Oklahoma State Superintendent Mandates All Public Schools to Teach Bible

[DaisyDay]

NYT: Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Requires Public Schools to Teach the Bible

Oklahoma’s state superintendent on Thursday directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, in an extraordinary move that blurs the lines between religious instruction and public education.

The superintendent, Ryan Walters, who is a Republican, described the Bible as an “indispensable historical and cultural touchstone” and said it must be taught in certain, unspecified grade levels.​

If it is taught critically as an historical document, then fine, but if children are to be indoctrinated into a particular faith or denomination, then it's un-American.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Oklahoma schools head Ryan Walters: Teachers who won't teach Bible could lose license​

“Any teacher that would knowingly, willfully disobey the law and disobey our standards — there are repercussions for that,” Walters said.

The punishment could include revocation of their teaching license, he said, a process that requires a vote by the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which Walters chairs.

Walters said he feels confident that his order will survive legal challenges because of the justices then-President Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court.

“He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states,” Walters said of Trump.

[Christian Nationalists are seizing their opportunity.]

[However, the OK AG's office says “There is no legal authority for a memo from the Superintendent to require content.”]

Americans United for Separation of Church and State also weighed in. “Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children,” the group said in an email, adding that it is “carefully assessing options.”

 

[Hans Blaster]

Oklahoma schools head Ryan Walters: Teachers who won't teach Bible could lose license​

“Any teacher that would knowingly, willfully disobey the law and disobey our standards — there are repercussions for that,” Walters said.

The punishment could include revocation of their teaching license, he said, a process that requires a vote by the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which Walters chairs.

Walters said he feels confident that his order will survive legal challenges because of the justices then-President Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court.

“He’s helped provide a path for us to be able to do this as states,” Walters said of Trump.

[Christian Nationalists are seizing their opportunity.]

[However, the OK AG's office says “There is no legal authority for a memo from the Superintendent to require content.”]

Americans United for Separation of Church and State also weighed in. “Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children,” the group said in an email, adding that it is “carefully assessing options.”

Good grief, this is getting dumber with every step. For most HS classes there isn't anything in the bible to use in a class.

Is the chemistry teacher supposed to get the lesson on redox reactions from the bible? The math teacher the lesson on the quadratic equation? The shop teacher the lesson on power tool safety? The business teacher the lesson on double-entry accounting? The US history teacher the lesson on Pearl Harbor?

None of these subjects (or even the classes) are contained in the bible. What good would it be to use?

(Perhaps they could use it in a Latin class: "Romanes eunt domus.")

 

[essentialsaltes]

Good grief, this is getting dumber with every step. For most HS classes there isn't anything in the bible to use in a class.

Reading between the lines, I gather there are two pieces to this idiocy.

#1: the mandated physical presence of a Bible in every classroom.

#2: the state curriculum is still being developed, and it will have specific callouts for using the Bible, perhaps like 'in 6th grade history, students will learn the Founding Fathers relied on the Bible for developing a secular constitution that forbids religious tests for office and excessive federal government entanglement with religion.'

The education department had been working on guidance on using the Bible in classrooms for nine months, Walters said. The agency focused on the Bible because it “is the book that’s under assault,” he said.

Har de har har, Ryan. I think you're familiar with what books are being assaulted in your state's schools:

Oklahoma Supreme Court rejects state education board’s authority over public school libraries​

The board, led by state Superintendent Ryan Walters, had recommended the suburban school district remove two books — “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls — after new rules were approved in June 2023 that banned books and other media that contain pornographic and sexualized content.

 

[DaisyDay]

Link to Sup.'s Memo

 

[RileyG]

The Kite Runner is a great book! It does have a SA scene in it.

 

[BCP1928]

The Kite Runner is a great book! It does have a SA scene in it.

SA?

 

[RileyG]

SA?

Sexual assault.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Link to Sup.'s Memo

It's a very odd memo. No invocation of statutory authority to make such an order, nor does it have any useful details that the schools could use to implement the policy.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Once again, you can smell David Barton's fake history stench here, alongside Walters' own obvious Christian Nationalism.

Oklahoma education head discusses why he’s mandating public schools teach the Bible​

interview by PBS NewsHour.

