The Bible and Its Influence used next year in 30 Georgia school districts, within 7 GA County districts--more to come

Contact: Sheila Weber, VP Communications, Bible Literacy Project, 646-322-6853, Sheila@bibleliteracy.org

FRONT ROYAL, Va., Mar. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- The acclaimed new public school textbook, The Bible and Its Influence, featured as this week's April 2nd TIME magazine cover story, just received an endorsement from Leith Anderson, the new president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), an association of more than 45,000 local churches from 61 different denominations and serving a constituency of more than 30 million people.

"In The Bible and Its Influence, the Bible Literacy Project has produced an outstanding textbook that will both encourage literacy and open students' minds to the significant role the Bible has played in shaping our modern civilization.  With excellent scholarship, it provides a broad-based curriculum that explores the history, culture and content of the entire Bible and demonstrates the value and relevance of biblical literacy for today," writes Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals.

The Bible and Its Influence--in its first year used in 83 school districts and 30 states-- is also endorsed by the general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, Marc Stern, who calls it "a signal achievement," as well as the chair of the Catholic Biblical Association, Bishop Richard Sklba, who says "I am pleased to endorse this effort wholeheartedly."  The Bible Literary Project has formed an historic consensus across a broad range of Americans who support our course, including leading evangelicals Chuck Colson and Vonette Bright, among many others.

The Bible and Its Influence, used along side the Bible, is the first student textbook for public high school academic and non-devotional study of the Bible for electives in English or Social Studies.  It has received wide acclaim from the media, scholars and faith leaders of all backgrounds and was written to satisfy court guidelines which stipulate that an academic course on the Bible can present content, but not promote nor disparage belief.  TIME magazine senior editor reporter David Van Biema writes "A [public school Bible] course should have a strong accompanying textbook on the model of The Bible and Its Influence..."

The textbook's publisher, the Bible Literacy Project, just launched a new program to train volunteers who want to bring this elective course to their local high school. In just the first few weeks of this new volunteer campaign, there are 124 volunteers being trained to properly present this course to school officials. Interested individuals can register for training and materials at www.bibleliteracy.org/volunteer.

The Bible and Its Influence was reviewed by 40 scholars, including university English professors, high school English teachers, and scholars representing Catholic, Jewish, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Orthodox and secular backgrounds.  Its general editor was Cullen Schippe, former senior vice president of Macmillan-McGraw Hill textbooks.  Its co-author was founder and chairman of the Bible Literacy Project, Chuck Stetson (B.A., Yale University, MBA, Columbia University), managing director of Private Equity Investors.  Stetson was a former Vice President of the National Bible Association.

Others praise The Bible and Its Influence:

"One of 2005's notable books on religion."

Associated Press (Dec. 14, 2005)

"Bible textbook could circumvent culture war."

Knight-Ridder newspapers (Sept. 21, 2005)

"Appealing and educationally rigorous. Teaching the Bible in public schools just got easier."

WORLD magazine (Sept. 23, 2005)

"A very good curriculum indeed... No small achievement."

Christianity Today (Oct. 2005)

"A remarkable textbook."

New York State School Board Association's On Board magazine (July 2006)

For more information, read the Overview at www.bibleliteracy.org