The council of Villavicencio, in the central Colombian department of Meta, approved a law that will oblige school children to attend one week of Bible study per year, reported El Tiempo.
The law was passed during school vacation at the end of last year, and rules that all schools must hold an official annual “Bible Week” at the end of September, where students will take part in Bible readings and seminars.
The law was met with anger by many of the municipality’s residents, who say that the decision does not guarantee freedom of religion and is openly unconstitutional.
Gustavo Estefen, a member of the local parents association, said “You cannot force others to study the Bible … Precisely because they are the minority, we must respect those that do not practise Christianity.”
However Villavicencio’s mayor, Raul Franco, defended the decision, arguing that the agreement should not be seen as an imposition of a religion on others but as a “historical and literary study of humanity’s most widely read book.”
Villavicencio’s first “Bible Week” will take place in schools in the last week of September of this year.
