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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, Winter 2001/2002: Christian Protestant fundamentalists, who believe that the only way to find salvation is to accept God’s word as revealed in the Bible, often display an arrogant attitude toward other religions in the world, states this article. Rather than approaching the subject of religious differences from the point of view of, “This is what we believe,” fundamentalists declare “Your religion is in error.” The article examines three major school textbook publishers that favor fundamentalist Christian philosophy; namely A. Beka Press, Bob Jones University Press, and School of Tomorrow/Accelerated Christian Education. A recurring theme prevails in materials from the three publishers, “That the lack of material progress in various Third World countries and among indigenous peoples can be attributed to their religious beliefs.” A. Beka’s history textbook has the following to say about African religions, “Their religious beliefs have been the major cause of the continent’s lack of cultural and material progress and political instability and repression.” A fifth-grade textbook by this same publisher says, “Traditional African religions have false religious beliefs and witch doctors use many evil and cruel practise.” In A. Beka’s elementary world history text, Islam is described as a false religion because it believes, “That salvation can be achieved by the activities of human beings as opposed to salvation by grace alone.” In A. Beka’s texts, Hindus are called evil pagans. Quoting an unidentified scholar from a seventh grade textbook, “Hindus are incapable of writing history [because] all that happens is dissipated in their minds into confused dreams. What we call historical truth and veracity — intelligent, thoughtful comprehension of events, and fidelity in representing them — nothing of this sort can be looked for among the Hindus.” The School of Tomorrow/Accelerated Christian Education material says this about Buddhism, “It is very important to note that Buddha’s nirvana was in direct contrast with what the Bible teaches about heaven.” In a tenth grade textbook by the A. Beka Catholicism receives the following comment, “The doctrines and practices of the Roman church had digressed so far from Scripture that the church was compelled to keep its members from reading the Bible and discovering the truth.” In conclusion, the article asks the public whether public funding should be used to sponsor these types of educational textbooks where obvious disrespect is promoted about minority religions that could potentially lead to misrepresentation in society as a whole. The spirit of religious tolerance in a multi-cultural nation can only be achieved if American children are taught to respect the religion of their fellow citizens.

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