• Stephanie Sy:
  Superintendent Walters, the Bible is not banned in any schools. It's allowed to be taught already in Oklahoma schools.
  And yet your own Constitution says the schools should be open to all children and free from sectarian control. Given the Oklahoma Supreme Court's recent decision against publicly funding a religious charter school, do you think this policy will remain, or are you just making a political point?
• Ryan Walters:
  Yes, the left, they can be offended, they can be mad, they can be upset, but what they can't do is they can't rewrite history.
  We are going to show the countless citations. The Bible was cited more than any other document in the 1600s, 1700s' political writings. It is clearly a momentous historical source. We will bring it back to our schools.
  And, look, we will continue to battle. We feel very confident in President Trump's nominees to the U.S. that, if we can — if we get sued and we get challenged, we will be victorious, because the Supreme Court justices he appointed actually are originalists that look at the Constitution and not what some left-wing professor said about the Constitution.
  So we feel very confident in it moving forward and winning every legal case.

 

[Pommer]

So we feel very confident in it moving forward and winning every legal case.

Methinks he’s going to be so tired of “winning”!

 

[A2SG]

Once again, you can smell David Barton's fake history stench here, alongside Walters' own obvious Christian Nationalism.

Oklahoma education head discusses why he’s mandating public schools teach the Bible​

interview by PBS NewsHour.

• Stephanie Sy:
  Superintendent Walters, the Bible is not banned in any schools. It's allowed to be taught already in Oklahoma schools.
  And yet your own Constitution says the schools should be open to all children and free from sectarian control. Given the Oklahoma Supreme Court's recent decision against publicly funding a religious charter school, do you think this policy will remain, or are you just making a political point?
• Ryan Walters:
  Yes, the left, they can be offended, they can be mad, they can be upset, but what they can't do is they can't rewrite history.
  We are going to show the countless citations. The Bible was cited more than any other document in the 1600s, 1700s' political writings. It is clearly a momentous historical source. We will bring it back to our schools.
  And, look, we will continue to battle. We feel very confident in President Trump's nominees to the U.S. that, if we can — if we get sued and we get challenged, we will be victorious, because the Supreme Court justices he appointed actually are originalists that look at the Constitution and not what some left-wing professor said about the Constitution.
  So we feel very confident in it moving forward and winning every legal case.

It seems very obvious to me they're readying a test cast for SCOTUS to rule in favor of a Christian Nationalist agenda.

I've no doubt Clarence Thomas will be on board.

-- A2SG, you better believe Harlan Crow has kept the receipt....

 

[Hans Blaster]

-- A2SG, you better believe Harlan Crow has kept the receipt....

Probably in Hitler's accordion file.

 

[A2SG]

Probably in Hitler's accordion file.

-- A2SG, couldn't resist....

 

[DaisyDay]

Oklahoma AG's Office: Superintendent Lacks Authority to Decide Curriculum, In Reference To New Bible Requirement

The State Attorney General's Office said the State Superintendent does not have the legal authority to decide the content of curriculum that is taught in public schools. State Superintendent Ryan Walters wants to require Oklahoma classrooms to implement the Bible in lesson plans.

www.newson6.com

In an email, State Attorney General Gentner Drummond's office said the superintendent does not have legal authority to decide content of curriculum, and said Oklahoma law clearly enshrines local control.
...
News On 6 asked Walters which version of the Bible would go in the classroom.

Walters said, "Whichever one is historically accurate."

Walters said guidance for teachers is coming from his office in a few weeks.​

I wonder what Walters means by "historically accurate"? Did the FFs all use the same version?

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Isn't that the parents job? I fine with bible clubs. But you encourage Satan clubs, Mormon, Catholic and other religions clubs to form. Which I disagree with. BTW, when I was a kid. I don't recall wanting to do religion in school.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Walters has decided to go full Christian Nationalist in his overhaul of the state social studies curriculum, enlisting the aid of a rogues gallery of Christian religious partisans as his "A-list Executive Review Committee" including renowned liar for Jesus, David Barton.

The memo.

(possibly Oklahoma education needs less Bible and more proofreading)

While the appointment of incompetents may not be unconstitutional, I have very little doubt the output of this effort will be both unconstitutional and flagrant indoctrination.


FFRF take

To lead the state’s executive review committee, Walters has selected a veritable who’s who of Christian nationalist propaganda and misinformation: David Barton, Dennis Prager and Kevin Roberts.

