West Virginia to Join Other States in Bible Courses for Public Schools

Since founding Living Epistles Ministries in Port Jefferson Station, New York, in 1998, Sheila Vitale has been the manager, teacher, and pastor. Sheila Vitale studies the Bible for both her work and personal life.

While the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another, West Virginia state representatives introduced legislation in January 2018 that would require a Bible course for every public school in the state. If passed, West Virginia would join seven other states that afford local school boards the opportunity to create elective classes on the Old and New Testaments.

In 1963, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that introducing religious study into classroom discussion isn’t unconstitutional in Abington Township v. Schempp with the opinion that “the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities ... when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education.”

Believing that the West Virginia law may be crossing a boundary, the ACLU plans to contest it as they have in other states now promoting Bible courses in public schools.