Originally published in the Idaho Statesman.

In recent weeks, mainstream media outlets have devoted considerable attention to Idaho Family Policy Center’s proposed legislation to bring the Bible back to public schools.

For nearly a century, Idaho children began their school days hearing the Bible read by their teachers — a tradition many have forgotten.

Our “School-Sponsored Bible Reading Act” builds on the legacy of a similar law that was adopted by the Idaho Legislature in 1925. It remained in effect until 1963.

We’re making significant updates to that law to ensure it passes constitutional muster in our current judicial environment — including important additions, like conscience protections for teachers and students who don’t want to participate.

Now, if you listen to the historically illiterate Idaho Statesman Editorial Board, you could be forgiven for thinking the legislation would violate the First Amendment.

But here’s the truth they don’t want you to know: Our founding fathers, both at the state and national levels, recognized the importance of school Bible reading.

In fact, Fisher Ames, an important contributor to the language First Amendment, is actually on the record supporting the use of the Bible as a public school textbook.

Even the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the practice in Vidal v. Girard’s Executors (1844): “Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the [schools] — its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?”

Likewise, our Idaho founding fathers wanted the Bible to be read in public schools — and they intentionally crafted our state constitution to allow the practice.

James W. Reid, D-Nez Perce, vice president of the Idaho Constitutional Convention, aptly captured the sentiments of Idaho’s founders when he said, “It is because the Bible is read, preached, and taught in the schools that this country is great and glorious.”

He warned that removing the Bible from state government or public education would result in “the Christian people” of Idaho “ris[ing] up and put[ting their] foot on this constitution.”

But in the early 1960s, activist judges who despised our founding principles issued federal court decisions that invalidated longstanding practices like school-sponsored Bible reading and school prayer.

We’ve all witnessed the devastating effects of those court decisions. In the years that followed, violent crime surged by more than 600%, and unwed teen pregnancies rose by nearly 300%.

Here’s the good news: In recent years, we’ve seen the federal courts shift back to an originalist interpretation of the First Amendment — and we’re confident that the U.S. Supreme Court is now positioned to once again allow school-sponsored Bible reading.

Our children and communities are starved for the biblical principles that once made our society the greatest in the world. That is why it’s critical – now more than ever – that the Idaho Legislature takes this historic opportunity to bring the Bible back into the classroom.