“The First Amendment prevents the government from creating or establishing a religion,” said everywhere, ever. It’s commonly known from your 6th grade year to your death bed that typically, church and state stay separate. This goes for non-religious institutions, work environments, and most relevantly, schools. That’s what’s so convenient about having churches: safe places to worship without the forcing of others. So why in the world with this law established did Oklahoma’s state superintendent require school teachers to teach the christian bible?
NPR news reporter Leila Fadel states that Ryan Walters says the requirement will ensure students grasp the quote, “core values of our country.“ You cannot possibly command an entire state to follow one religion, so of course there was backlash.
The state attorney’s general office doesn’t see the law of teaching religion in history as requiring the bible to be taught, and democratic state representative Jacob Rosecrants on NPRNews has been reached out to by hundreds of parents and teachers who’ve all responded to this law puzzled and distressed.
The thing you’re probably wondering is “can he even do that?” And unfortunately, it seems he can. Oklahoma already requires religion to be taught as a part of history. The law explains that christianity shall be taught to understand colonial America or how the borders are impacted by religion in general, not just christianity. It’s a constitutional requirement that church and state shall not collide, and Walter did specify he wanted the lessons to be “strictly from a historical perspective.” Obviously, it didn’t stay that way.
The original statement Walters issued out only required the bible to be in the classroom and for the teachers to lecture from them, but of course that law changed throughout the day. He finalized to schools that it would be required for grades 5-12 and for subjects English and social studies only. It’s also important to note that Ryan Walters is not a progressive man, and it was almost expected for him to manifest his position of power into something like this.
“What we have done is taken God out of schools, taken the bible out of schools. And it doesn’t make sense to teach American history without understanding what the founders were saying as they were doing those momentous things.” Ryan Walters states.
Will this law stay in place, or will it be sued out of state requirement?
