Instead, the ban reflects educators' exasperation at the levels of confusion and hostility sparked by the E-word. In itself, this kind of tepid verbal dodgeball brings no change. The significance, then, must lie in the brand of Christian cause-chasing that starts it.
Christian opinion can be frighteningly knee-jerk.
The reality, however, is more open to question. The men who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were an equally eclectic mix, characterized more by Deism than by classic Protestant belief. If anything, the American tradition is characterized by a violent distaste for spoon-fed beliefs and forced faith. By lobbying for the inclusion of religious doctrine in an otherwise purely academic context, Christians risk alienating their freedom-conscious fellow citizens. This merely adds to the growing secular image of Christianity as irrational Bible-thwacking.