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By SUZANNE SATALINE
May 16, 2007 12:38 p.m.

Eight Odessa, Texas, residents filed a lawsuit today against their superintendent and county school board, saying that the curriculum used in the Bible courses violates the Constitution by promoting the conservative Protestant faith.

The plaintiffs have asked the U.S. District Court in Midland-Odessa to stop the courses, taught for this first time this current school year in two Odessa high schools, using books from the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a conservative non-profit in Greensboro, N.C.. . .

. . .The new suit, led by parent Amanda Moreno of Odessa, says the curriculum does not adhere to legal standards requiring bible courses to be objective and neutral, and presents the perspective of Christianity from a Protestant viewpoint, instructing students that the New Testament fulfills prophecies in the Hebrew Bible. Some Odessa course materials, the lawsuit says, state that Christ the Messiah "was prophesized [sic]" throughout the Old Testament and that Jesus was the son of God. Course materials characterize Roman Catholic beliefs of the transformation of the body and blood of Jesus into communion bread and wine as "warped" thinking brought on by "mysticism."

The course also teaches the Bible as historical truth, the lawsuit states, relying on the King James version of the Bible, the bible of Protestant faiths, as a historical document. The course treats the story of the creation, the life of Noah and his ark, and the lives of Abraham, Sarah, and Moses as if they were accurate historical statements, the lawsuit says.

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