Religion is as valid an area of study as any other. Certainly in universities there are people who analyze religious texts without necessarily pushing any point of view about them. (And these people wind up offending the fundamentalists with what they find, but that's life.)

However nobody with a brain thinks that these elective classes will look be that. So I dislike them. And don't think that public tax money should be spent on the purpose of pushing the particular religious view that you know will be presented.

Cheers,
Ben