Bibles would be given to every public school student in California, unless parents object, under a proposed ballot measure.
Matt McLaughlin, a Huntington Beach attorney, began Monday to collect the required 598,105 signatures for the ballot initiative. It would amend the state constitution to allow use of the King James Version as a literature textbook, without devotional or denominational purpose, in elementary, middle and high schools.
McLaughlin said the Bible is literature and many believe that an educated person needs to be ``biblically literate.'' He said the measure addresses concerns over church-state separation.