Abeka Book, LLC, known as A Beka Book until 2017, is an American publisher affiliated with Pensacola Christian College (PCC) that produces K-12 curriculum materials that are used by Christian schools and homeschooling families around the world.[3][4][5] It is named after Rebekah Horton, wife of college president Arlin Horton. By the 1980s, Abeka and BJU Press (formerly Bob Jones University Press) were the two major publishers of Christian-based educational materials in America.[6] Its books have been criticized for lack of academic rigor and misinformation on scientific and historical subjects.
History
A Beka Book logo used until 2017
The company started in 1972 as A Beka Book. In 2017, the company rebranded as Abeka. The video program Abeka Academy is on DVD and streams on the web.
Some Abeka textbooks have been criticized by educators as lacking academic rigor and taking contrary or reactive positions toward their subject matter. Experts from the University of Florida and University of Central Florida in 2018 criticized the content of Abeka textbooks as being markedly more simple and less challenging than the content of comparable textbooks used in public education.[8]
Abeka history books are dramatically different from mainstream books, especially on matters of race. A section of the high-school textbook United States History: Heritage of Freedom is entitled Birth of a Nation, evoking the 1915 film of the same name that glorified the Ku-Klux-Klan.[9] Other extreme Christian Nationalist rhetoric goes so far as to describe slavery as "black immigration".[10][11]
Between 1988 and 1996, Abeka Book held tax exempt status, because its profits were channeled into PCC as a tax-exempt religious organization or educational institution.[14] In January 1995, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ruled that the college's publishing arm was liable for taxes as a profit-making entity. The IRS further ruled that the profits of the publishing arm benefited the organization as a whole, because both A Beka Book and PCC were run under the same organization and that all of the profits of A Beka Book went directly to PCC, constituting 60% of the college's income.[15] The effect of this ruling rendered the publishing company ineligible for future tax exempt status.
Although PCC was ultimately cleared of any liability for back taxes, PCC paid the estimated $44.5 million, and A Beka Book paid another $3.5 million.[citation needed]
^Laats, Adam (October 12, 2023). "The Right-Wing Textbooks Shaping What Many Americans Know About History". Time. Retrieved 14 November 2023. The history content of Abeka textbooks was—and remains—dramatically distinct from mainstream books. One section of the latest edition of the high-school textbook, United States History: Heritage of Freedom, is titled "Birth of a Nation," evoking the infamous 1915 pro-Ku-Klux-Klan film of that name. Moreover, in teaching the aftermath of the Civil War, instead of focusing on the violence that derailed Reconstruction-era governments, the textbook explains that Reconstruction failed because many formerly enslaved people were "not prepared for political responsibility." The book does briefly note that "some Southern whites used illegal methods" and "terror tactics," including forming the KKK. Yet, that mention of white terrorism is buried within an overall message of white victimhood.
^Klein, Rebecca (August 12, 2021). "The rightwing US textbooks that teach slavery as 'black immigration'". Retrieved 14 November 2023. The Guardian reviewed dozens of textbooks produced by the Christian textbook publishers Abeka, Bob Jones University Press and Accelerated Christian Education, three of the most popular textbook sources used in private schools throughout the US. These textbooks describe slavery as "black immigration", and say Nelson Mandela helped move South Africa to a system of "radical affirmative action".
^Smietana, Bob; McFarlan Miller, Emily (December 23, 2022). "How the Battle Over Christian Nationalism Often Starts With Homeschooling". Pulitzer Center. Retrieved 14 November 2023. "The History of the United States in Christian Perspective," a textbook from Abeka, promises students: "You will learn how God blessed America because of the principles (truths) for which America stands." Those truths made America "the greatest nation on the face of the earth," the book says, before issuing a warning: "No nation can remain great without God's blessing."
