiming to follow someone who gave their [life] up and was actually executed by the powers of the empire.”

Cremer stated that while the separation of church and state isn’t perfect, it is necessary. 

“It’s one of the best ways to protect the state and the church from each other while allowing them to hold each other accountable. Without that separation, they just become a single organism that pursues and worships power,” Cremer said.

As a reverend, Cremer spreads the word of God — something he says should be a personal choice to hear or engage with.

“It was never about coercion or force. Jesus never forced someone to follow him or forced someone to obey him,” Cremer said. “It was always an invitation into a relationship, come and follow me and join this work, this movement of the kingdom that’s happening. You didn’t rush into the center of Rome and say you need to make this law mandatory, post the Ten Commandments all over the place.”

“It’s really antithetical, and it comes down to a misunderstanding of what the Word of God is. John 1 explicitly says that the Word of God is Jesus. It’s not this written text that we use to force our own way on others in the world, and so it’s this kind of contrast of we would rather legislate this Bible, this written text, over other people rather than embodying that way ourselves as followers of Jesus,” Cremer said.

Charlotte Gharring is currently an online educator for Spanish and Japanese. She began her teaching career in Japan, teaching English before she began teaching Spanish in Twin Falls. 

Gharring’s husband is a pastor in Idaho and Gharring was raised religious. 

“I come from a fairly strong Christian background. I was raised Catholic and I would not want my children in a school where this is happening,” Gharring said.

As an educator, Gharring believes that this policy could place pressure on teachers who decide to opt-out.

“I definitely think that there would probably be pressure to a degree. Having not been in an Idaho school for a couple of years … I don’t know what degree of pressure there would be — I would hope not a lot,” Gharring said. “There’s a lot of pressure on educators in general right now so I think that there would be a lot of pressure, or there is the potential for there to be a lot of pressure, from parents to have their perceptions implemented in a school.” 

Although there has been no set time period dedicated to reading the Bible in public schools, Gharring noted that any amount of time is valuable in an academic setting.

“There are so many other things that are needed in schools and academically there are students who can’t read or can’t read very well,” Gharring said. “There were students in my high school at Twin Falls, who could not read past a fourth-grade reading level, and I don’t know why I would take any time academically from those students with anything other than academic work at that point.”

It is difficult to gain a true understanding of what this policy would look like should it be put into practice as many of Conzatti’s responses deferred to the educator or state board of education’s decisions.