“It’s clear that Walters’ Christian nationalist dream team will no doubt twist Oklahoma’s social studies curriculum to perpetuate the myth that America is a Christian nation,” charges FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Ryan Walters wants to employ the machinery of the state to indoctrinate Oklahoma’s students with his distorted Christian nationalist view of history — and he wants the taxpayers to fund it.”

[Let's review the team.]

David Barton is a disgraced pseudohistorian, an evangelical Christian political activist and the founder of WallBuilders ... his book, “The Jefferson Lies,” was so full of bogus quotes it was pulled by the original publisher.

Dennis Prager is
/stopped right there, but see also: Some of PragerU’s videos have drawn criticism for factual inaccuracies, especially for a fictionalized animated clip that portrays famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass defending the nation’s Founding Fathers’ support of slavery.

Kevin Roberts is president of the Heritage Foundation, the organization spearheading the infamous Project 2025,

John J. Dwyer, an adjunct professor of history and ethics at Southern Nazarene University and founder of the Dallas‐Fort Worth Heritage newspaper featuring “an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an orthodox Christian worldview.”

David Goodwin, the president of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS), which promotes classical Christian education as “a time-tested educational system which establishes a biblical worldview”

Mark Bauerlein “There is no book more important to American history, literature, oratory, art, politics, and theology than King James."

Steve Deace, a conservative political commentator,

Stacy Washington, host of “Stacy on the Right” show on SiriusXM and author of “Eternally Cancel Proof: A Guide for Courageous Christians Navigating the Political Battlefront.”

 

[Hans Blaster]

Walters has decided to go full Christian Nationalist in his overhaul of the state social studies curriculum, enlisting the aid of a rogues gallery of Christian religious partisans as his "A-list Executive Review Committee" including renowned liar for Jesus, David Barton.

The memo.

View attachment 351465
(possibly Oklahoma education needs less Bible and more proofreading)

While the appointment of incompetents may not be unconstitutional, I have very little doubt the output of this effort will be both unconstitutional and flagrant indoctrination.


FFRF take

To lead the state’s executive review committee, Walters has selected a veritable who’s who of Christian nationalist propaganda and misinformation: David Barton, Dennis Prager and Kevin Roberts.

“It’s clear that Walters’ Christian nationalist dream team will no doubt twist Oklahoma’s social studies curriculum to perpetuate the myth that America is a Christian nation,” charges FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Ryan Walters wants to employ the machinery of the state to indoctrinate Oklahoma’s students with his distorted Christian nationalist view of history — and he wants the taxpayers to fund it.”

[Let's review the team.]

David Barton is a disgraced pseudohistorian, an evangelical Christian political activist and the founder of WallBuilders ... his book, “The Jefferson Lies,” was so full of bogus quotes it was pulled by the original publisher.

Dennis Prager is
/stopped right there, but see also: Some of PragerU’s videos have drawn criticism for factual inaccuracies, especially for a fictionalized animated clip that portrays famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass defending the nation’s Founding Fathers’ support of slavery.

Kevin Roberts is president of the Heritage Foundation, the organization spearheading the infamous Project 2025,

John J. Dwyer, an adjunct professor of history and ethics at Southern Nazarene University and founder of the Dallas‐Fort Worth Heritage newspaper featuring “an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an orthodox Christian worldview.”

David Goodwin, the president of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS), which promotes classical Christian education as “a time-tested educational system which establishes a biblical worldview”

Mark Bauerlein “There is no book more important to American history, literature, oratory, art, politics, and theology than King James."

Steve Deace, a conservative political commentator,

Stacy Washington, host of “Stacy on the Right” show on SiriusXM and author of “Eternally Cancel Proof: A Guide for Courageous Christians Navigating the Political Battlefront.”

Unless I'm missing someone, not a single Oklahoman.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Unless I'm missing someone, not a single Oklahoman.

Everett Piper (not mentioned by FFRF) was President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University for almost 20 years until his retirement in 2019. The memo also notes that Dwyer moved back to Oklahoma where he now resides.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Everett Piper (not mentioned by FFRF) was President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University for almost 20 years until his retirement in 2019. The memo also notes that Dwyer moved back to Oklahoma where he now resides.

I think that makes about as many Oklahomans on the board as Floridians appointed by DeSantis to the New College board. In Florida, they were using out-of-state culture warriors to take down a small state college that was too friendly to the people they didn't like, here it is against their primary enemy -- reality.